The Last Great Strike

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

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

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