On this day in labor history, the year was 1936.
That was the day more rubber workers sat down in Akron, Ohio.
Tire builders in Goodyear’s Plant 2, Department 251-A sat down when 700 coworkers were laid off. Goodyear had been running four, six-hour shifts.
They hoped to reduce the workforce by implementing three, eight-hour shifts with no increase in pay. Management moved quickly to fire all of the strikers.
By the 17th, all 4000 workers at Goodyear voted to strike over the layoffs and firings, speed-up and the new shift hours and pay.
The enormous, 11-mile facility was immediately shut down.
In his book, Strike! historian Jeremy Brecher indicates that few if any were union members.
The United Rubber Workers was hesitant to associate itself with the sit-down.
Rubber workers organized themselves.
They set up 24-hour pickets at dozens of gates, built striker shanties and set their demands.
After six days, the URW sanctioned the strike.
Brecher describes the scene: “The company…secured an injunction against mass picketing. 10,000 trades people from across the city gathered with lead pipe and baseball bats to stop 150 sheriffs’ deputies from opening the plants.
The Summit County Central Labor Council guaranteed a general strike if Law and Order League vigilantes carried out a threatened March 18 attack on picket lines.
The vigilante movement was paralyzed. Federal mediators demanded a return to work and arbitration.
Workers responded, "No, no, a thousand times no, I'd rather die than say yes."
Finally, Goodyear capitulated on most of the demands, except formal recognition of the union.
Rubber workers returned to work largely victorious.”
After renewed struggles, workers finally won union recognition a year later.
May 4 - UE Beats Back HUAC in Dayton
May 3 - First Workers Compensation Law is Passed
May 2 - Our Thing is DRUM!
May 1 - Mayday Marchers Attacked in Cleveland
April 30 - Refinery Workers Walk Off the Job
April 29 - Allis-Chalmers and the Road to Taft-Hartley
April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
April 26 - National Guard Ousts Montgomery Ward CEO
April 25 - UAW Mobilizes Against Taft-Hartley
April 24 - The California Spinach Riot
April 23 - Sitting Down for Dignity at Ford
April 22 - The Red Jacket Mine Explosion
April 21 - The Hated Taylor Law Takes Effect
April 20 - Deepwater Horizon Explosion Kills 11
April 19 -The Daughters of Mother Jones
April 18 - We Have Fed You All A thousand Years
April 17 - Fatal Explosion in West, Texas
April 16 - Jacob Coxey is Born
April 15 - Telephone Girls Cripple New England Bell
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