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The "Little Steel" strikes of 1937 were a series of strikes by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) against seven mid-size national steel companies in the United States from May 26 to _____________ 1937.

[edit] Background

On November 9, 1935, eight unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO). The committee's goal was to pressure the AFL to organize mass production workers into industrial unions. AFL president William Green and a majority of the AFL executive council were opposed to industrial unionism, favoring craft unionism instead. Green, in particular, saw the formation of the CIO as dual unionism. On September 10, 1936, the AFL suspended the membership of the 10 CIO unions.[1]

On February 11, 1937, the United Auto Workers secured recognition of the union and a first contract with General Motors.[2]

On March 2, 1937, SWOC won recognition of the union and a first contract with U.S. Steel. SWOC effectively infiltrated the employer's company unions and turned them against the employer.[2][3]



In 1936 Remington Rand devised the "Mohawk Valley Formula" to break an American Federation of Labor strike at its Illion, New York, factory. Soon thereafter, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers promoted this tactic, which the NLRB described and condemned in a March 1937 decision. The Mohawk Valley, or Rand Formula, relied heavily upon the manipulation of public opinion through the use of newspapers and radio, the organization of mass meetings, the recruitment of "loyal" employees and the establishment of citizens' committees, all designed to demoralize workers and break the strike. Those who argued for the efficacy of the Mohawk Valley Formula presupposed the captive town model Silverberg and others described, one in which public opinion could be molded at will by the dominant economic and social powers of the community.

  • " 'Medieval, Shocking.' " Time. March 22, 1937.

Baughman

  • Spencer, Martin E. "Conflict and the Neutrals." Sociological Quarterly. 12:2 (March 1971).


Most historians of this dispute have argued that the Committee for Industrial Organization's (CIO) defeat in this important strike flowed from the solid opposition to the union by local newspapers, police, business leaders and city officials, all solidly backed, if not manipulated, by the steel corporations that so thoroughly dominated the economic life of these communities. In fact, this interpretation overstates the local opposition to the new unions while it understates the many divisions among the steel workers themselves. For several weeks during the walkout both city officials and middle-class opinion leaders displayed either goodwill or neutrality toward strikes organized by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). When anti-union activity did increase, it assumed simple, rather than conspiratorial forms. Finally, by the conflict's end, demoralization and internal division, not solidarity, characterized the steel workers of the region. Baughman

After unprecedented advances in the rubber, steel and automobile industries in the early months of 1937, the CI0 faced four "Little Steel" companies: Republic, Inland, Bethlehem and Youngstown Sheet and Tube. Unlike some 140 other steel concerns-including industry leader U.S. Steel-Little Steel refused to sign a CIO contract. Rank and file pressure for a strike against these companies mounted all through the spring. Baughman

Murray sanctioned the walkout only after wildcat strikes in Canton and Massillon forced his hand. Finally on May 26, 1937, SWOC President Philip Murray relented and ordered a strike against three of the Little Steel companies: Inland, Republic and Youngstown Sheet and Tube, the last two of which operated their major production facilities in Ohio. Eight thousand workers supported the strike call in Canton and Warren, and about twenty thousand walked off the job in Youngstown. Two weeks later SWOC struck Bethlehem Steel as well. By June 11 the number of striking workers reached ninety thousand in an arc stretching from Chicago to Buffalo. America confronted its first major steel strike since 1919.4 Baughman

People sympathetic to the workers used airplanes to drop food to the workers inside of the plants. They also attempted to mail food into the businesses, but the post office refused to deliver the packages to the strikers.

The union never came close to victory. Despite the mediation efforts of local leaders, state governors and President Franklin Roosevelt, officials of Little Steel refused to meet personally with CIO representatives and remained adamantly opposed to a written agreement. Baughman


Neither side would agree to National Labor Relations Board elections to test union sentiment among the workers. Instead each faction hoped to outlast the other. This strategy proved disastrous for SWOC, since it lacked the resources to support a large body of strikers over a long period. Worker morale weakened. Seizing upon what he considered to be a popular wave of anti-union opinion, Ohio Governor Martin L. Davey moved against the CIO in late June. He first sent the Ohio National Guard into the strike zones and then commanded it to break up union efforts to keep the factories inoperative. After four weeks once confident SWOC members and ever-available non-SWOC laborers began filing back into the mills. The managers of Little Steel had halted what had been an impressive advance for CIO organization in the nation's basic industries. Baughman

People sympathetic to the workers used airplanes to drop food to the workers inside of the plants. They also attempted to mail food into the businesses, but the post office refused to deliver the packages to the strikers. To prevent the strike from occurring in the first place the Little Steel companies had hired their own police forces to intimidate workers. During the strikes, the companies lobbied local residents to put pressure on the strikers and their families. Numerous citizens formed committees, including the Mahoning Valley, Ohio Citizens' Committee, the Citizens' Law and Order League of Canton, Ohio, and the John Q. Public League of Warren, Ohio, to protest the strikers' actions. Little Steel brought in scab laborers to work the machines, while the sit-down strikers remained in the plants. The employers even used tear gas to drive the strikers out of the businesses. The governor of Ohio, Martin L. Davey, eventually sent troops in to break up the strike. "Little Steel Strike," Ohio History


The Little Steel Strike illustrates the difficulties that unions and workers faced during the 1930s to attain better working conditions. Although the United States government formally legalized unions under the Wagner-Connery Act in 1935, many companies, including the Little Steel firms, refused to abide by the law. In 1937, Little Steel refused to recognize any of the strikers' demands. It was not until 1941 that the Little Steel companies finally recognized unions.


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Two more unions had joined the CIO in the 11 months since its founding. Phelan, William Green: Biography of a Labor Leader, 1989.
  2. ^ a b Zieger, The CIO, 1935-1955, 1997.
  3. ^ Brody, "The Origins of Modern Steel Unionism: The SWOC Era," Forging a Union of Steel, 1987; Rayback, A History of American Labor, 1966.

[edit] References

  • Auerbach, Jerold S. Labor and Liberty: The La Follette Committee and the New Deal. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1966.
  • Baughman, James L. "Classes and Company Towns: Legends of the 1937 Little Steel Strike." Ohio History. 87:2 (Spring 1978).
  • Bernstein, Irving. The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941. Paperback edition. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1970. ISBN 039511778X (Originally published 1969.)
  • Blake, Benjamin. "Ohio's Steel Mill War: The Little Steel Strike of 1937." Crooked River. December 2001.
  • Blumenthal, Frank H. "Anti-Union Publicity in the Johnstown 'Little Steel' Strike of 1937." Public Opinion Quarterly. 3:4 (October 1939).
  • Brody, David. "The Origins of Modern Steel Unionism: The SWOC Era.' Forging a Union of Steel: Philip Murray, SWOC, and the United Steelworkers. Cornell, N.Y.: ILR Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87546-134-4
  • Brooks, Robert R. As Steel Goes... Unionism in a Basic Industry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940.
  • Cook, Philip L. "Tom Girdler and the Labor Policies of Republic Steel Corporation." Social Science. January 1967.
  • Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0195144031
  • "Little Steel Strike of 1937." Ohio History Central: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History. 2005. Accessed March 1, 2007.
  • McPherson, Donald S. "The 'Little Steel' Strike of 1937 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania." Pennsylvania History. April 1972.
  • " 'Medieval, Shocking.' " Time. March 22, 1937.
  • Phelan, Craig. William Green: Biography of a Labor Leader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989. ISBN 0887068715
  • Pursuant to S. Res. 266 (74th Congress). A Resolution to Investigate Violations of the Right of Free Speech and Assembly and Interference with the Right of Labor to Organize and Bargain Collectively. Part 14: The Chicago Memorial Day Incident. Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor. United States Senate. Seventy-Fifth Congress, First Session. June 30, July 1 and 2, 1937. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1937.
  • Rayback, Joseph G. A History of American Labor. Rev. and exp. ed. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1966. ISBN 0029258502
  • Sofchalk, Donald G. "The Chicago Memorial Day Massacre: An Episode of Mass Action." Labor History. Winter 1965.
  • Speer, Michael. "The 'Little Steel' Strike: Conflict for Control." Ohio History. Autumn 1969.
  • Spencer, Martin E. "Conflict and the Neutrals." Sociological Quarterly. 12:2 (March 1971).
  • Stolberg, Benjamin. "Big Steel, Little Steel, and C.I.O." The Nation. July 31, 1937.
  • "Strike Earnings." Time. August 9, 1937.
  • Turrini, Joseph M. "The Newton Steel Strike: A Watershed in the CIO's Failure to Organize 'Little Steel'." Labor History. 38:2-3 (Spring–Summer 1997).
  • Zieger, Robert. The CIO, 1935-1955. Reprint ed. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8078-4630-9

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