On this day in labor history, the year was 1934.
That was the day Minneapolis Teamsters walked off the job.
It was an historic strike that coincided with the pivotal Toledo Auto-Lite and West Coast Waterfront strikes.
Local Teamsters, many of whom later founded the Socialist Workers Party, had been riding a wave of success, having organized the coal yards in February.
Especially important was the development of the ‘Cruising Picket Squad.’
It became a standard in later CIO battles.
That spring, union leaders were determined to organize all the truck drivers and warehouse workers in Minneapolis.
By May, Local 574 had over 5000 members.
The trucking bosses refused to deal with the union and so they walked.
The flying pickets toured the city and shut down all trucking.
Strikers enlisted the support of the unemployed councils.
They also provided the structure for a Women’s Auxiliary that produced important strike literature and bulletins, ran soup kitchens that fed thousands of strikers daily, fought scabs and police on the picket lines and drove picket trucks.
Historian Bryan Palmer, author of Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers’ Strikes of 1934,notes that strike leaders looked to the example of Illinois’ Progressive Miners of America when it came to building the women’s auxiliary.
They too sought to make women an integral part of the strike, thus “encroaching on the male world of waged work.”
Strike headquarters were established and as Palmer describes, was a beehive of activity on the eve of the strike “as union carpenters and plumbers installed stoves, sinks and serving counters. Union electricians installed communications wiring.”
Donations of money, food, vehicles, and gas rolled in as the strike revved up.
Local 574 was poised to make Minneapolis a union town.
January 9 - Courts Stand Against Workers
January 8 - Oil Workers Walk Out Across the Country
January 7 - Tragic Youngstown Massacre
January 6 - Remembering Ida Tarbell
January 5 - Ohio First to Enact Black Laws
January 4 - Standing Up by Sitting Down
January 3 - The Power of Folded Arms and Marching Feet
January 2 - A Nation Fed Up, Strikes Back
January 1 - Transit Workers Push Back
December 31 - The Fight for Safer Working Conditions
December 30 - The Day Mines Were Made Safer
December 29 - The Day Work Was Made Safer
December 28 - Heroes in Space
December 27 - Musicians Fight Back
December 26 - Garment Workers Rise Up
December 25 - Debs Released; Real Gift is His Message
December 24 - A Christmas Eve Beating for Striking Workers
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
December 20 - THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!!!
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