Strikes

A strike is an organized stoppage of work. With the rise of factories during the Industrial Revolution , businesses acquired great power over the lives and working conditions of large numbers of workers in many industries. Workers sought ways to persuade businesses to improve working conditions and increase wages. Organizing into unions was one method. Strikes were another.

To hold a strike, workers often form picket lines outside their place of employment. Being outside brings public attention to the issue. Particularly in the early days of strikes, picket lines often led to violence between workers and employers. Violence also happened when nonstrikers, called scabs, crossed picket lines to work despite the strike.

The San Francisco, California , longshoreman's strike of 1934 is an example of the violence that often erupted during strikes. It began in May, when members of the local chapter of the International Longshoreman's Association decided to strike to protest working conditions for maritime workers. By July, more than sixty other unions in the city had decided to strike to support the longshoremen. On July 5, a battle erupted between police and workers, in which two workers were killed and scores of others were injured. The strike finally ended on July 27, and the longshoremen received wage increases and a limit of thirty hours of work each week.

Great Depression

Workers faced particularly harsh conditions during the Great Depression (1929–41). High unemployment caused spending to drop nationwide. The drop in spending hurt businesses, which in turn laid off workers and lowered the wages of the workers who remained.

To improve their working conditions during the Great Depression, workers developed a new tool in 1936. It was called a sit-down strike. Instead of picketing outside, they held a strike by taking physical control over a part of a factory. Stopping work at one important location in a factory system could disrupt production along the entire line. It also prevented businesses from defeating strikes with scab workers. From 1936 to 1939, American workers used sit-down strikes almost six hundred times.

Government involvement

Businesses and workers often have called upon governments to end strikes. In an effort to prevent strikes, local governments have passed laws banning picketing. State governments have sent police and National Guard forces to break up strikes, and they have enforced criminal conspiracy laws to convict people who organize and operate strikes. Sitdown strikes, according to such governments, unlawfully interfere with the property rights of the business.

United Auto Workers Confronts General Motors

One of the most significant sit-down strikes happened in Flint, Michigan , in January and February 1937. Strikers from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union took control of the Fisher Body Plant No. 1, where General Motors kept the dies for making its cars. The strike hurt production so much that General Motors finally agreed to recognize the UAW as the organizing body for its workers. Chrysler Corporation recognized the UAW the following month.

The federal government took a number of steps to handle sit-down strikes in the 1930s. Federal legislation eventually made such strikes illegal as a form of trespass on private property. Congress passed laws, such as the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (also known as the Taft-Hartley Act ), to regulate how unions may operate and how they are allowed to strike. Opinions vary widely over whether federal legislation helps workers organize for better conditions or helps businesses oppress workers by limiting the workers' rights to organize in their own favor.