The Last Great Strike

Ahmed White Discusses THE LAST GREAT STRIKE at one of the Nation's Preeminent Bookstores Professor Ahmed White, who was recently named the Rosenbaum Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, was at the Tattered Cover on Wednesday, April 13, 2016, discussing his recent book, THE LAST GREAT STRIKE. As he described the Little Steel Strike, the 1937 strike on which his book is based, a crowd of roughly forty people listened intently. Professor White described the eve

In Historic Move, Supreme Court Upholds Wagner Act, Validates New Deal On April 12, 1937, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Wagner Act, a landmark decision that essentially validated the constitutionality of the entire New Deal. But the defeat of steel workers in the Little Steel Strike ultimately counteracted that Supreme Court decision and represented a blow for New Deal policies. Read THE LAST GREAT STRIKE to learn more, www.lastgreatstrike.org. #W

Companies Use Violence to Undermine Union By April 1937, most of the workers at Little Steel’s mills in the Calumet region of Indiana and Illinois had joined the union. There were 8000 union members at Bethlehem’s Cambria Works in Johnstown and 32,000 in the mills in and around Chicago. But the companies were doing everything they could to discourage union membership. In Cleveland, Paul Castman, a union organizer, was assaulted while distributing literature and collecting mem

STEEL WORKERS REBUFFED: COMPANIES REFUSE 8-HOUR WORKDAY On March 30, 1937, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee asked Little Steel—four companies that each ranked among the 100 largest firms in America—to sign an agreement that guaranteed an 8-hour workday, 40-hour work week, time-and-a-half for overtime, and a $5/day minimum wage. "Big Steel" had already signed, and most people thought Little Steel would follow suit. But it didn't. What were the workers to do now? #March #

Big Steel Signs Historic Agreement, Guarantees Steelworkers Basic Rights Seventy-nine years ago, in early March, 1937, U.S. Steel Corporation signed a historic collective bargaining agreement with the nascent Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). The agreement provided for a standard pay scale, an 8-hour work day, and time and a half for overtime. Legend has it that company men removed a portrait of U.S. Steel's director, Henry Frick, from the room where the agreement wa

Blacks Support Unions in Indiana Steel Mill In late January 1937, black ministers pledged 100% cooperation with union organizing efforts at a steel plant in Indiana Harbor, Indiana. #AfricanAmericans #Blacks #Indiana

Big Steel Signals that it Might Allow Workers to Unionize On January 9, 1937, U.S. Steel’s chairman and director, Myron Taylor, initiated a brief conversation with John L. Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers of America, after a chance encounter in the dining room of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. Further conversations followed, initially unknown to other company and union officials. In these meetings, Taylor surrendered to notions he had begun to embrace months ear

Is It a Fair Fight When You Can't Even Discuss the Possibility of Unions? In January 1937, Republic Steel sent agents to follow Cleveland-based union organizer, Gerald Breads, who was distributing pro-union literature. They shadowed Breads all day, kidnapped him near a mill gate, and beat him viciously with blackjacks and the butt of a gun. #January #violence #unionorganizers #Cleveland #GeraldBreads

As the Prospect of a Strike Becomes More Likely, the Companies Prepare for War Between January 1, 1937 and May 5, 1937, the sheriff of Mahoning County, Ohio, where Youngstown is located, prepared to confront striking steel workers. He swore in 214 deputies. Fifty-seven were on Republic Steel’s payroll and 114 worked for Sheet & Tube Company. #January #LittleSteel #Youngstown #Inland