The strike began just five days before Christmas. 7,000 young women walked out of area factories when they learned their shops were receiving orders from struck shops in New York City.
Often referred to as the ‘Uprising of the 20,000,’ striking New York City garment workers had rocked the industry.
The number of strikers in Philadelphia soon grew to over 15,000.
The young women crafted their own demands.
They wanted shorter workdays, uniform wages, better pay and union recognition.
Close to 300 arrests were made in the first weeks of the strike.
Labor leaders like Big Bill Haywood and Mother Jones addressed picketers, walked the lines and offered financial support.
Mother Jones declared, “Let us live together or starve together. We will let New York know that we can also fight. We will march up and down the streets of Philadelphia in solid ranks until victory is ours.”
Strikers marched throughout the area to call out workers in many of the smaller shops.
Tragically, at least 7 were killed and a dozen or more seriously injured in a fire at a smaller shop that continued to operate throughout the strike.
When manufacturers agreed to some concessions but refused union recognition, the women would not settle, stating, “We will go back to work as a union or starve.”
Historian Daniel Sidorick notes the gains won “demonstrated the resolute determination of the strikers to see their struggle through to victory, even in defiance of their union leaders, when necessary, and to the amazement of almost all observers.”
April 1 - The Promise of 1946
March 31 - Hospital Workers Stand United
March 30 - 15th Amendment Adopted
March 29 - West Coast Hotel v Parrish Decided
March 28 - Partial Meltdown at Three Mile Island
March 27 - FE Strikers Battle Police at Harvester
March 26 - Police Attack UE Amid ‘46 Strike Wave
March 25 - Centralia Coal Mine #5 Explodes
March 24 - Exxon Valdez Runs Aground
March 23 - Texas City Refinery Explosion Kills 15
March 22 - ERA Passes the Senate
March 21 - Truman Signs Loyalty Order
March 20 - Another Deadly Explosion
March 19 - Wartime President Pushes for Labor Peace
March 18 - Wartime Workers Betrayed
March 17 - The Hoggs Hollow Tragedy
March 16 - Big Bill Haywood Talks General Strike
March 15 - The Grapes of Wrath Opens in Theaters
March 14 - Remembering Walter Crane
March 13 - Ending Jim Crow on the Job
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