On this day in labor history, the year was 1918.
That was the day workers at Wagner Electric in St. Louis ended their twelve-day walkout, in exchange for promised negotiations regarding union recognition, higher wages and fewer work hours.
Wagner held defense contracts to provide detonators and firing pins for munitions.
With the U.S entrance into World War I, the orders increased, as did the labor shortage.
In this instance, more women entered the workforce.
Wagner was no exception.
During this period, nearly a quarter of the St. Louis factory workers were female.
Yet the unionized industries made no attempt to organize them.
Amid a strike wave that rocked the city, about 1000 men and women struck Wagner on March 6.
They demanded the reinstatement of coworkers who had been fired for attending a Machinist’s Union meeting.
A week later, close to 2700 workers were on strike.
The male workers at Wagner made less than half of their counterparts in the unionized industries, while their women coworkers made half of that!
Workers contended that Wagner violated federal contracts by refusing to honor the eight-hour day and equal pay for equal work.
Historian Rosemary Feurer notes the Ordnance Department reached a tentative deal to get workers back to the job and then spiked negotiations by smearing strikers as unpatriotic.
The company refused to address longstanding grievances.
According to Katharine Corbett, Wagner Electric also “required workers to sign loyalty pledges to the company.”
Over half the workforce would walkout the following month, with the support of Mother Jones.
Workers appealed to a more sympathetic War Labor Board, but found they could not get the agreements they demanded until the years of industrial organizing in the 1930s.
November 3 - The Greensboro Massacre
November 2 - Sixteen Tons
November 1 - The Deadly Consequences of Scabbing
October 31 - Happy Union Made Halloween
October 30 - Wall St. Lays an Egg
October 29 - Alice Doesn’t Day
October 28 - The Pony Express
October 27 - The 1948 Donora Smog
October 26 - America’s Florence Nightingale
October 25 - NY Daily News On Strike!
October 24 - Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will!
October 23 - John Sweeney is Elected
October 22 - Pretty Boy Floyd Is Gunned Down
October 21 - Through Rain, Sleet, Snow & Anthrax
October 20 - Remembering Debs
October 19 - Tragedy on the Tracks
October 18 - Voice of an Era
October 17 - Fighting to End Poverty
October 16 - Thank A Farmer
October 15 - Too Little, Too Late for Radiation Sickness
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