June 15 - Violence Erupts in the Valley of Steel

On this day in labor history, the year was 1937.

That was the day anti-union violence erupted in the “Valley of Steel.”

The Little Steel Strike was then in its 20thday.

The strike had spread to Bethlehem’s Cambria Works in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Newspaper headlines screamed: “30 Clubbed, Stabbed, Shot in Strike: Guerilla Warfare Breaks Out Anew in Pennsylvania.”

The day had been marred by hours of fighting with scabs and the police as miners joined picketers in support

Strikers lobbed rocks at scab cars attempting to drive through picket lines and successfully overturned a number of vehicles.

Steel-helmeted police attacked strikers, swinging riot clubs and launching tear gas shells.

One picketer, Tony Mandos was in critical condition after having been shot twice by police.

Mayor Daniel Shields announced he had deputized 250 special police, and was preparing to “raise an army of 3000 American Legionnaires by nightfall to protect the city of Johnstown from strikers.”

At Warren, Ohio, dynamite crippled railroad operations at a struck Republic Steel Mill on the Ashtabula-Niles Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The explosion came after carloads of raw material had been shunted in and products shipped out of the mill.

Auto plants throughout the Midwest slowed production for lack of steel-made parts.

UAW president Homer Martin dispatched a telegram to CIO leader, John L. Lewis: “We are standing by ready to refuse to use steel made in struck plants in the production of automobiles unless the steel companies make a speedy and amicable settlement with striking steel workers.”

The CIO threatened a 20,000 strong strike support rally through the streets of Johnstown to protest the violence.

They claimed victory when the Governor quickly declared martial law and padlocked the gates to Cambria Works.