On this day in labor history, the year was 1937.
That was the day the Steel Workers Organizing Committee or SWOC, called a nationwide strike against three of the four ‘Little Steel’ companies, Republic, Inland and Youngstown Sheet & Tube.
The drive to organize Little Steel came on the heels of an historic agreement with U.S. Steel and J&L earlier in the year.
In his book, The Last Great Strike, legal scholar Ahmed White points out that SWOC leaders established a three-pronged strategy in their organizing efforts: to breakdown racial and ethnic differences among workers, to use the Wagner Act and newly formed NLRB to their advantage whenever possible and to take over company unions where they existed.
They hoped Little Steel would follow earlier precedent.
But mill owners wouldn’t budge on union recognition.
Firing of organizers intensified and lockouts began.
Sheriffs departments began the swearing in of deputies.
Republic and Youngstown Sheet & Tube started shipping and stockpiling munitions, including machine guns and tear gas to mills throughout the Midwest and Northeast. Scattered walkouts and wildcats began throughout the latter part of May as SWOC continued to demand recognition and first contracts.
And on this day SWOC delegates from the Little Steel locals met in a Youngstown ‘war council’ to demand a strike.
The strike began late that evening with the shift change at 11 pm.
The mills were shut down tight.
Pitched battles between strikers, scabs and police continued throughout the summer with hundreds arrested.
Anti-union violence would explode with the Memorial Day Massacre in South Chicago and the Women’s Massacre in Youngstown the following month.
After five months, the strike collapsed. It would take until 1942 before recognition was finally won.
November 30 - Angel of the Stockyards is Born
November 29 - The Fight for $15 & A Union
November 28 - Disaster in the Mines
November 27 - Death Trap in Newark
November 26 - The Birth of William Sylvis
November 25 - Chicago Printers Walk Off the Job
November 24 - The Hollywood Ten
November 23 - The Thibodaux Massacre
November 22 - Uprising of the 20,000
November 21 - Autoworkers Join the Postwar Strike Wave
November 20 - Birth of the Time Clock
November 19 - Joe Hill’s Final Words
November 18 - Accident or Murder?
November 17 - Resisting Impressment
November 16 - NFL Players End Strike
November 15 - The IWW is Raided
November 14 - The Origins of CWA
November 13 - The Holland Tunnel Opens
November 12 - Striking Against Privatization
November 11 - Haymarket Martyrs are Executed
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