A history of america in ten strikes

Also by Erik Loomis Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe Empire of Timber: Labor Unions and the Pacific Northwest Forests © 2018 by Erik Loomis All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions Department, The New Press, 120 Wall Street, 31st floor, New York, NY 10005 Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2018 Distributed by Two Rivers Distribution ISBN 978-1-62097-162-8 (ebook) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Names: Loomis, Erik, author Title: A History of America in Ten Strikes / Erik Loomis Description: New York: The New Press, 2018 | Includes bibliographical references and index Identifiers: LCCN 2018017580 Subjects: LCSH: Strikes and lockouts—United States—History | Labor disputes—United States—History Classification: LCC HD5324 L56 2018 | DDC 331.892/973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018017580 The New Press publishes books that promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of the issues vital to our democracy and to a more equitable world These books are made possible by the enthusiasm of our readers; the support of a committed group of donors, large and small; the collaboration of our many partners in the independent media and the not-for-profit sector; booksellers, who often hand-sell New Press books; librarians; and above all by our authors www.thenewpress.com Book design and composition by Bookbright Media This book was set in Bembo and Gotham 10 To my departed mentors: Richard Maxwell Brown, Susan Becker, and Tim Moy Contents Introduction: Strikes and American History Lowell Mill Girls and the Development of American Capitalism Slaves on Strike The Eight-Hour-Day Strikes The Anthracite Strike and the Progressive State The Bread and Roses Strike The Flint Sit-Down Strike and the New Deal The Oakland General Strike and Cold War America Lordstown and Workers in a Rebellious Age Air Traffic Controllers and the New Assault on Unions 10 Justice for Janitors and Immigrant Unionism Conclusion: Take Back Power Acknowledgments Appendix: 150 Major Events in U.S Labor History Notes Index Introduction: Strikes and American History Everyone has a limit West Virginia teachers had struggled for years to make ends meet, finding themselves the butt of lawmakers’ attacks on the budget They worked in underfunded school districts, in buildings that were falling apart, and for less money than any teachers in the country except for three other states Despite their pathetic salaries, they bought school supplies out of their own pockets While the teachers had unions, those institutions had struggled to fight back and were tired West Virginia became a so-called “right to work” state in 2016, allowing workers to opt out of their unions and still receive all the benefits the unions won This reduced union power, but it did not mean that workers considered themselves powerless Seeing that the union officers would not lead a counterattack, teachers Emily Comer and Jay O’Neal started a secret Facebook group to organize their fellow workers throughout the state’s schools Comer said, “We thought this would be an easier way to get in touch with people, and keep people updated on what was going on.”1 The Facebook group caught on like wildfire, attracting even teachers who had left their union After Governor Jim Justice signed legislation capping teacher pay well below the cost of living increases, teachers across West Virginia went on strike on February 22, 2018 They didn’t want to go on strike But they felt they had no choice, not if they wanted to be able to teach their students effectively Rebecca Diamond, an elementary school teacher who spends her weekends working a second job at the local Hardee’s, said, “I have lived in West Virginia my whole life I have two children who I don’t want to leave the state What I’m fighting for is the future of West Virginia.”2 She joined thirty-four thousand teachers who put down their chalk and their grading pens and decided to fight for themselves and their students This strike was illegal The teachers figured it didn’t matter What did they have to lose when conditions were this bad? West Virginia’s parents saw the conditions of their schools They knew and liked the teachers Many parents joined the rallies Huge marches on the state capitol in Charleston by teachers wearing red T-shirts, which has become the symbol of the teachers’ movements nationwide, gained national media attention Some had signs reading, “Will Teach for Insurance.”3 Even when an initial agreement convinced leadership to send workers back on the job, teachers from all of the state’s fiftyfive counties rejected it and stayed on strike After nine days the teachers won all their major demands They pushed back against a state proposal to expand the charter schools that undermine public education Governor Justice agreed to veto all anti-union legislation and create a health care task force with representatives from organized labor Teachers won a percent pay raise—very small, but a step in the right direction Most importantly, as teacher Jay O’Neal said, “We made it so thousands of eyes will be watching everything the task force does.”4 The fight is nowhere near over Teachers want a reversal of the corporate tax breaks that have underfunded schools in their state, a problem across the country They are fighting for themselves, their students, and the future of their state Though they won their immediate demands, they know that their strike was one skirmish in an endless push and pull between workers and bosses in America Only a few experiences tie us all together as people One is that we almost all work or have worked Whether in a factory, on a farm, at McDonald’s, or as an unpaid housewife, work is as much a central experience to human society as eating and family For the unemployed, the absence of work not only impoverishes but shames and isolates Work fills the hours of our lives, it provides us with sustenance, and it can give us satisfaction with a job well done Work is so central to human existence that we hardly know what to without it We long toward a well-deserved retirement, but when we get there, most people have to find new things to do, and that often includes part-time work The workplace is a site where people struggle for power Under a capitalist economy such as that of the United States, employers profit by working their employees as hard as they can for as many hours as possible and for as little pay as they can get away with Their goal is to exploit us Our lives reflect that reality Many of us don’t enjoy our work We don’t get paid enough We have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet if we have a job at all Our bosses treat us like garbage and we don’t feel like there is anything we can about it We face the threat that machines will replace us Our jobs have moved overseas, where employers can generate even higher profits Sometimes a job at Walmart is the only option we have In our exploitation, we share common experiences with hundreds of millions of Americans, past and present Our ancestors resisted So we, sometimes by forming a union, sometimes by taking a couple extra minutes on our break or by checking social media on the job All of these activities take back our time and our dignity from our employer Class struggle—framed through transformations in capitalism, through other struggles for racial and gendered justice, and through changes in American politics and society—has played a central role in American history Future historians will see this in our lives as well This book places the struggle for worker justice at the heart of American history This is necessary because we don’t teach class conflict in our public schools Textbooks have little material about workers As colleges and universities have devalued the study of the past in favor of emphasizing majors in business and engineering, fewer students take any history courses, including in labor history Labor unions and stories of work are a footnote at best in most of our public discussions about American history Most history documentaries on television focus on wars, politicians, and famous leaders, not workers Labor Day was created as a conservative holiday so that American workers would not celebrate the radical international workers’ holiday May Day Yet today, we not remember our workers on Labor Day like we remember our veterans on Veterans Day Instead, Labor Day just serves as the end of summer, a last weekend of vacation before the fall begins That erasure of workers from our collective sense of ourselves as Americans is a political act Americans’ shared memory—shaped by teachers, textbook writers, the media, public monuments, and the stories about the past we tell in our own families, churches, and workplaces—too often erases or downplays critical stories of workplace struggle Instead, our shared history tells myths about our economy meant to undermine class conflict We are told that we are all middle class, that class conflict is something only scary socialists talk about and has no relevance to the United States today Our culture deifies the rich and blames the poor for their own suffering “Why don’t they pull themselves up by their bootstraps?” so many people say This ignores the fact that millions of Americans never had boots to pull up Most of us are not wealthy and never will be wealthy We are workers, laboring for a few rich and powerful people, mostly white men who are the sons and grandsons of other rich white men We have a hierarchical society Chavez, Cesar, 205 Chavez-Thompson, Linda, 164, 214 Cherry Mine fire, 78, 87 Chicago Defender, 139 Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Tribune, 63 child labor, 13–14, 236 children, 102–3 Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), 57, 234 Chinese immigrants, 56–57 Chrysler, 129 CIO, 246, 248 and Flint sit-down strike, 131–32, 142–43 and Taft-Hartley Act, 152 and WWII, 136–37 civil rights movement, 157–63 Civil War: African Americans during, 30 corruption during, 50–51 effects of, 49 and slavery, 36–42 class-based organizing, 52–53 class consciousness, 17 class struggles, 3–4 Clayton Antitrust Act, 108, 238 Cleveland, Grover, 74, 80 Clinton, Bill, 192, 197–98 Clinton, Hillary, 223–24 CLU (Collar Laundry Union), 26–27, 233 Coalition of Immokalee Workers, 205–6 Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), 163 Coffin, Charles Carleton, 38 Cold War, 135–36 Cole, Echol, 181–82 Colfax, Schuyler, 52 Collar Laundry Union (CLU), 26–27, 233 Collision Course (McCartin), 186 colonization, 11 Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I), 88–89 Colored National Labor Union, 26, 46 Columbus, Christopher, 11 Comer, Emily, communism, 117, 152–53 company unions, 90, 114 Congress of Industrial Organizations, 120–21 conservatism, 177 Conwell, Russell Herman, 52 Cooke, Jay, 51, 52 Coolidge, Calvin, 181, 239, 240 Coors beer, 165 copper, 193–94 corruption, 50–52 cotton, 13, 21–22, 33–34, 232 Cowie, Jefferson, 224 Coxey’s Army, 236 Cripple Creek, 74–76, 235, 236 Culinary Union Local 226, 216 cultural backlash, 177 Czolgosz, Leon, 68 Darrow, Clarence, 81–82 Darwin, Charles, 51 Davis, Jefferson, 36–37 Davis, Leon, 208 Dawes Act (1887), 47–48 death, legal responsibility for, 16 Debs, Eugene, 73–74, 93–94, 110 deindustrialization, 174–78 De Leon, Daniel, 94–95 Democratic Party, 137, 192, 226 Department and Specialty Store Employees Union Local 1265, 145–46 Deslondes, Charles, 34 Dewey, Thomas, 137 Diamond, Rebecca, divided loyalty, 181 “Divine Right of Capital” (Baer), 79 Dodge, Phelps, 108–9 Donahue, Thomas, 214 Douglass, Frederick, 33–34, 39 Dred Scott, 36 Drummond, Thomas, 54–55 Du Bois, W.E.B., 30, 38 Durst, Ralph, 105–6 Earth Day, 165 East Bay Labor Journal, 146 economic equality, 46, 226–27 economic instability, 7–8 eight-hour day, 50, 59–60 Eisenhower, Dwight, 189, 244 Electric Auto-Lite Company (Toledo), 118, 241 Emancipation Proclamation, 39, 233 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 19 Empire Zinc, 153 employer rights, 16, 23, 54–55 Engel, George, 64 environmental legislation, 165 Equal Rights Amendment, 158 Erie Canal, 14–15, 232 Espionage Act, 110 Ettor, Joseph, 99–101, 103–4 Everest, Wesley, 110–11 Executive Order 8802, 140 FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), 185–92 Facebook, 1–2 Fair Employment Practice Committee, 140 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 132, 242 Farm Labor Organizing Committee, 206, 249 Farwell, Nicholas, 16, 232 Farwell v Boston and Worcester Rail Road Corporation, 16 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 185–92 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, 167, 245 The Feminine Mystique, 153 feminist movement, 163 Fermon, Michael, 190 Fielden, Samuel, 63–64 Fight for $15 movement, 219–20 Fischer, Adolph, 64 Flint sit-down strike, 121–33, 242 Flour riot, 232 FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), 132, 242 Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 94, 100–102, 104, 106 Ford, Henry, 116, 122 Ford, Richard “Blackie,” 106 Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 40 Fort Pillow Massacre, 40 Fox News, Franklin, Benjamin, 13 Fraser, Doug, 190 Frazier, Garrison, 40 Freedmen’s Bureau, 44 free labor, 25–28, 49–50, 55 Frémont, John C., 37 Frick, Henry Clay, 66–67, 90, 235 Friedan, Betty, 153 Frisco Mill, 235 Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (1978), 175 Fulton, Robert, 14 Garfield, James, 52 gay rights movement, 158, 164–65 General Motors (GM), 121–33, 141, 168–73, 246 general strikes, 18, 239 General Trades Union, 18 George, Henry, 55–56 Gergen, David, 190 German Coast uprising, 34, 232 Gifford, Walter, 115 Gilded Age, 49–57, 65–69, 72–83 Giovannitti, Arturo, 101 Girdler, Tom, 131 globalization, 177 GM see General Motors Goldman, Emma, 67, 110, 239 Goldwater, Barry, 151 Gompers, Samuel, 53, 65, 85, 108, 144 Gonzalez, Lucy, 61 Gould, Jay, 60–62, 234 government: employees backed by, 71–72 employers supported by, 83 supporting worker rights, 91 government-employer alliance, government workers, 180 Gowen, Franklin, 53 Grant, Ulysses S., 52 grape boycott, 205 Gray, Ralph, 132 Great Depression, 67, 114–21, 240–41 Great Plains, 47–48 Great Railroad Strike, 54, 234 Great Southwest Railroad Strike, 60–61, 234 Green, William, 116 Greenbackers, 56 Hall, Mary, 19 Hanna, Mark, 77, 79–80 Hard Hat Riot, 162, 245–46 Harding, Warren, 181, 239 Harris, Isaac, 85–86 Harrison, Orrin, 14–15 Harry (slave rebellion leader), 34 Hartung, Al, 155 Harvard University, 100 Hawkins, Augustus, 175 Hayes, Rutherford B., 46, 55, 108 Haymarket, 50, 63–64, 234 Haywood, Bill, 93–94, 98, 100–102 Hazel, Dennis, 41 Henry, John, 45 Hill, James J., 73 Hillman, Sidney, 120–21, 137 Hitler, Adolf, 116 Hoffa, Jimmy, 168 Holley, Calvin, 42–43 Hoover, Herbert, 117 Hormel, 194–95, 248 housekeeping, 24 Huerta, Dolores, 205 Hull House, 77 Humphrey-Hawkins Act, 175 Hunter, David, 37 “I Have a Dream” (King speech), 160 immigrants: during Industrial Revolution, 15 and labor movement, 203–6 lack of AFL support for, 65–66 in new age of organizing, 215–17 and resetting capitalism, 56–57 Immigration Act (1924), 204 Immigration and Nationality Act (1965), 203–4 inclusivity, 225 income inequality, 202 indigenous people, 30–31 Industrial Revolution, 12–24, 33–34 Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 92–111, 237–39 and Bread and Roses Strike, 98–105 during repression, 108–11 and western workers, 105–8 International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, 88 International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 574, 118–19 International Service Systems (ISS), 211–12 International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter, Workers, 152–53 Irish immigrants, 15, 23–24 IWW see Industrial Workers of the World Jackson, Maynard, 184 Jacobs, Harriet, 34–35 Jaffe, Sarah, 220 janitors, 208–13 Janus v AFSCME Council No 31, 202 Japanese-Mexican Labor Association, 57, 236 Jayaraman, Saru, 216 Jefferson, Thomas, 33 Jemmy (slave rebellion leader), 32 Jim Crow laws, 46, 98 Johnson, Andrew, 42, 233 Johnson, Genora, 124 Johnson, Lyndon, 151, 157 Jones, Jesse H., 59 Jones, Mary Harris “Mother,” 79, 94 Journal, 125 The Jungle (Sinclair), 87 Justice, Jim, Justice for Janitors, 210, 213 Keithfield rice plantation, 41 Kelley, Florence, 77, 84, 236 Kennedy, John F., 157, 181, 245 King, Martin Luther King, Jr., 157–58, 160–61, 182, 245 Kirkland, Lane, 189–90, 196, 214 Knights of Labor, 50, 58–64, 79, 235 Knowland, Joseph, 145–46, 148 Know-Nothing Party, 15 Knox, Philander, 80 Knudsen, William, 122 Kook (slave rebellion leader), 34 Ku Klux Klan, 44, 142 Labor Day, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), 217 Labor News, 125 labor union, defined, 5–6 La Follette, Robert, 121 La Follette Committee, 122 La Follette Seamen’s Act, 108 Landrum-Griffin Act (1959), 154 Latinos, 203–6, 217 Lattimer Massacre, 79 Lee, Robert E., 39, 233 Lemlich, Clara, 85, 86 Lewis, John L., 120–22, 129–32, 136, 166, 242 Leyden, John, 187–88 Lichtenstein, Nelson, 127–28 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, 164 Lincoln, Abraham, 29–30, 36–37, 39, 41, 233 Lingg, Louis, 63 Lippmann, Walter, 88 Lipsitz, George, 177 Little, Frank, 109 Little Steel companies, 130–31 Local 1199, 207–8 Lochner, Joseph, 83–84 Lochner v New York, 84, 237 Loco Focos, 18 Loeb, Henry, 182 Loewe v Lawlor, 72 loggers, 107 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 19 longshoreman strike, 241 Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (Bellamy), 56, 235 LoPizzo, Anna, 101 Loray Mill, 240 Lordstown strike, 168–73, 246 Los Angeles Times, 88, 90–91, 101, 237 Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, 23 Lowell Offering, 23 loyalty, 36–37, 181 Ludlow Massacre, 89–90, 238 Luther, Seth, 14 MacArthur, Douglas, 117, 240–41 Madar, Olga, 163 Maguires, Molly, 78 Malcolm X, 157 Mamdouh, Fekkak, 216 Manigault, Charles, 40 Manwell, E.T., 106 March on Washington, 160, 245 Marx, Karl, 57 Massell, Sam, 184 The Masses, 88 mass production, in New England, 13 May Day, Mazzocchi, Tony, 166 McCarthy, Joseph, 136 McCartin, Joseph, 186 McCormick, Cyrus, Jr., 62–63 McGovern, George, 162–63, 173, 246 McGuire, Peter J., 52, 57 McIntire, Albert, 76 McKinley, William, 68, 223 Meany, George, 214 and air traffic controllers, 183 and Lordstown, 159, 162, 169 and Oakland general strike, 152, 154 meatpackers, 87, 194 Mellon Bank, 209 Memorial Day Massacre, 130, 242 Metal Trades Council, 143 middle class, 24, 68 Middle Passage, 32 Miles, Nelson A., 74 Miller, Arnold, 167, 174 Mill Girls Strike, 18–24 Mine, Darr, 78 Mississippi code, 43 Mitchell, John, 78–81 Molinari, Guy, 185 Molly Maguires, 53, 234 monopolies, 72 Mooney, James, 130 Morgan, Anne, 85 Morgan, J.P., 81 Most, Johann, 57, 62 Mullaney, Kate, 26–27, 233 Muller, Curt, 84 Muller v Oregon, 84, 237 Mungia, George, 193 Murphy, Frank, 124–25, 129, 226 Murray, Philip, 136 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), 197–98, 248 National Consumers League, 84 National Domestic Workers Union, 208 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), 117, 241 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 119–20, 147, 242 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 119–20, 131 National Labor Union (NLU), 26, 58 National Organization for Women, 246 National Recovery Administration (NRA), 117 National War Labor Board (NWLB), 137 Native Americans, 30–31, 47–48 natural environments, romanticism of, 19 Nazi Party, 116 Necessary Trouble (Jaffe), 220 Neebe, Oscar, 63 Nef, Walter, 107–8 New Deal, 117, 181 New England, colonization in, 11–18 New England Workingmen’s Association, 17 New Gilded Age, 223–24 New Orleans Crescent, 36 New York Call, 102 New York Slave Conspiracy, 231–32 New York Sun, 60 New York Times, 101 NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), 117, 241 Nixon, Richard, 245 and Lordstown, 158, 161, 165, 167 and public sector strikes, 182–83, 186, 188 NLRA see National Labor Relations Act NLRB (National Labor Relations Board), 119–20, 131 NLU (National Labor Union), 26, 58 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 197–98, 248 NRA (National Recovery Administration), 117 NWLB (National War Labor Board), 137 Oakland General Strike, 144–50, 243 Oakland Tribune, 145 Obama, Barack, 201, 218 OCAW (Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers), 166 Occupational Safety and Health Act, 165 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 185, 246 Occupy Wall Street, 219, 249 O’Donnell, J.J., 191 Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW), 166 Olney, Richard, 74 O’Neal, Jay, 1–2 Operation Air Safety, 186 Operation Copper Nugget, 194 Operation Dixie, 142–43 Operation Graphic Hand, 183 OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), 185, 246 Otis, Harrison Gray, 88 Pacific Main Mill, 99 Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee (PWOC), 131 Panic of 1837, 232 Panic of 1873, 52, 234 Panic of 1893, 67, 73 parents, Parker, Francis, 41 Parsons, Albert, 61–64, 94 Parsons, Lucy, 94 PATCO see Professional Air Controllers Organization Paterson Association for the Protection of the Working Class, 21 Paterson Strike Pageant, 104–5 Pattison, Robert, 67 Perkins, Frances, 85, 125 Phelps Dodge, 193–94, 248 Pineros y Campesnos Unidos del Noroeste, 206 Pinkerton, Allen, 53 Pinkerton National Detective Agency, 53, 67–68, 235 police strike, Boston, 180–81 political organizing, 19–20, 26–27 Poor People’s Campaign, 245 Port Royal Experiment, 41, 233 postal workers, 182–83, 245 postwar strikes, 140–44 poverty, after slavery, 45–48 Powderly, Terence, 58, 60–61, 64 power: of employers, 6–7 government, 54–55 of movements, 226 in work dynamics, of workers, 65 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 164 Pressed Steel Car Company, 97 private sector unions, 202 Professional Air Controllers Organization (PATCO), 180, 186–92, 247 Progress and Poverty (George), 55 Progressives, 71–72, 77, 83 public sector unionism, 180–85, 202 Pugh, Mary, 47 Pullman, George, 73 Pullman Palace Car Company, 73 Pullman strikes, 73–74 Pure Food and Drug Act, 87 Puritans, 11–18 PWOC (Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee), 131 Quamana (slave rebellion leader), 34 race, 8, 153, 215, 224 racial divisions, 56–57, 65–66, 142–43 radicalism, 92–98, 116 Radical Republicans, 44 railroads, 15–17, 52, 54–55, 73 Rami, John, 100 Rand, Ayn, Randolph, A Philip, 139, 160, 161, 242 Ray, James Earl, 182 Reagan, Ronald, 158, 175, 179–80, 184–85, 188–92 rebellions, 34–35 Reconstruction, 42–43 Red Scare, 114 Reed, John, 104 repression, 108–11 Republican Party, 36, 44–46, 192, 226, 233 Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), 216–17, 249 Retail Merchants Association (RMA), 145–46 Reuther, Roy, 128 Reuther, Victor, 124 Reuther, Walter, 129, 141, 160, 169–70 Revolutionary War, 33 Revolutionary War Science (Most), 62 Rice, Sally, 19 rights, employer, 16, 23, 54–55 The Rights of Man to Property! (Skidmore), 55 RMA (Retail Merchants Association), 145–46 Robinson, Harriet Hanson, 19, 20–21 ROC (Restaurant Opportunities Center), 216–17, 249 Rockefeller, John D., 51 Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 90 Rockwell, Norman, 138–39, 243 Rolfe, John, 31 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 142, 242–43 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 117, 125 during WWII, 137–38 Roosevelt, Theodore, 56, 236–37 and Anthracite strike, 72, 77, 80–82, 87–88 “Rosie the Riveter” (Rockwell), 138–39, 243 Ruffin, Edmund, 38 Ryan, Joseph “King,” 149 Sacco, Nicola, 115, 240 Sadlowski, Edward, 167, 174 safety, 14–16, 85–87, 166 Salt of the Earth, 153, 244 Sanders, Bernie, 223–24 San Francisco Chronicle, 145 Saturday Evening Post, 138 Schnaubelt, Rudolph, 63 Schwab, Michael, 63–64 Scott, Thomas Alexander, 54 Scranton Times, 81 SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), 162 Sedition Act, 110 self-emancipation, 37–38, 233 Service Employees International Union (SEIU), 206–13, 248 sex work, 68 sharecropping, 46 shared history, Shaw, Lemuel, 16 Shepard, William Gunn, 86 Sherman, William Tecumseh, 40–41, 233 Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), 72 Sherman’s Special Field Order No 15, 40–42 Sinclair, Upton, 87 Skidmore, Thomas, 55 Slater, Samuel, 12–13, 17, 20, 232 slavery, 11–12, 29–48 abolishment of, 32–33 after Civil War, 42–48 development of, 31–32 ending, 29–30 free laborers against, 25–26 of indigenous people, 30–31 and the slave strikes, 36–42 start of, 231 Slave Strike, 36–42 Smalls, Robert, 38 Smith, J.D., 173 Smith Act (1940), 151 social instability, 202 Social Security Act, 242 Spies, August, 62–64 Spruce Production Division, 109–10 Stakem, James, 190 state-sponsored violence, 79 steam energy, 14 Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), 130, 242 Steinem, Gloria, 164 Stevens, J.P., 247 Stone, Huldah, 22 Stonewall riots, 158 Stono Rebellion, 32, 231 strikes: early, 27–28 future directions of, 224–25 importance of history in, 5, 10 during Industrial Revolution, 17–18 and IWW, 95–96 limitations of Progressive, 72 modern day, 203 power of, of railroad workers, 54–55 of sugar planters, 47 strike wave (1886), 58–64 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), 162 subcontracting, 203 suburban life, 155 Suhr, Herman, 106 Sutton, Crystal Lee, 164 Sweeney, John, 214, 217 SWOC (Steel Workers Organizing Committee), 130, 242 Sylvis, William, 26 Taft, Helen Herron, 103 Taft, William Howard, 103 Taft-Hartley Act (1947), 151–52, 243, 244 teachers, 1–2 temp work, 203 ten-hour day, 22 Textile Bulletin, 142 textile mill workers, 119 Thibodaux Massacre, 235 Thibodaux Star, 47 Thirteenth Amendment, 39, 234 Thomas, William, 15 Thompson, Jim, 96–97 Tikas, Louis, 89 Time, 163 Tisei, Mike, 221 tobacco, 31 “To the Freedman of Virginia” (Brown), 44 trade groups, 64 Trautmann, William, 94, 101 A Treaty on Domestic Economy, 24 Tresca, Carlo, 101 Triangle Shirtwaist Company, 85–86, 237 Truman, Harry, 152, 154, 243–44 Trumka, Richard, 214 Trump, Donald, and administration, 7–8, 201–2, 224, 249 Turner, Nat, 34–35, 232 Twain, Mark, 49 UAW (United Auto Workers), 122–29, 168–73, 218 Uber, 225 UCAPAWA (United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America), 204 UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers), 194–96 UFT (United Federation of Teachers), 161–62 UFW (United Farm Workers), 205, 246 unemployment, 155 Union military, 39–40 Union Pacific Railroad, 52 unions, 1, corporate war on, 192–99 decline of membership for, 219 during Industrial Revolution, 17 during Mill Girls Strike, 20 railroad, 16–17 rebellions by, 163–68 resistance to, 88 rise in, 77 in the South, 141–42 United, Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, 140–41 United Auto Workers (UAW), 122–29, 168–73, 218 United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), 204 United Farm Workers (UFW), 205, 246 United Federation of Teachers (UFT), 161–62 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), 194–96 United Hatters of North America, 72 United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), 78–83, 114, 197, 235 U.S Food and Drug Administration, 87 United States Bureau of Mines, 87 United States Commission on Industrial Relations (USCIR), 88, 91 United Steelworkers of America, 160 United Steelworkers of America v Weber, 161 United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), 215 United Textile Workers, 119 USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops), 215 USCIR (United States Commission on Industrial Relations), 88, 91 vagrancy, 43–44 Vanzetti, Bartolomeo, 115, 240 Veliz, Ana, 212 Verizon, 220–21 Vesey, Denmark, 34 Vietnam War, 157–58 violence, 68 against IWW, 110 racial, 56–57 during slavery, 33–36 against strikes, 52–53, 100, 124–25, 130 and white supremacy, 48 Virginia, slavery in, 30–31 wage gaps, 138, 153 Wagner, Robert, 207 Waite, Davis, 75–76 Walker, Robert, 181–82 Walker, Scott, 219, 249 Wallace, George, 161 Walsh, Frank, 88, 90 Ward, Cecil, 208 Washington, George, 33 Washington Post, 189–90 WBA (Workingmen’s Benevolent Association), 53 Weingarten, Randi, 164 Weiss, C.E., 140 West Coast longshoremen, 118 Western Federation of Miners (WFM), 75–76, 93, 236–37 white supremacy, 42–48, 149–50 Whitney, Eli, 13, 232 Willey, N.B., 68 Wilson, Woodrow, 88, 90, 92–93, 108, 110, 238 Winpisinger, William “Wimpy,” 175 Wolfgang, Myra, 163 women: as activists, 84–85 black, after Civil War, 45 during Cold War, 135–36 and feminist movement, 163 during Industrial Revolution, 18, 24–25 and Mill Girls Strike, 18–24 as mill workers, 99 and sex work, 68 and wage gaps, 138–39 women’s movement, 158 Wood, William Madison, 101 Woodcock, Leonard, 163 Worker Rights Consortium, 248 workers: Cold War, 150–55 defining, 225–26 exploitation of, 91 government, 180 rights of, 113 textile mill, 119 Work in America, 173 Workingmen’s Benevolent Association (WBA), 53 World War Adjusted Compensation, 116–17 World War II, 136–40, 204 Wyatt, Addie, 163 Yablonski, Joseph “Jock,” 167 About the Author Erik Loomis is an associate professor of history at the University of Rhode Island He writes on labor, politics, and the environment at the blog Lawyers, Guns, and Money His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Dissent, and the New Republic The author of Out of Sight (The New Press) and Empire of Timber, he lives in Providence, Rhode Island Publishing in the Public Interest Thank you for reading this book published by The New Press The New Press is a nonprofit, public interest publisher New Press books and authors play a crucial role in sparking conversations about the key political and social issues of our day We hope you enjoyed this book and that you will stay in touch with The New Press Here are a few ways to stay up to date with our books, events, and the issues we cover: • Sign up at www.thenewpress.com/subscribe to receive updates on New Press authors and issues and to be notified about local events • Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/newpressbooks • Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thenewpress Please consider buying New Press books for yourself; for friends and family; or to donate to schools, libraries, community centers, prison libraries, and other organizations involved with the issues our authors write about The New Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization You can also support our work with a taxdeductible gift by visiting www.thenewpress.com/donate ... millions of Americans who not see a path to a better future For them, the American Dream is dead Of course, African American, Asian American, Native American, Middle Eastern, and Latino workers also... than dragging the goods across the barely passable roads of early America The canal had enormous impacts on the future of American work, including spurring ever-greater industrialization, helping... to wane, and with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, slavery was legally dead, an amazing achievement.34 The Lincoln administration began to arm black soldiers in 1863 African Americans,