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A daily, pocket-sized history of America's working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
On this day in labor history, the year was 1918.
That was the day 300 commercial laundresses in Kansas City walked off the job, demanding a union.
Male laundry delivery drivers successfully organized the previous summer.
They soon joined the women on the picket lines.
The Employers’ Association had financed an open-shop drive since the beginning of the war.
The laundry companies refused to grant wage increases to the drivers.
They also refused to acknowledge the women’s demand for a union.
The Women’s Trade Union League tried to hold hearings about the strike at the Hotel Muehlebach.
But the Hotel refused to allow striking black workers into the building.
As a result, their white coworkers refused to testify.
When the hearings were finally moved, the women told of intolerable conditions.
Laundresses complained of filthy workplaces and potential firetraps.
They reported that laundry owners had put together their own private police force.
These guns for hire assaulted women strikers, breaking one’s arm, another’s wrist and injuring many more in hopes of deterring them from pressing on with their demands.
In the 6th week of the strike, 25,000 more workers of Kansas City called a general strike.
According to historian Maurine Weiner Greenwald, “they supported the laundry workers’ demands for increased wages, union recognition and enforcement of state regulations regarding hours and working conditions.”
Greenwald notes the general strike was relatively peaceful until the Kansas City Railway attempted to run streetcars with scab labor.
Finally, the laundry companies agreed to union recognition and later promised wage increases.
They soon reneged. But the show of solidarity among workers provided key lessons for future labor struggles in Kansas City.
August 31 - The Battle of Blair Mountain
August 30 - Taxing the Rich
August 29 - Flawed Designs Kill
August 28 - Remembering Bayard Rustin
August 27 - The Packers
August 26 - The Amistad
August 25 - A Historical Irony
August 24 - Fighting for Dignity
August 23 - Life’s Singer
August 22 - Breaking the Glass Ceiling
August 21 - Emma Goldman Says: “Take the Bread!”
August 20 - The White Lion Docks in Jamestown
August 19 - Teamsters Fight & Win at UPS
August 18 - Kemi Bloody Thursday
August 17 - The Era of Wage Cuts & Job Loss
August 16 - Congress Passes the National Apprenticeship Act
August 15 - Run Down Like a Dog
August 14 - A Little Security for Workers
August 13 - Dies Committee Ramps Up Hysteria
August 12 - Singing a Union Tune
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