Today in Labor History May 26, 1937: Henry Ford unleashed his company goons and local police on United Auto Workers organizers at the “Battle of the Overpass” near the River Rouge plant. General Motors and Chrysler signed collective bargaining agreements with the UAW in 1937, but Ford held out until 1942. Ford Motor Co. security guards attacked union organizers and supporters attempting to distribute literature outside the plant. The guards tried to destroy any photos showing the attack. However, a few survived and they inspired the Pulitzer committee to establish a prize for photography. No one died in the attack, but 16 workers were injured. 5 years earlier, workers had been attacked by gunfire at the same location.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #union #uaw #henryford #scabs #photography #pulitzer #police #policebrutality

Today in Labor History May 25, 1805: The authorities arrested striking shoemakers (cordwainers) in Philadelphia. They were charged with criminal conspiracy for violating an English common law that barred schemes aimed at forcing wage increases. In 1794, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers organized around protecting wages and blocking scabs from taking their jobs at lower wages. They struck several times over the next decade, sometimes winning wage increases. However, in November, 1805, the master shoemakers took the issue to court. As a result, a grand jury indicted 8 journeymen of “conspiracy to increase wages,” thus ending the strike. Prosecutors argued that the journeymen societies (precursors to modern unions) threatened the entire economy of the city. (Of course, it might, if other workers joined in and it became a General Strike). They further argued that if allowed to organize, such worker combinations could lead to civil war. The judge was a Federalist. He denounced the workers and told the jurors that organizing was illegal. Consequently, they found all eight workers guilty. The judge fined them eight dollars each. This trial upheld the Federalist ideal of the sanctity of private property and industrial growth, unhindered by workers’ organizations.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #union #wages #conspiracy #scabs

Today in Labor History May 25, 1936: The notorious 11-month Remington Rand strike began. Remington Rand made office equipment, like typewriters. The federal union striking against them was affiliated with the AFL. The strike spawned the “Mohawk Valley (N.Y.) formula,” described by investigators as a corporate plan to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, and use thugs to beat up strikers. The National Labor Relations Board termed the formula “a battle plan for industrial war.” No one died during the strike, but violence was rampant. Both sides fought with bricks, bottles, fists, clubs and other weapons. However, it was later revealed that many of the violent acts on the workers’ side were committed by agents provocateur, employed by the company. Remington Rand also hired large numbers of private security to protect their scabs and properties. Furthermore, local police were used to intimidate entire towns. Squads of cops armed with shotguns would stand guard at the edge of town, demanding identification from anyone wishing to enter or leave.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #strike #police #PoliceBrutality #acab #scabs

Today in Labor History May 7, 1907: Bloody Tuesday occurred in San Francisco. The Street Car workers were among the most militant workers in the city and San Francisco, one of the strongest labor cities in the country. The mayor, Eugene Schmitz, and two city supervisors were from the Union Labor Party. San Francisco workers, particularly the streetcar union, had struck in five of the six years from 1902 to 1907. Capitalists were fed up with the power of the city’s unions and wanted to crush them once and for all. Led by Rudolph Spreckels (the sugar magnate), the bosses hired the Burns Detective agency to undermine the political establishment. They did this by exposing the corruption of the mayor and the board of supervisors. However, the violence started when scabs tried to run the streetcars, resulting in an exchange of gunfire between union men and scabs.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #union #scabs #sanfrancisco #police #strike #privatepolice #corruption

Today In Labor History March 27, 1912: Start of the 8-month Northern railway strike in Canada by the IWW. Over 8,000 construction workers walked off the job at Northern Railway workcamps Wobblies picketed employment offices in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Tacoma and Minneapolis in order to block the hiring of scabs.

Fellow workers pay attention to what I'm going to mention,
For it is the fixed intention of the Workers of the World.
And I hope you'll all be ready, true-hearted, brave and steady,
To gather 'round our standard when the red flag is unfurled.

CHORUS:
Where the Fraser River flows, each fellow worker knows,
They have bullied and oppressed us, but still our union grows.
And we're going to find a way, boys, for shorter hours and better pay, boys
And we're going to win the day, boys, where the river Fraser flows.

For these gunny-sack contractors have all been dirty actors,
And they're not our benefactors, each fellow worker knows.
So we've got to stick together in fine or dirty weather,
And we will show no white feather, where the Fraser river flows.
Now the boss the law is stretching, bulls and pimps he's fetching,
And they are a fine collection, as Jesus only knows.
But why their mothers reared them, and why the devil spared them,
Are questions we can't answer, where the Fraser River flows.

(Lyrics by Joe Hill, 1912, to the tune of “Where the River Shannon Flows.”)

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #strike #union #railroad #FraserRiver #joehill #scabs #sanfrancisco #vancouver #seattle #minneapolis

Today In Labor History March 27, 1904: The authorities kicked Mother Jones out of Colorado for “stirring-up” striking coal miners. Earlier in March, the authorities deported 60 striking miners from Colorado. In June, they arrested 22 in Telluride. For nearly 2 years, strikers, led by the Western Federation of Miners, were violently attacked by Pinkerton and Baldwin-Felts detectives. 33 strikers were killed. At least two scholars have said “There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #colorado #union #strike #mining #motherjones #WorkplaceViolence #scabs #coal #pinkertons #minewars #wfm #WesternFederationOfMiners #womenshistorymonth

#ICE #TSA #scabs #scabbing #LaborIssues

"ICE agents expected to arrive at U.S. airports to assist with TSA shortages

President Donald Trump has suggested the agents would be arresting undocumented immigrants at airports.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are expected to arrive at airports Monday to assist with staff shortages, a day after President Donald Trump threatened he would do so unless congressional Democrats agreed to a GOP-backed funding deal to end a partial government shutdown."

https://archive.ph/c3SVk#selection-323.0-323.287

Today in Labor History March 23, 1970: President Richard Nixon declared a national emergency and sent 30,000 troops to New York City to serve as scabs to break the first nationwide postal strike.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #nixon #scabs #USPS #strike #union