Santa Clara cannery strike

Last updated

The Santa Clara cannery strike occurred during the summer of 1931. Workers spontaneously walked out of canneries in order to protest a 20% cut in wages. These workers were met with violence from local authorities, and strikebreakers were brought in to replace the workers. While this strike was unsuccessful, it marked the beginning of organizing cannery workers.

Contents

Background

Cannery work in the 1920s

The California Santa Clara Valley, south of San Francisco, was the largest fruit growing and processing center in the world during the 1920s. [1] Moreover, during this time, food processing was the largest United States industry in both labor size and product value. [2] To illustrate the enormity of this industry, in 1929, canned and preserved foods accounted for two-thirds of the total quantity of United States manufactured goods.[ citation needed ] California specifically was producing virtually all of the nation's lemons, olives and apricots as well as seventy percent of its oranges, grapes, plums and nuts. [3]

Cannery workers' demographics

In the 1920s prosperity led white workers to better paying jobs, leaving cannery positions to be filled by immigrants and people of color in the Santa Clara Valley. [4] The labor force in this region's canneries included White, Portuguese (20%), Italian (50%) and Mexican workers. Cannery owners preferred women workers believing they were more adept at the preparation of the fruits and vegetables for canning. This included the ability to quickly sort, peel and cut the produce. [5] These demographics determined the unionization of cannery workers. Additionally, the prevalence of women workers formed multiple demands during the strike.

Cannery working conditions

Cannery workers in Santa Clara fell prey to the seasonal nature of cannery work. In the 1930s a cannery would employ only 4,731 workers in February and up to 17,333 workers in August. [6] Seasonal work also led to low annual income for cannery workers. In 1939, the average annual salary was under three hundred dollars. The seasonal nature of cannery work in Santa Clara required a large and adaptive labor force. These workers were migrant workers. Employees were paid on a piece rate system, meaning that their wages were set by how much work they completed. Many workers appreciated this system because the more work they completed, the higher they were paid. [7] Ten- to twelve-hour workdays were standard in this industry. [8] Cannery workers often suffered from infections. The acidity of the fruit caused skin to bleed and resulted in infections including blood poisoning. [9] [10] Canneries epitomized industrialized California agriculture. It involved repetitive and unskilled piecework. The set-up of cannery work subordinated people to machines. Migrant workers and seasonal work provided unstable working conditions for employees. Employers were harsh with workers. [11]

Causes of the strike

Context of the Great Depression

In the 1930s canned fruit was a luxury item and with the Great Depression, there was a reduction in canned goods. Therefore, there was a reduction in the production of canned goods and consequently for employee wages. The Great Depression also brought an onslaught on workers from the Great Plains. This increase in the labor force kept cannery workers from protesting against working conditions prior to 1931. Any dissident employee was easily replaceable, but was not guaranteed different job opportunities. [12]

AWIU/CAWIU

The immigrant demographics of the cannery workers made the industry difficult to organize under unions. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) would not organize canneries because of their diverse work force and the use of immigrant labor. [13] The Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (AWIU), an organization that was founded under the Trade Union Unity League established by the Communist Party of the U.S.A. It was organized with the goal to organize semi-skilled and unskilled workers that were being ignored by the AFL. However, The AWIU took on a passive method for forming unions. [14]

Timeline of events

In July 1931 cannery employers in the Santa Clara Valley called for a 20% cut in worker's wages. As a result, 2,000 workers spontaneously walked off the job. [15] Immediately, the American Labor Union, a small independent union formed in early 1931 and mainly comprised on Italian cannery workers began to organize the strike. [16] Quickly, the AUWIL took leadership, and spread the strike to over 16,000 Santa Clara cannery workers. [17] The AWIU was not getting support from these strikers so they attempted to gain support by changing their name to the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union. The CAWIU solidified a set of demands for these workers including 1. An increase in wages by ten cents an hour 2. Time and a half for overtime 3. Free transportation for female employees 4. No employer discrimination against Union workers 5. Equal pay for equal work 6. Formal recognition of the union

On July 31, the strikers organized a rally in St. James Park in downtown San Jose. A platform was set up in the park and as each speaker came up, they were arrested. Finally, an unarmed woman reached the platform calling for a march to City Hall. There, they would demand the release of these protesters. This woman led the protesters on a march to city hall, but was suddenly struck in the face by a tear gas bomb and was knocked unconscious. Twenty strikers were taken into custody as protesters came head to head with Santa Clara Valley authorities unleashed night sticks and batons on these workers. [18] American legion members were recruited to meet these protesters at the San Jose jail. There was a two-hour confrontation and the protesters were dispersed by the San Jose Fire Department.

On August 1, communists organized another rally in St. James Park. There, they protested wars in general, and specifically wars on protesters. There was no violence against the protesters this day. Newspapers reacted to the protests predicting a major revolution afoot. At the Richmond Case Cannery, where over 15,000 workers stepped out alone displayed machine guns at their entrances, warning protesters to stay away. [19] Other cannery owners brought in scabs to replace strikers. Many people were out of work during this time and were willing to work for lesser pay. Within a few days, the strike dissolved with none of the workers’ demands met. [20]

Historical significance and aftermath

Although this strike did not result in employers acquiescing to worker demands, it marks a long-term trend toward unionizing cannery workers. Prior to this strike, cannery workers did not belong to unions or they were organized by small unions such as the American Labor Union. This strike set a precedent for unionizing. While support for the communist CAWIU did not last, cannery workers in Santa Clara, and throughout California, became organized under the AFL. Also, this strike was one of the first among agricultural workers. Workers’ unrest spread quickly to other groups of agricultural workers including pickers and processors throughout California. [21]

Notes

  1. ↑ Matthews, 52
  2. ↑ Arnsen, 202
  3. ↑ Matthews, 52
  4. ↑ Starr, 63
  5. ↑ Matthews, 6
  6. ↑ Matthews, 53
  7. ↑ Matthews, 55
  8. ↑ Matthews, 54}
  9. ↑ Matthews, 55
  10. ↑ Starr, 67
  11. ↑ Starr, 67
  12. ↑ Matthews, 67
  13. ↑ Arnsen, 202
  14. ↑ Arnsen, 206
  15. ↑ Starr, 69
  16. ↑ Daniel, 127
  17. ↑ Starr,170
  18. ↑ Daniel, 170
  19. ↑ Daniel, 70
  20. ↑ Daniel, 127
  21. ↑ Daniel, 127

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labor history of the United States</span>

The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.

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.

The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) was a labor union formed in 1937 and incorporated large numbers of Mexican, black, Asian, and Anglo food processing workers under its banner. The founders envisioned a national decentralized labor organization with power flowing from the bottom up. Although it was short-lived, the UCAPAWA influenced the lives of many workers and had a major impact for both women and minority workers in the union.

A wildcat strike is a strike action undertaken by unionised workers without union leadership's authorisation, support, or approval; this is sometimes termed an unofficial industrial action. The legality of wildcat strikes varies between countries and over time.

The Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO), later known as the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union, was an organization of farm workers throughout the United States and Canada formed on April 15, 1915, in Kansas City. It was supported by, and a subsidiary organization of, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Although the IWW had advocated the abolition of the wage system as an ultimate goal since its own formation ten years earlier, the AWO's founding convention sought rather to address immediate needs, and championed a ten-hour work day, premium pay for overtime, a minimum wage, good food and bedding for workers. In 1917 the organization changed names to the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (AWIU) as part of a broader reorganization of IWW industrial unions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California agricultural strikes of 1933</span>

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 Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) was a Communist-aligned union active in California in the early 1930s. Organizers provided support to workers in California's fields and canning industry. The Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) dated back to 1929 with the formation of the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL). With industrialization and the advent of the factories, labor started migrating into the urban space. An influx of immigrant workers contributed to the environment favorable to big business by increasing the supply of unskilled labor lost to the urban factories. The demand for labor spurred the growers to look to seasonal migrant workers as a viable labor source. Corporations began to look at profits and started to marginalize its workers by providing sub-par wages and working conditions to their seasonal workers. The formation of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union addressed and represented the civil rights of the migrant workers. Ultimately the CAWIU lost the battle, overwhelmed by the combined alliance of growers and the Mexican and state governments. The eventual abandonment of the Trade Union Unity League led to the dissolution of the CAWIU, which later emerged as the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vacaville tree pruners' strike</span> 1932 California tree pruners strike

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Steel strike</span> 1937 labor strike throughout the American steel industry

The Little Steel strike was a 1937 labor strike by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and its branch the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), against a number of smaller steel producing companies, principally Republic Steel, Inland Steel, and Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. The strike affected a total of thirty different mills belonging to the three companies, which employed 80,000 workers. The strike, which was one of the most violent labor disputes of the 1930s, ended without the strikers achieving their principal goal, recognition by the companies of the union as the bargaining agent for the workers.

The Imperial Valley lettuce strike of 1930 was a strike of workers against lettuce growers of California's Imperial Valley

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern California drywall strike</span> 1992 labor strike in the United States

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 Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 was the first Filipino-led union in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles streetcar strike of 1919</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Clara cherry strike of 1933</span> Labor action in California

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.

Pat Chambers was an influential labor organizer and Communist Party member in the 1930s in California. He was a key figure in some of the largest California agricultural strikes of 1933. Chambers was the inspiration for the character "Mac" in John Steinbeck's 1936 novel, In Dubious Battle.

Sacramento, California, United States, has been an important location in the history of canning thanks to its situation on the intersection of major transportation routes and proximity to large fertile growing areas. Sacramento’s canning industry has prepared a large variety of agricultural products, but is best known for canned tomatoes, earning Sacramento the nickname, "The Big Tomato."

The 1913 Studebaker strike was a labor strike involving workers for the American car manufacturer Studebaker in Detroit. The six-day June 1913 strike, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), is considered the first major labor strike in the automotive industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Striketober</span> October 2021 labor strikes in the U.S.

Striketober was a labor strike wave in October 2021 by workers in the United States in the context of strikes during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the month, approximately 25,000 workers participated in strikes.

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.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.