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In a day and age when organized labor seems largely irrelevant to many, this is an appropriate time to stop and reflect on the gains made by unions in the past 100 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n Although no one seems to remember now, some of the most basic protections we presently enjoy \u2013 like Social Security and Unemployment Insurance \u2013 came to workers courtesy of the push from organized labor. This package also includes the 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, overtime, the child labor laws and much more, including some very basic things like the right to join a union and the right to strike. Most of this was enacted as parts of President Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal legislation.<\/p>\n But none of these rights and protections were just handed to the workers, even if they were part of Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal. People died<\/em> to obtain these protections.<\/p>\n The years leading up to the New Deal \u2013 particularly the 20\u2019s and 30\u2019s \u2013 were a bloody, bitter time for workers. Strikes \u2013 where people died for their union beliefs <\/em>\u2013 were commonplace.<\/p>\n Back in those days, the typical scenario was that the workers would go on strike or get locked out, and then the employers would hire scabs, and detectives (like the Pinkerton\u2019s or the notorious Baldwin-Felts Agencies) to \u201cprotect\u201d the scabs. Then the war was on.<\/p>\n The strikers were most often cast as \u201cCommies\u201d or communist-dominated in propaganda put out by the employers \u2013 the \u201cRed Menace\u201d was a very common theme. The Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations usually backed the employers. Often, local citizen groups, augmented (or supplanted) by the hired detectives and backed by the local governments formed \u201cposses\u201d and took on the strikers in open warfare \u2013 all in the name of \u201ccivic virtue\u201d (cleaning out the Red\u2019s). Occasionally the National Guard even got into the act.<\/p>\n Good examples of this sort of open labor warfare include The Ludlow Massacre<\/a> (1914), The Battle of Matewan<\/a> (part of the West Virginia Coal Wars<\/a> – 1920), the Battle of Blair Mountain<\/a> (1921), The Herrin Massacre <\/a>(1922), The Columbine Mine Massacre<\/a> (1927), The Auto-Lite Strike of 1934<\/a>, The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike <\/a>(1934) and the 1934 West Coat Maritime Strike<\/a> (which evolved into the West Coast General Strike of 1934).<\/p>\n Hundreds and hundreds of workers died in those years, fighting for even the most basic of protections.<\/p>\n The preamble of the NLRA says it all:<\/p>\n \u201cThe denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce<\/em>\u2026\u201d 29 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 151<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s the \u201cindustrial strife\u201d not the employer’s benevolence that was the sole reason<\/em> they gave us all these rights. The strikes and open industrial warfare leading up to the New Deal had become way too disruptive for the employers and the government to stomach. Because of this, the employers finally conceded it made more sense to allow workers some basic protections and rights rather than to continue in open warfare.<\/p>\n The trade-off was labor peace.<\/p>\n So can never take what we have for granted! Men and women died to gain those rights and protections, 70+ years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n For one, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) commemorates these worker\u2019s supreme contributions every year, by stopping work and celebrating \u201cBloody Thursday\u201d every July 5.<\/p>\n Bloody Thursday took place on July 5, 1934.<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1934, the West Coast longshoremen and other maritime unions including the Seaman\u2019s Union went on strike in on May 9. The main demands of the longshoremen were a union controlled hiring hall, and contract covering the whole coast. The seamen mainly wanted recognition for their union.<\/p>\n All the longshoremen struck up and down the entire West Coast. The longshoremen\u2019s and seamen\u2019s picket lines were honored by the Teamster Union, and by other unions. No cargo moved at all in any of the ports.<\/p>\n The employers consistently refused to deal with what they suggested were a \u201cbunch of communists.\u201d In the first month and a half of the strike, no progress was made at all. Nearly 60 days into the strike, on July 5th 1934, the employers decided they\u2019d had enough and that it was time to open up the ports by force. They hired scabs <\/em>\u2013 strike breakers. Early that morning they trucked the scabs to the docks. The police department was called in to protect the scabs.<\/p>\n In San Francisco that morning, about 2,000 picketers were gathered on Rincon Hill watching the railroad shunting refrigerated cars onto the Matson dock at the Embarcadero (as the San Francisco docks are named). The employers planned to have the cars loaded by scabs. There were jeers and catcalls from the picketers, but no overt acts of violence. Then at 8 AM, without provocation, the 800 or so police opened fire with tear gas grenades and then charged the picket line with riot clubs swinging.<\/p>\n The picketers responded with rocks and bricks and clubs, and the riot was on. Soon, a couple blocks away, two boxcars were set on fire and the police opened fire with their revolvers and more tear gas. The riot spread \u2013 not one battle but many.<\/p>\n While concentrated mainly around the south end of the docks and on Rincon Hill, The conflict eventually spread all across the Embarcadero from one end to the other. The police started using vomiting gas as well as the less potent tear gas.<\/p>\n Workers on the Bay Bridge (then under construction) were forced to leave their jobs that day because of all the gunfire.<\/p>\n After a lunchtime lull, the battle resumed in full force and fury when at about 1 PM, without warning a large contingent of police raided the longshore union headquarters on Steuart Street. This was a very hot battle, and the headquarters building was riddled with tear gas shells and gunfire from police revolvers. Workers trying to escape the gas were shot, clubbed and beaten. Blood flowed freely in the streets. Bodies littered the pavement. The hospitals and jails were full to capacity.<\/p>\n Similar albeit smaller battles with less disastrous outcomes were raging at the other seaports up and down the West Coast.<\/p>\n Finally, the California Governor called in the National Guard to \u201ckeep order.\u201d Soldiers with machine guns quickly set up positions on the Embarcadero. The battle was ended. The workers named the day Bloody Thursday<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Four days later, an estimated 40,000 people<\/em> marched up San Francisco\u2019s Market Street in the funeral procession for Sperry and Bordoise. The procession was estimated at a mile and a half to two miles long.<\/p>\n The procession was described as \u201c\u2026a river of men flowing up Market Street like cooling lava\u2026 the solemn strains of dirges and hymns\u2026 unaccountable thousands of spectators lining the streets with uncovered heads\u2026\u201d The Big Strike<\/em>, by Mike Quin – Olema Publishing Company, \u00a9 1949.<\/p>\n And still the employers refused to bargain.<\/p>\n The San Francisco unions considered their options, and talk turned to a general strike of all unions. A vote was taken and a general strike was authorized. A strike committee consisting of representatives from the different unions was put in charge of coordinating the strike.<\/p>\n On July 16th, the general strike started and the whole city <\/em>went out on strike \u2013 everything<\/em> was shut down, except for a few essential services specifically authorized by the strike committee. Similar actions spread to Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Portland, San Pedro and other ports up and down the West Coast.<\/p>\n Believing their own \u201cRed Scare\u201d propaganda, the government took this to be a sure sign of the start of the Bolshevik revolution and responded by rounding up and jailing hundreds of suspected \u201cReds\u201d in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere.<\/p>\n On July 19th, after scaring the holy bejesus<\/em> out of the government and the employers, the general strike ended and a majority of union workers \u2013 except the longshoremen and the seamen \u2013 went back to their jobs.<\/p>\n The longshoremen and seamen, after voting on a proposal from the employers allowing their demands to be submitted to binding arbitration, went back to work on July 28.<\/p>\n The 1934 West Coast Maritime Strike ended.<\/p>\n The arbitration board ended up giving the union the control of the hiring halls, as well as a coastwise contract covering all West Coast ports \u2013 the longshoremen\u2019s main demands. The seamen\u2019s main demand \u2013 recognition of the International Seamen\u2019s Union was granted. The employers also agreed to fire all the scabs they had hired during the strike, and to take no punitive action against the union leaders for their roles in the strike.<\/p>\n The unions won this battle, but at a terrible cost.<\/p>\n The kinds of sacrifices the workers made during this strike were typical of the period.<\/p>\n We must never forget!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So don\u2019t take what we have now for granted. Union members paid with blood and even with their lives for these rights and protections we enjoy.<\/p>\n And if unions seem to be superfluous in this \u201cenlightened\u201d age don\u2019t believe it for a minute! If there were no unions, we\u2019d be just one big Wal-Mart<\/strong> \u2013 we\u2019d all be working for close to minimum wage, without any real health insurance or other benefits, and we\u2019d be liable to fired on a whim of some manager.<\/p>\n Labor unions are the only thing that keeps the employers honest. Yesterday, today, and always!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a day and age when organized labor seems largely irrelevant to many, this is an appropriate time to stop and reflect on the gains made by unions in the past 100 years. Although no one seems to remember now, some of the most basic protections we presently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe employers too, suffered greatly. They actually suffered so much, they eventually cried uncle. This resulted in legislation under Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal, which included the Wagner Act of 1935 \u2013 also known as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).<\/p>\n
\nMinor battles flared here and there up and down the coast, but by and large the strike was peaceful. This changed abruptly.<\/p>\n
\nThe battles continued all day even overflowing from the area of the docks into the downtown.<\/p>\n
\nAt the end of the day, there were over 100 hundred wounded. Two San Francisco union members died \u2013 Howard Sperry, a longshoreman and Nick Bordoise, member of the Cooks Union \u2013 murdered by the police.<\/p>\n