February 6 Textile Workers Demand Union Rights

On this day in labor history, the year was 1910.

That was the day Philadelphia Garment workers ended their strike in victory.

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.”