On this day in labor history, the year was 1910.
That was the day streetcar workers in Philadelphia walked off the job just as garment workers were ending their victorious strike.
The walkout soon turned into a general strike.
The Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees Local 477 had been trying to negotiate fewer hours, higher wages and union recognition for almost a year.
Philadelphia Rapid Transit broke off negotiations in mid-February, fired 173 union members and imported scab replacements from New York City.
The Amalgamated called workers out. Strikers pulled apart buildings under construction and used the materials to block tracks and build strike shelters.
Many trolley cars were badly damaged when PRT attempted to resume service.
Scab drivers fared as badly as the trains they attempted to run.
The mayor called for citizens to serve police duty after strikers loaded dynamite onto tracks in Germantown.
The union offered up its members to preserve order but the Mayor refused.
Then the PRT brought in an additional 600 scabs and National Guardsmen to protect them.
Area workers were infuriated at this latest move, as were small businesses and religious groups.
On March 5, the Central Federated Union called a general strike.
More than 75,000 workers stayed off the job, to protest PRT’s anti-worker assaults.
Though the general strike was called off at the end of March, transit workers stayed out until April 19.
They won wage increases, rehiring of strikers and mediation for the initial 173 fired workers.
They could not secure exclusive union recognition.
But the strike solidified solidarity among area workers and demonstrated the capacity of labor to organize work actions across industrial lines.
February 1 - A Pivotal Moment in the Flint Sit-Down
January 31 - The Big Easy Fires 7000 Teachers
January 30 - Fred Korematsu Day
January 29 - Bread & Roses Striker, Anna LoPizzo, Shot Dead
January 28 - The 1917 Bath Riots
January 27 - Bans on Yellow Dog Contracts Ruled Unconstitutional
January 26 - Sid Hatfield Stands Trial
January 25 - Solidarity Works!
January 24 - Arturo Alfonso Schomburg is Born
January 23 - If Poison Doesn’t Work, Try Briggs!
January 22 - Tragedy in the Mines & in the Union Hall
January 21 - On Strike for Health & Dignity
January 20 - The Flint Womens Emergency Brigades
January 19 - A Snapshot in Misery
January 18 - Is Colorado in America?
January 17 - Standing Against Wage Theft
January 15 - We Want to Live, Not Just Exist
January 14 - The Rise of the Bellamyites
January 13 - Johnny Cash Plays Folsom Prison
January 12 - The Cost of Wartime Industrial Peace
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