The New York Shipbuilding strike was a strike that occurred in the Port of Camden, New Jersey, in the spring of 1934 by the New York Shipbuilding Company. Around 3,100 men took part in the 7-week action, centered at the company's Camden, New Jersey construction yard.
A second and longer strike of the company occurred in the spring and summer 1935, which required intervention from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to force a settlement.
The New York Shipbuilding Company was established by Henry G. Morse in 1900. [1] Though original plans were to site the works on Staten Island in New York State, the final site was based in Camden, New Jersey. By 1914, the company was the leader in naval production and by 1917 it was the largest shipyard in the world. In total, the company made over 670 merchant and warships, producing 30% of the US Navy's battleships by 1921. [2] The company's ownership changed hands several times due to financial instability after World War I. [1]
By the summer of 1933, wages and conditions in the port were considered unsatisfactory due to the increased cost of living and lack of support by the American Federation of Labor. The Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America offered assistance, being organized by local left-wing and social workers in the area. By 1934, it had expanded and represented a quarter of a million members. [2]
The workers went on strike on March 27, 1934, demanding an increase in wages and fewer working hours. Around 3,100 men took part in the action. [3] Union members asked for "abolition of piecework and elimination of the company union with consequent enrollment of its members in the industrial union." [4] This delayed work of $40,000,000 worth of ships. The "first-class" mechanics were currently making $23.20 for a 32-hour work week. The union asked for an increase of $1 an hour for a 32-hour week for these mechanics, and increased wages for other job categories in the company as well.
On April 13, the New York Shipbuilding Company said it was officially closing down. Company president, Clinton L. Bardo, offered a 10% pay raise to the workers. [5]
The wage increase was finally negotiated on May 13. The workers and union members were originally asking for 37.5%, but instead compromised on 14.6% after the Navy threatened to move construction of the cruiser Tuscaloosa to another Navy Yard. The company insisted they would not discriminate over rehiring workers, and increased working hours from 32 to 36 hours a week. The skilled mechanics received the highest wage increase, which was 16.5%. 1,300 workers’ wages increased from 61–71 cents an hour to 70–83 cents an hour. [6]
On May 15, over 3,000 returned to work in Camden. The strike lasted for a total of seven weeks and stopped the production of many naval vessels, tankers and other ships. About 900 new men applied for a job at the shipyard, in order to participate in a new naval construction program. The union officers held a parade to celebrate the end of the strike. [7]
The company resumed work, completing work on the Tuscaloosa, including a test run.
The Camden workers claimed that the company violated the strike agreement that was signed on May 12. In July, over 1,000 employees took part in a meeting at the Convention Hall. The union's executive secretary, John Green, was elected to go to Washington to ask for an inquiry, after the company failed to "give a week’s notice with pay on dismissal, failure to pay agreed rates to third-class helpers, and refusal to nominate its members to the board of arbitration." [8] John Green said that the company was laying workers off instead of hiring them, as originally stated.
The company did not want to re-open negotiations, so a second strike was held between March and August 1935. Employees had had support from the United Mine Workers, ACW and AFL. [9] The Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, investigated the background to the strike, reporting findings directly to the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt, a former Secretary of the Navy, demanded that management negotiate with the union, threatening that otherwise the company would lose all US Naval contracts. This strike lasted for 11 weeks, surpassing the previous seven-week strike back in 1934.
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy shipyard in the United States and continued to be an important one for almost two centuries.
The US Textile Workers' Strike of 1934, colloquially known later as The Uprising of '34 was the largest textile strike in the labor history of the United States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S. Southern states, lasting twenty-two days.
The New York Shipbuilding Corporation was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United States Coast Guard, and other maritime concerns. At its peak during World War II, NYSB was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Its best-known vessels include the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245), the cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), the nuclear-powered cargo ship NS Savannah, and a quartet of cargo-passenger liners nicknamed the 4 Aces.
Fore River Shipyard was a shipyard owned by General Dynamics Corporation located on Weymouth Fore River in Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts. It began operations in 1883 in Braintree, and moved to its final location on Quincy Point in 1901. In 1913, it was purchased by Bethlehem Steel, and later transferred to Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. It was sold to General Dynamics in 1963, and closed in 1986. During its operation, yardworkers constructed hundreds of ships, for both military and civilian clients.
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is an American shipbuilding company with four shipyards located in San Diego, Norfolk, Bremerton, and Mayport. It is a division of General Dynamics. NASSCO owns a subsidiary manufacturing facility with TIMSA in Mexicali, Mexico. The San Diego shipyard specializes in constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels for the US Navy and Military Sealift Command; it is the only new-construction shipyard on the West Coast of the United States. NASSCO performs ship repairs and conversions for the United States Navy in all four shipyard locations: San Diego, Norfolk, Bremerton, and Mayport.
The following is a timeline of labor history, organizing & conflicts, from the early 1600s to present.
The Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company was a United States shipyard in New Jersey active from 1917 to 1948. It was founded during World War I to build ships for the United States Shipping Board. Unlike many shipyards, it remained active during the shipbuilding slump of the 1920s and early 1930s that followed the World War I boom years. During World War II, it built merchant ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding program, at the same time producing more destroyers for the United States Navy than any yard other than the Bath Iron Works. Operated by a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, the shipyard was located at Kearny Point where the mouth of the Hackensack River meets Newark Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike by a federal labor union of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) against the Electric Auto-Lite company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934.
The Emergency Shipbuilding Program was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and materiel to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U.S. Maritime Commission, the program built almost 6,000 ships.
Clinton L. Bardo was an American industrialist whose career included stints as general manager of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and president of New York Shipbuilding. As president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) from 1934 to 1935, he became an outspoken opponent of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
Leo Wolman was a noted American economist whose work focused on labor economics. He also served on a number of important boards and commissions for the federal government.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlears Hook in Manhattan. It is bounded by Navy Street to the west, Flushing Avenue to the south, Kent Avenue to the east, and the East River on the north. The site, which covers 225.15 acres (91.11 ha), is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916 were labor actions of refinery workers in Bayonne, New Jersey, mostly Polish-Americans who struck Standard Oil of New Jersey and Tidewater Petroleum plants on Constable Hook beginning in mid-July 1915.
The 1935 Pacific Northwest lumber strike was an industry-wide labor strike organized by the Northwest Council of Sawmill and Timber Workers Union (STWU). The strike lasted for more than three and a half months and paralyzed much of the lumber industry in Northern California, Oregon and Washington state. Although the striking workers only achieved part of their demands, the repercussions of the long and often violent strike were felt for decades. Over the next several years, a newly radicalized and militant generation of lumber workers would go on to spark several more industry-wide strikes.
The 1835 Philadelphia general strike took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the first general strike in North America and involved some 20,000 workers who struck for a ten-hour workday and increased wages. The strike ended in workers successfully negotiating for and securing both.
The 1983 Todd Shipyard Strike was a strike action by 10,000 Pacific Coast Metal Trades Union members from July 26 to September 26, 1983, deadlocking business in 9 shipyards. The Todd Shipyards Corporation was significantly impacted by this strike. The bargaining between the unions under the Pacific Coast Metal Trades District Council, and the Pacific Shipbuilders Association led to a new contract, but that did not prevent Todd Shipyards from losing a significant amount of business and subsequent loss of workers in the years that followed.
Todd Pacific Shipyards, Los Angeles Division was a shipyard in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. Before applying its last corporate name, the shipyard had been called Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company and Todd Shipyards, Los Angeles Division. Under those three names, the San Pedro yard built at least 130 ships from 1917 to 1989.
The Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (IUMSWA) was an American labor union which existed between 1933 and 1988. The IUMSWA was first organised at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard in Camden, New Jersey after striking in 1934 and 1935. From here it slowly spread to a number of other private shipyards in the Northeast, gaining representation at the Staten Island shipyard in 1936, the Federal Shipyard in 1937, Brooklyn and Hoboken in 1939, Baltimore and Sparrows Point in 1941, as well as a range of other smaller ship repair yards in the New York area. The IUMSWA's industrial coverage of all production workers in the shipbuilding industry brought it into conflict with established craft unions, such as the boilermakers, leading the IUMSWA to be refused an AFL charter in 1933. The IUMSWA later joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1936.
The New England Shoemakers Strike of 1860 began on February 22, 1860 with 3,000 shoemakers walking off their jobs in Lynn, Massachusetts. It ended in April with modest gains for shoemakers, including pay increases and owner recognition of some labor unions. Approximately 20,000 workers went on strike across New England which made it the largest mass walkout in American history prior to the Civil War.
The Washington Navy Yard labor strike of 1835 is considered the first strike of federal civilian employees. The strike began on Wednesday July 31, 1835, and ended August 15, 1835. The strike supported the movement advocating a ten-hour workday and redressing grievances such as newly imposed lunch-hour regulations. The strike failed in its objectives for two reasons, the Secretary of the Navy refused to change the shipyard working hours and the loss of public support due to the involvement of large numbers of mechanics and laborers in the race riot popularly known as the Snow Riot or Snow Storm.