Important Strikes in U.S. History

 

HAYMARKET RIOT 1886:

            a labor rally ended with a bomb blast and riot which killed 18 people

            Knights of Labor was blamed by many people as responsible

 

HOMESTEAD STRIKE 1892:

            union members at the Carnegie plant in Pennsylvania protested a wage cut

            management brought in security guards to protect the plant

            violence ensued and 16 peole were killed

            National Guard finally ended the fighting and the strike

            result: labor union movement in Steel industry stopped for 20 years

 

PULLMAN STRIKE 1894:

 

            workers went on strike agaisnt the Pullman car plant in Chicago

            protested a 40 percent wage cut with no reduction in rents in the company town

            American Railway Union led by Eugene V. Debs

            railroad employees (to support the strikers) refused to handle trains with

                        Pullman cars on them

            most railroad traffic from Chicago stopped

            Attorney General Olney used the Sherman Anti-trust Act to get an injunction

                        against the Union as a “conspiracy in restraint of trade”

            Debs continued the strike anyway and was jailed for contempt of court

            President Cleveland sent federal troops to “secure  delivery of U.S. mail”

            mobs prostested the troops and violence ensued, the strike soon collapsed

 

DANBURY HATTER’S STRIKE 1902:

 

            workers of the Loewe Hat Company in Danbury Connecticut organized a

                        boycott of the company’s goods

            the union was sued by the company claiming the boycott was a “conspiracy in

                        restraint of trade”

            1908 the Supreme Court decided that the union and members were guilty and

                        were made to pay cash damages to the company

 

LAWERENCE TEXTILE STRIKE 1912:

            Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) a radical union led the strike

            strike was against the textile mills in Massachusetts by skilled and unskilled

                        workers

            the workers won most of their demands in their strike