The Last Great Strike

Police Ignore the Right to Picket On May 28, 1937, an orderly column numbering between 700 and 1000 people marched on Republic Steel’s South Chicago Works. The march was led by a woman, a bicyclist, and a man named "Dominic Esposito," who was carrying an American flag. A block from the mill gate, the marchers met a “force of club-swinging policemen.” When the marchers tried to continue to the mill gate, the police broke a club over Esposito’s head and then laid into the other

Steelworkers Out on Strike On May 26, 1937, SWOC launched a strike against Little Steel after attempting for a year to negotiate with the companies. The strikers wanted a union, the ability to negotiate as a group with their employers, and the right to strike and picket. These rights had been denied for decades to most American workers, but they had been enacted into federal law two years earlier, via the Wagner Act, a legislative centerpiece of the Roosevelt administration’s

Ahmed White Discusses THE LAST GREAT STRIKE at one of the Nation's Preeminent Bookstores On May 25, 2016, Professor Cedric Johnson interviewed Professor Ahmed White, at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore on Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, about Professor White's recent book, The Last Great Strike. Professor Johnson is an Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at the University of Illinois. Professor White is the Rosenbaum Professor of law at the

Companies Spend Obscene Amounts to Defeat Steelworkers In May 1937, the steel companies moved quickly to prepare for a looming strike. Youngstown Sheet & Tube contemplated spending “several million dollars” to defeat the union (one million in 1937 dollars would be nearly seventeen million today . . . so "several million dollars" could be upwards of sixty-eight million). By May, the company had already set aside $550,000 to address such "contingencies" (in today's dollars, th

Workers Route Company Police On May 12, 1937, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, scores of picketers cordoned off the Jones & Laughlin steel mill. Armed with bats, clubs, and pipes, they routed the heavily armed company police, forcing the company to close the mill. #Aliquippa #JonesLaughlin

Republic Steel Rebuffs Union On May 11, 1937, at a meeting between company and union representatives, Republic Steel again refused to sign a contract with the steelworkers; tensios on both sides continued to rise. #RepublicSteel #Agreement

Ahmed White Discusses THE LAST GREAT STRIKE at one of the Nation's Preeminent Bookstores On May 25, 2016, Professor Cedric Johnson interviewed Professor Ahmed White, at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore on Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, about Professor White's recent book, The Last Great Strike. Professor Johnson is an Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at the University of Illinois. Professor White is the Rosenbaum Professor of law at the

Companies Snub Union, Workers on Edge By the second week of May, it was evident that Little Steel would not seriously negotiate with the union--and rank and filers were becoming visibly agitated and had begun to endorse a strike. #May #LittleSteel

As Possibility of Strike Looms, Steel Companies Prepare for War By May 5, 1937, with a steel strike looming, the sheriff of Mahoning County, Ohio (where Youngstown is located) had sworn in 214 deputies. Fifty-seven were on Republic Steel’s payroll and 114 on Sheet & Tube's. Between May 6 and May 25, he swore in another 168 of the companies’ employees as deputies. Meanwhile, Republic shipped over $16,000 worth of munitions, mainly gas weapons, to the sheriff’s department; this