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History |
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From THE FIGHTING MACHINISTS, A CENTURY OF
STRUGGLE
by Robert G. Rodden |
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EMPLOYER BETRAYAL. . .AND THE FIGHTING MACHINISTS
As May Day, 1901, neared it became increasingly
apparent employers intended to cut wages as well as hours. This
possibility had been skirted in the Murray Hill negotiations.
O'Connell apparently assumed--or hoped--the reduction in hours would
be granted with no reduction in pay, in effect, a 12% wage increase.
As May 1 neared, O'Connell was forced to ask for a clarifying
statement. NMTA heads responded that wages would have to be
negotiated local by local, shop by shop. Employers had sandbagged
O'Connell, ending a strike and grabbing a year's peace, in exchange
for practically nothing. When it became clear, even to O'Connell,
that he had been betrayed, a furious reaction swept through the
union. O'Connell called for a nationwide strike to begin May 20,
1901.
According to a contemporary account in the Journal,
"Local lodge halls were soon thronged with machinists eager
to show their martial skills." In all, some 50,000 machinists,
non-members as well as members, laid down their tools in New York,
Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Philadelphia and other industrial
cities. Many years lager an old-time member of Lodge 264 in Boston
recalled that in 1901 when he was a young operator working ten hours
a day in a factory, "Twenty machinists went on strike and
gained for 300 operators the nine-hour day and the Saturday
afternoon."
Faced with this uprising in hundreds of machine
shops the National Metal Trades Association dropped all pretense of
allegiance to the Nation Civic Federation's brand of
labor-management cooperation. Top metalworking employers met in
Chicago's Great Northern Hotel and adopted a haughty
"Declaration of Principles" asserting the employers' sole
and exclusive right to determine conditions of labor. Pledging that
they would hire "handymen" and apprentices at wages
determined by local conditions, employers flatly rejected any deal
with the strikers. Nevertheless the Journal reported that by
August seventy-three firms had conceded the nine-hour day with an
increase in pay and only twenty-six were still holding out.
The Frazier-Chalmers plant of Allis-Chalmers was
the last to settle. It held out for fifty-four weeks and was so
heavily fortified it became known in the press as "Fort
Chalmers." Allis-Chalmers' management prepared for a fight to
the finish. Tents were pitched inside the fence to house scabs
brought in from all over the country. Provisions and food
practically prisoners. During a fire in one of the buildings, some
made a break for the gates, but were driven back by the company's
special guards. Through a 50¢ a week assessment on each member,
District 8 raised $60,000 to help support the strikers. Relays of
picket lines circled the plant day and night for more than a year.
Six months into the strike a picket named
Ferdinand Trapp was shot and killed by one of the scabs. Police made
an arrest, but a friendly judge reduced bail from $20,000 to $5,000,
which the company immediately posted. The Journal carried a
poignant account of Trapp's funeral:
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Brother Trapp was buried on Sunday, November
24th. The funeral was a public one, and although the weather
was very bad, with a chilling rain falling all day which
chilled the marchers to the bone, yet it was one of the
largest funerals ever seen in Chicago. Five thousand trade
unionists, with two bands of music, escorted the remains to
their last resting place, while all along the line of march
the streets were thronged with sympathizing citizens. Brother
Stuart Reid preached the funeral sermon at the house and also
at the grave, and although a cold wind drove a wintry rain
into the faces of the mourners and soaked their clothing, not
one of them moved. And as Brother Reid, at the close of the
oration, lifted his hands and implored the Almighty to bless
the organization for which our brother had given his life and
to cheer the loved ones left behind, the shadows of evening
were falling, but the mourners still lingered at the grave. As
the earth covered all that remained of our brother a few
voices started to sing "Nearer, My God, to Thee,"
and the refrain was taken up by the hundreds at the graveside. |
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With the rest of the industry long since back to work, Allis-Chlamers
finally sent in a new superintendent to negotiate a settlement.
After a lengthy session with District 8 business representatives, A.
E. Ireland and J. J. Keppler, the company agreed to a
fifty-five-hour work week, and 11% wage increase and replacement of
scabs with men furnished by the union. When the company tried to
retain some of the scabs, IAM members took matters into their own
hands, At the lunch break one day they chased the last eight scabs
out of the plant and down the street, warning them not to return. In
retaliation the company fired four IAM members. A half-hour later
the plant lay empty. An agreement was eventually worked out with the
shop committee. According to the Journal the nine-hour day
strike in Chicago finally ended when "the men returned to work
Monday morning, August 18, with a clear shop, the scabs gone and
[those] discharged returned to work." |
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The IAM vs. The NMTA,
King of The Strike Breakers
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History |
Comments or Suggestions? E-mail the Communications Officer
of Siouxland Lodge 1426 IAMAW
Greg Enright
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