The defeat of these strikes unleashed a powerful employer counterattack in the form of an open shop movement that kept strikes to a minimum during the 1920s. In 1919, workers in Chicago's packinghouses, steel mills, and ready-madeĪnd agricultural equipment industries engaged in tumultuous strikes marked byĪnd government repression. In the 1910s, the struggle for union recognition by workers in the emerging corporate-run, mass-production sector of the economy precipitated renewed upheavals. A particular object of the courts' ire was the Teamsters union, which in the early part of the century used its control over the distribution of local goods to support and spread local unionism via the sympathy strike. Despite a general strike by 25,000 Chicago unionists, the ARU was crushed.Įmployers increasingly resorted to injunctions to bring in the federal government on their side in strikes, especially sympathy strikes and boycotts. marshals to Chicago, precipitating widespread violence. With much of the nation's transportation at a standstill, a federal court granted the railroads an injunction declaring the strike illegal, and President Grover Cleveland dispatched 2,000 federal troops and over 5,000 U.S. Debs, mounted a boycott of the nation's Pullman railway cars. The most important early attempt of the new unionism to penetrate the domain of corporate-run industry came in 1894 when the American Railway Union, an industrial union founded by Eugene V. By the turn of the century, labor was a recognized interest in local politics and Chicago had became a “union town.” A metropolitan unionism took hold particularly among theįor the most part, strikes were not spontaneous but were called, coordinated, and supported by the strike funds of permanent unions and aided by a hands-off attitude of the police. As the mass strike subsided, craft unions spread among skilled workers employed by small-scale employers in local and regional markets. To avoid riots and capture the vaunted “labor vote,” 1880s politicians such as Mayor Carter Harrison began to restrain police from intervening in strikes called by well-connected local unions. Until then, strikes often mobilized large numbers of immigrant men, women, and children within ethnic communities such as IrishĮasily replaced unskilled workers, in particular, relied on crowd actions to intimidate strikebreakers. Moreover, the failure of the movement to spread much beyond Chicago made it easier for employers who competed in national markets to ignore labor demands.Īs the tide of the great upheaval receded in the late 1880s, the character of strikes began to change. Industry was paralyzed, and the city “assumed a sabbath like appearance.” TheĪffair of May 4 triggered widespread antilabor repression. Approximately 88,000 workers in 307 separate strikes demanded the eight-hour day that year, most of them on May 1. In 1886, Chicago was the center for another labor upheaval. Meanwhile, as the only group supporting the strikers,Įmerged as the voice for local workers, and Chicago became the nation's strongest center of socialism. The strike was significant, not just for the class bitterness it engendered, but for the unprecedented participation and solidarity of workers across skill, gender, and ethnic lines. By the time the strike had been suppressed, 30 workers lay dead and 200 were wounded. Though lacking unions, thousands of working men, women, and teenagers thronged the streets, marching from factory to factory behind brass bands calling employees out to strike. In July 1877, Chicago workers struck again as part of a nationwide Though the one-week strike was unsuccessful, it capped a four-year mobilization of local workers that encouraged political parties to incorporate labor demands into their platforms and appeals. On May 2, 1867, Chicago's first Trades Assembly (formed in 1864) sponsored a general strike by thousands of workers to enforce the state's new Overall, there have been six important strike waves or labor upheavals in Chicago history that were notable for their social impact. Perhaps no city in the United States exceeded Chicago in the number, breadth, intensity, and national importance of labor upheavals in the period between theĪnd 1919.
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