![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Los Angeles streetcar strike of 1903 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date | April 24 – 29, 1903 | ||
Location | |||
Methods | Striking | ||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
Number | |||
|
The Pacific Electric Railway strike of 1903 was an industrial dispute between Mexican tracklayers and their employers on the construction of the Main Street streetcar line in Los Angeles. The dispute began on April 24 when the workers, known as the "Traqueros", demanded higher wages to match those of the European immigrants working on the same project, and stopped work. It ended on April 29 when the union organising the strike failed to persuade workers on rest of the streetcar system to join the strike, and the labourers returned to work.
The strike was organised by the Union Federal Mexicanos, representing about 700 workers. Their employer, Henry E. Huntington, hired replacement workers for the duration of the strike from other projects at higher rates of pay, in order to meet the deadline for completion of the line, which coincided with the visit of President Theodore Roosevelt. [1]
The strikers demanded wages to increase roughly three cents from 17.5 cents an hour to 20 cents an hour for those working the day shift, 30 cents an hour for night work, and double time pay on Sunday. Mexican workers were paid less than southern European immigrants such as Italians who earned $1.75 a day in contrast to Mexican workers $1.25 a day for a ten-hour shift. [2]
On April 24, 1903 approximately 700 Mexican track workers, working on Main St in Downtown Los Angeles, walked off the job in protest of the low wages they received. [1] The Strikers worked for Pacific Electric Railway owned by Henry E. Huntington, a notorious anti-union businessman. The strike was organized by the Union Federal Mexicanos a newly-created union that was supported by the Amalgamated Association of Street Car Employees. Both unions were established by the Los Angeles Council of Labor. The Union Federal is important because it was likely the first union in the United States to represent Mexican track workers.
At first the managers of Pacific Electric succumbed to the workers demands and granted a 20 cents an hour wage. Huntington quickly retracted the increases because he did not want to deal with a union. [3] A spokesman for Pacific Electric told the Los Angeles Times that Huntington "would have raised wages if only the workers came to him instead of bringing the union." [3] The spokesman further elaborated that the company would pay the workers five dollars a day if they had to but they absolutely would not deal with the union and the strikers would not be rehired.
Mexican laborers accepted such low wages because the pay was double of what they would be paid in Mexico for similar work. The higher wages made it difficult for railroad employers in Mexico to keep a steady workforce.
The Union’s response to Huntington bringing in strike breakers was to have all members of the Union form a picket line on Friday April 24, 1903. The picket line was intended to get the strike breakers, many of whom were Mexican, to walk off the job and join them as well. The picket line did not succeed because the LAPD surrounded the strikers preventing them from communicating with strike breakers. [4] Some strikers sneaked on to the job site to talk the workers individually, but the foreman caught them and evicted them.
After picketing failed, a group of women marched onto the site Saturday April 25, 1903 and confronted the strike breakers, seizing their tools so they would stop working. [5] The women were likely the wives, mothers, and sisters of the strikers who felt the need to stand in solidarity.
The track workers received the help of Santa Teresa Urrea, a Mexican Catholic leader that sided with the working class. [5] Her presence had such an impact that when she marched down Main street at least 50 workers dropped their tools and joined Urrea. Huntington brought in 200 men from El Paso, Texas to keep the project on schedule.
A major tactic of the Union Mexicanos was to stay off the job until April 29, 1903 when the street car operators were to go on strike and put a stop to the entire transit system. [6] With both the operators and track layers on the strike the goal was to disrupt the completion of the track in time for President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit. The disruption was supposed to force Huntington to succumb to the demands of the workers and grant them their wage increase. The motorman and conductors were all to go on strike at 7:30 PM. At the proposed hour only 12 of the 764 street car workers walked off the job. [7] The operators were intimidated by Huntington who gave an ultimatum, anyone that goes on strike would be fired indefinitely. [8] The railroad company also kept police and strike breakers ready in case the operators did strike. This lack of solidarity between the street car operators and track workers undermined the power of the strike and made Huntington the victor.
Huntington brought in laborers from other rail projects in the area such as Long Beach and the Southbay. The workers brought in to finish the Main street job were paid 22 cents an hour, a two cent increase over the demands of the strikers. [9] Huntington raised the wages for three reasons, one was for attracting replacements to come in and finish laying track. Second, was that Huntington had a deadline to finish the track by May 6 for the Fiesta and arrival of President Roosevelt. Lastly, the higher pay was intended to weaken the strike and the strikers affiliation to Union Mexicanos as well as to avoid having replacement Mexican workers joining the strike. The strikers were helped by women relatives on April 26 when they infiltrated the work site and got at least fifty workers to put down their tools. [10] Huntington also had the help of the Los Angeles Times which wrote negatively about the strikers. In one article the paper called the workers "peons, stupid fellows who don't know what a union is." [3] The same article than describes the women that influenced men to drop their tools as "Amazons". [3]
The strike lost momentum and ended after April 29 when the motor men did not strike. With an abundance of laborers, Huntington was able to defeat the strike and finish the rail line by the time Roosevelt arrived. It appears the strike was not very big judging by the interpretation of the Los Angeles Times that said for the police they "probably had the dullest Saturday night all year." [10] Another reason for the strike ending is that many of the strikers found work elsewhere because most people found the work to be grueling, not a job they would keep for long. [9]
The strike marks the first time Mexican workers strike against their employer. It also breaks the stereotype Mexicans were given such as Mexican workers being docile and easy to control. They were obviously not docile because they went on strike. In fact they had greater willingness to strike and stay off the job then the motormen of Amalgamated who were fearful and did not strike on April 29.
The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care. By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents.
Justice for Janitors (JfJ) is a social movement organization that fights for the rights of janitors across the US and Canada. It was started on June 15, 1990, in response to the low wages and minimal health-care coverage that janitors received. Justice for Janitors includes more than 225,000 janitors in at least 29 cities in the United States and at least four cities in Canada. Members fight for better wages, better conditions, improved healthcare, and full-time opportunities.
A traquero is a railroad track worker, or "section hand", especially a Mexican or Mexican American railroad track worker. The word derives from "traque", Spanglish for "track".
The Hardin County onion pickers strike was a strike by agricultural workers in Hardin County, Ohio, in 1934. Led by the Agricultural Workers Union, Local 19724, the strike began on June 20, two days after the trade union formed. After the kidnapping and beating of the union's leader and the intervention of the Ohio National Guard on behalf of the growers, the strike ended in October with a partial victory for the union. Some growers met the union's demand for a 35-cents-an-hour minimum wage, but the majority did not.
Bloody Friday is the name of an event which occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 20, 1934, when police shot at truck drivers injuring 67 picketers and killing strikers John Belor and Henry Ness. This was one incident in the Minneapolis general strike of 1934, beginning May 20 and ending on August 22.
The California agricultural strikes of 1933 were a series of strikes by mostly Mexican and Filipino agricultural workers throughout the San Joaquin Valley. More than 47,500 workers were involved in the wave of approximately 30 strikes from 1931 to 1941. Twenty-four of the strikes, involving 37,500 union members, were led by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union (CAWIU). The strikes are grouped together because most of them were organized by the CAWIU. Strike actions began in August among cherry, grape, peach, pear, sugar beet, and tomato workers, and culminated in a number of strikes against cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley in October. The cotton strikes involved the largest number of workers. Sources vary as to numbers involved in the cotton strikes, with some sources claiming 18,000 workers and others just 12,000 workers, 80% of whom were Mexican.
The Vacaville tree pruners' strike of 1932 was a two-month strike beginning on November 14 by the CAWIU in Vacaville, California, United States. The strikers were protesting a cut in tree pruning wages from $1.40 for an eight-hour workday to $1.25 for a nine-hour workday. The strike was characterized by multiple violent incidents including a break-in at the Vacaville jail that resulted in the kidnapping and abuse of six arrested strike leaders. The strikers were ultimately unsuccessful in demanding higher wages and fewer hours and the CAWIU voted to end the strike on January 20, 1933.
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 Cantaloupe strike of 1928 was labor movement of cantaloupe pickers in Imperial Valley, California. On May 7, 1928 cantaloupe pickers walked off of the job and the strike lasted to May 10 of the same year. The strikers had hardly any outside support and many were effectively imprisoned by local police for gathering together in any public space during the strike. The strikers were mostly Mexican immigrants or of Mexican descent because they comprised the vast majority of produce laborers in California, about 3,500 to 4,000 Mexicans worked as cantaloupe pickers. While the strike was short-lived and seemingly unorganized, it stands as a victory for the workers.
The El Monte berry strike began on June 1, 1933, in El Monte, California. It was part of the largest California agricultural strike of 1933, organized by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ International Union (CAWIU). The berry strike affected local Japanese farm owners and growers.
The 1992 Southern California drywall strike was a strike by Mexican and Mexican American drywall hangers, many of whom were undocumented, for fair wages and health insurance from contractors, who stole two billion dollars a years in income taxes, social security, and worker's compensation payments from the workers and collaborated with the local police to repress the organizers. Jesus Gomez, leader of the strike, received threats and had shots fired at his home, while key organizers were tailed by the police and even followed with helicopters. Eventually aligning with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the strikers succeeded in getting union contracts that ensured fair wages and benefits. The strike left the residential construction industry in a different state. While the industry remained an open shop, contractors were forced to pay Mexican workers with wages and benefits closer to that of the white workers.
The Los Angeles Garment Workers strike of 1933 is considered to be one of the most influential strikes in Los Angeles after the passing of the New Deal. The strike is known for being one of the first strikes where Mexican immigrant workers played a prominent role. The garment workers strike occurred in the fall of 1933 in the downtown Garment District in Los Angeles, California. Leaders of the strike, including Rose Pesotta and other members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), organized the strike to be culturally orientated in order to include Mexican immigrant workers to fight for union recognition in the garment industry.
The Los Angeles streetcar strike of 1919 was the most violent revolt against the open-shop policies of the Pacific Electric Railway Company in Los Angeles. Labor organizers had fought for over a decade to increase wages, decrease work hours, and legalize unions for streetcar workers of the Los Angeles basin. After having been denied unionization rights and changes in work policies by the National War Labor Board, streetcar workers broke out in massive protest before being subdued by local armed police force.
In 1933 there was a cherry strike in Santa Clara, California. The main overview of the events in Santa Clara was an agricultural strike by cherry pickers against the growers or employers. As the events of the labor strike unfolded, the significance of the strike grew beyond that of the workers themselves into a broader scope within America.
The Empire Zinc strike, also known as the Salt of the Earth strike, was a 15-month-long miners' strike in Grant County, New Mexico against the Empire Zinc Company for its discriminatory pay. The strike drew national attention, and after it was settled in 1952, a movie entitled Salt of the Earth (1954) was released that offered a fictionalized version of events.
The Farah strike (1972–1974) was a labor strike by the employees of Farah Manufacturing Company, a clothing company in El Paso, Texas and New Mexico. The strike started at the Farah plant in San Antonio in 1972 when the Hispanic women, called Chicanas, led by Sylvia M. Trevino, at the company demanded a labour union formation to fight for better working conditions. The two-year long strike included 4,000 individuals, of which the majority were women.
The 1910 streetcar strike was a union protest against labor practices by the Columbus Railway and Light Co. in Columbus, Ohio in 1910. The summertime strike began as peaceful protests, but led to thousands rioting throughout the city, injuring hundreds of people.
The 2021 Hunts Point Produce Market strike was a labor strike involving workers for Hunts Point Produce Market in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. The strike was carried out by about 1,400 members of Teamsters Local 202, all "produce handlers and delivery drivers" according to The Wall Street Journal. An agreement to end the strike was reached on January 23, 2021.
The 1985–1987 Watsonville Cannery strike was a labor strike that involved over 1,000 workers at two food processing facilities in Watsonville, California, United States. The facilities were owned by Watsonville Canning and Richard A. Shaw Inc., two of the largest frozen food processors in the United States, while the workers were all union members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 912. The strike began on September 9, 1985, and completely ended about 18 months later, on March 11, 1987.
The 1959 United Mine Workers strike was a labor action by union miners in Eastern Kentucky. Originally over a pay increase, it grew into a conflict between union and non-union mines that resulted in three deaths. It was the first instance of labor violence in the area since the Harlan County War and was the prelude to the Roving Picket Movement.
L