The Last Great Strike

In a new book review, the Socialist Worker says The Last Great Strike is "fantastic" and "readers interested in U.S. labor history or labor law or both should buy and read this book." http://socialistworker.org/2016/06/30/labors-bloody-battle-in-steel #AhmedWhite #violence #1937 #LittleSteel #cio #YoungstownSheetTubeCompany #USSteel #LittleSteelStrike #BigSteel #NLRB #1930s #SWOC #Reviews #Author

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

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

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

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

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

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