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If mental_floss were a TV show instead of a magazine and website, I might not be writing this right now. As you’ve probably heard, the Writers Guild of America is striking against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The groups were unable to reach an agreement on several major issues, including what writers should be paid when their shows become available online. Some late-night shows, including both Letterman and Leno, have already started showing reruns as a result of the strike. Be warned: when the Writers Guild went on strike for five months in 1988, it resulted in the popularity of non-scripted shows like Cops.
Based on this, I thought it was fitting that we look at some of the other strikes in American history. Let’s just hope that the Writers Guild strike doesn’t turn out like the Ludlow Massacre.
1. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
After the Panic of 1873, a country-wide depression, things in America kind of went downhill for a couple of years. By 1877, more than a quarter of all workers were laid off and those who had jobs suffered severe wage cuts. Railroads were no different. Strikes began in Pennsylvania, soon followed by Virginia, where federal troops were deployed to get transportation going again. Fed up with the state of the country’s economics, workers across the nation protested the way strikers were being treated. From Maryland to St. Louis, militia was called in to try to control the crowds. Unfortunately this only made the situation worse – more than 100 people were killed. Overall, about 100,000 workers went on strike.
Keep reading for labor strife at Disney, the NFL, the Post Office and more.
2. The Haymarket Riots of 1886
Those of us who enjoy the eight-hour workday may have unionists involved in the May 1, 1886, Haymarket Square Rally to thank. Although several strikes for the same cause came earlier, Chicago was the movement’s heart. The “peaceful” part of a peaceful demonstration by 10,000 workers ended when the picket line was crossed. Unionists attacked the offenders and police opened fire, killing four demonstrators. That night, about 1,000 angry people gathered in Haymarket Square to express their outrage. At the end of the rally, a bomb exploded and killed one policeman immediately. Six others later died from injuries and sixty more were wounded. Police opened fire on the crowd, killing one and wounding many. Four people were hanged in connection to the bombing, although no evidence existed to prove them guilty.
3. Newsboys Strike of 1899
What does Batman have to do with the Newsboys Strike? We’ll get to that in a second. Newsboys were pretty low on the social totem pole in New York City at that time – many of them slept on the streets and were paid only 30 cents a day. They had to pay for the papers they sold out of those meager wages, so when William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer increased that price by 10 cents for every 100 newspapers, the newsboys called a strike. They brought traffic to a dead halt by demonstrating on the Brooklyn Bridge for days. The leader of the strike was a newsboy called Kid Blink, so called because of his poor vision in one eye. After two weeks of reduced circulation of their newspapers, Pulitzer and Hearst finally relented and bought back all of the papers the boys had refused to sell, plus paid the boys more money per paper sold.
This story of a band of scruffy kids triumphing over the publishing giants was made into a 1992 Disney musical called Newsies, starring a young Christian Bale… also known as the latest reincarnation of Batman on the big screen.
4. The Southern Colorado Coal Strike of 1914
From 1913-1914, the United Mine Workers of America ordered a strike against Colorado coal mining companies (one of which was owned by the Rockefeller family). The reasons cited included that the companies were cheating workers out of wages and not following Colorado mining safety laws or eight-hour workday laws.
Because many miners lived in homes provided by the company, anyone who went on strike was immediately evicted. The union had foreseen this and leased land for evicted workers to live on, in tents. The tent villages were strategically placed near the coal camps so strikers could harass replacement workers. The mining companies hired a detective agency to protect the replacement workers. The “protection” consisted of agents firing random shots into tents, unprovoked, and patrolling the camp in an armored car with a machine gun mounted on it. To protect themselves, miners dug pits beneath their tents that they could crawl into when they needed better shelter.
On April 20, a fight broke out between the two parties and the tent village was set ablaze. Four women and 11 children had been hiding in a tent pit when the fires started. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated, leading the UMWA to call this incident “The Ludlow Massacre.” Between the fire and the shootings, a total of 45 people died.
Ludlow is now a ghost town. A monument was erected in 1918 to recognize those who died for the cause.
5. The Disney Animators Strike of 1941
We all know the stories of things hidden in Disney cartoons – the dust cloud that spells out “Sex” in The Lion King, and Aladdin supposedly telling children to take off their clothes. But did you know that even Dumbo has controversy hidden within the animation?
There were some disgruntled animators at Disney after Snow White was released in 1937. Employees had put in a lot of uncompensated overtime in order to get the first feature-length animated film out and were not given the bonuses they were promised for doing so. In fact, many of them were laid off. One of the rounds of layoffs hit members of the Screen Cartoonists Guild quite hard. When Art Babbitt, an animator on the Three Little Pigs, Snow White and Fantasia was fired, it was the last straw. Employees went on strike for five weeks, which happened to be in the middle of the making of Dumbo. As a result, many of the strikers are featured in the cartoon as circus clowns needling for raises. The strike was eventually settled overwhelmingly in favor of the Guild.
6. The U.S. Postal Strike of 1970
As if Richard Nixon didn’t have enough black marks on his tenure as President. In 1970, postal workers went on an illegal two-week strike because of low wages, bad working conditions and pathetic benefits.
In an attempt to stop the strike, Nixon went on national T.V. and ordered strikers back to work. Not only did this fail, it completely backfired: he angered workers in 671 other locations, convincing them to join the strike. In fact, government agencies not even involved with the Postal Service were angered enough by his television appearance to threaten to join the strike if Nixon pursued any legal action. Nixon ordered 24,000 military workers to replace the striking postal workers, but they weren’t very helpful.
Negotiations were finally hammered out with the help of the Secretary of Labor. Unions got most of what they were asking for and also won the right to negotiate wages, benefits and working conditions.
7. Air Traffic Controllers Strike of 1981
What does an industry do when nearly three quarters of an essential part of its workforce goes on strike? That’s exactly what happened on August 3, 1981, when about 13,000 air traffic controllers ceased work, demanding better benefits, more pay and fewer hours. President Reagan immediately held a press conference and said that if strikers didn’t return to work in two days or less, they would be fired. He wasn’t kidding. More than 11,000 of them were terminated and the rest of them went back to work.
Working against them was the fact that the FAA had a backup plan, which worked beautifully. Most flights continued with no interruption, thanks to non-striking employees and military controllers who pitched in to help. Even worse, the public sided with the government. The end result was that the FAA discovered that they could fully operate with one third less air traffic controllers, so the strike really achieved the exact opposite of what the strikers had intended. Oops.
8. NFL Strike of 1987
Another strike that worked against the strikers was the NFL walkout of 1987. Without much of a reason, players went on a 24-day strike when their old agreement expired. The owners refused to give in and continued scheduled games with replacement players. The owners actually made about $121,000 more per game because they could pay the replacements far less. The striking players, however, ended up personally losing about $15,000 per game – about $80 million overall. (Side note: Joe Montana crossed the picket line to play with the scabs.)
As in the case of the air traffic controllers, the public had little sympathy for the players or the union. Players were divided over whether to continue to strike or not and some of them returned to work. The owners stayed a united front – none of them entered separate negotiations.
The strike ended when the players caved and agreed to get back on the field on October 15. Even this was met with contention by the owners, who wanted the players to return on October 14 so they could play in that weekend’s games. When the players didn’t show up until the 15th, the owners refused to let them play that weekend. After lawsuits from both sides, things eventually settled down enough for games to continue with the original teams. Most replacement players never played pro football again.
One of the fun things that resulted from the strike (in my opinion) were nicknames for teams with replacement players: The Los Angeles Shams, the San Francisco Phoney Niners, the Miami Dol-Finks and the Chicago Spare Bears, to name a few.
Of course there are countless more, including transportation strikes, teacher strikes, and strikes in all the other major sports. What do you think has had the most impact? Have you ever gone on strike, or crossed a picket line? How’d that work out for you?
Comments (30)
Comment
I was a kid during the NFL strike. For years after,we referred to our neighborhood, backyard games as scab football.
posted by DW on 11-7-2007 at 1:20 pm
Just like in the Simpsons episode, my mother taught my 4th grade class for a week while the teachers were on strike.
it totally sucked.
posted by jen on 11-7-2007 at 2:46 pm
Let’s soak ‘em for Crutchy!
posted by Celeste M. on 11-7-2007 at 2:56 pm
My uncle was involved in the air traffic controllers strike. I never realized that they never had the sympathy of the general public - from his point of view, it seemed fair enough as he was concerned with shift length and enough time off - safety issues, not just money. To this day it’s dangerous to say “Reagan” in front of him. =)
posted by Sherry on 11-7-2007 at 3:06 pm
As a child who grew up with Disney movies, first learning about the “secrets” in the movies blew my mind (the minister to marry Ursula and the hypnotized Eric? I didn’t notice that VERY INAPPROPRIATE addition until I was babysitting once!) I would love to have an article about all of them, and whether or not they’re legit.
posted by Kelly on 11-7-2007 at 3:15 pm
I read somewhere that the Haymarket riot had the first IED is that true put your brains on it please
thanks
posted by dave evans on 11-7-2007 at 6:14 pm
I fell in love with Christian Bale when I saw the newsies…and yes I do know all the songs and dance moves!
posted by Pamela on 11-7-2007 at 6:42 pm
Hi Dave,
According to the Washington Post, you are correct… I can’t link but if you Google “Washington Post” “IED” and “Haymarket” it should be the first thing that pops up.
posted by Stacy on 11-7-2007 at 6:51 pm
From all I’ve heard over the years, but didn’t take the time to read up on until now, the Homestead steelworkers strike ranks as one of the most violent and contentious strikes in American labor history.
posted by Larry on 11-7-2007 at 7:04 pm
How ’bout the Washington Post Pressman’s Stike in the mid-70’s . That Katherine Graham sure was a nasty nasty one…….
posted by Patti on 11-7-2007 at 7:23 pm
Picture this. Guy’s company declares bankruptcy as result of strike. Guy never bounced a check, never made a late loan payment, and never reneged on a financial commitment. Guy goes to local bank to cash personal check. Having worked in the bank while attending college and having done business with bank for over twenty years, guy knows most of bank’s employees. Even though there was ample money in guy’s account, bank refused to cash personal check from said guy. Strikes are also ugly on a smaller scale!!! EAL
posted by JL on 11-7-2007 at 7:51 pm
I cannot believe the Battle of Battle of Blair Mountain was not included in this list. It was a coal miners strike where the US Government actually dropped a bomb on the strikers. The bomb did not go off and was used evidence in the trial that followed.
Check it out:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
posted by Sever on 11-8-2007 at 9:21 am
How on earth did you forget the Homestead Strike? There were hired gunmen, 4 people were killed, 23 were injured, the union had plots to poison non-union workers.. it deserves some attention
posted by justin on 11-8-2007 at 9:22 am
I certainly do remember the PATCO strike. I was helping to run a science fiction convention in the same Sheraton that was PATCO’s Atlanta strike headquarters.
The article really should have mentioned that PATCO’s contract included a “no strike” clause, which the strikers blithely violated. I have always been mystified by the strikers’ assumption that the president of the United States was going to just roll over for them. If Ronald Reagan couldn’t stand up to a bunch of disobedient civil service workers, what credibility would he have when dealing with the Soviets?
posted by Wilbur Wrong on 11-8-2007 at 9:30 am
I was certainly brought up union and taught to respect ANY and ALL picket lines - no questions asked. When someone puts their job and livlihood on the line, we should respect what they are doing. Far be it from me to NEED to go to any store, buy Any product, watch any TV show or send my kid to any school that cannot support the people that do the work-a-day jobs to keep this country going.
posted by Patti on 11-8-2007 at 10:11 am
How about the 1985 Hormel strike?
posted by F451 on 11-8-2007 at 1:58 pm
What about the Copper Strikes in Morenci, Arizona. The Governer called in State Police, tear-gassing, and riot controll….insane!!!
posted by LAW on 11-8-2007 at 7:48 pm
I was raised pro-union and still to this day refuse to cross a picket line no matter what. I remember when the teachers at my elementary school went on strike and my parents refused to send us to school. I thought it was awesome having no school at the time though I understand the reason now. Never cross a picket line, companies can afford to pay living wages if they want to.
posted by Henry on 11-8-2007 at 11:44 pm
My teachers (in NJ) went on strike just before I started 3rd grade, and I remember being disappointed that I didn’t get to go to school the first day. I even remember the hideously ugly late 80’s outfit I wanted to wear.
I finished high school in Texas(we moved a lot), and so went to college there, and thus taught for a year in Texas. Texas doesn’t allow teachers to form unions (or pay social security, but that’s another story). My co-workers were amazed when I informed them that other states had teacher’s unions that could go on strike. They felt a bit stilted after that.
Having grown up in France as well (again, we moved A LOT) strikes are nothing out of the ordinary. The French people will strike over next to nothing. (and I’m French, so I’m allowed to say that) The year after we left France, the STUDENTS went on strike. My dad was a part of the May ‘68 riots/strikes. Pretty much shut down the entire country for about a month. In 95 there were tons of strikes, it tends to be that one group will strike and others will decide that it would be a good time to strike as well.
posted by greenstrawberries on 11-9-2007 at 5:33 am
When I was a small child, my father was shop foreman in a plant that wanted to unionize. Because he tried to stay neutral, some of the men who wanted a union threatened me and my brothers with injury or death. I don’t really remember much of this — I only remember being made to stay in the house for several weeks. One of the men also threw a rock at Dad’s car while he was driving it and broke the windshield.
Because of these actions, I really don’t have a lot of respect for union organizers or unions.
posted by arachne blue on 11-14-2007 at 8:37 am
KELLY:
check out snopes -dot- com for disney stuff. they have a whole heading for weird disney ‘rumors’. fun reading for when you’re bored.
i’m also surprised you didn’t mention the post strike that just occurred in the UK. that was pretty crazy.
as for unions… i don’t have so much an opinion, other than that i never liked the idea of selling yourself to a group that can pull ‘_____ or else’ tactics. my grandfather went on strike once, and when some of the men in the union disagreed about what they wanted… it got so ugly.
i’d be curious from a statistical POV to see how often strikers receive what they want and to what percentage they received it (meaning, 80% of the time… etc.).
posted by amywithlemon on 11-14-2007 at 9:34 am
Also on strike right now is Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which is the NYC Stagehands union. In 121 years, this is the first time they’ve gone on Strike in protest of the Broadway producers who are attempting to mess with their contract (including items that promote workplace safety). It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
posted by Q1Go on 11-14-2007 at 11:12 am
Was the WV coal miner strike -the one wherein the coal companies commissioned a private air fleet to bomb the protestors- left off the list because they weren’t a card-carrying union yet?
posted by Mary Kroll on 11-14-2007 at 3:26 pm
Never feeuh, Brooklyn is here!
*Newsies* is one of the best movies ever!
posted by Erin on 11-15-2007 at 7:26 am
Unions have played an important part in American history. Like any human process, sometimes things can get out of balance, either way. The sum of it is we are better off now because of them.
posted by Paul on 11-17-2007 at 7:57 am
This year, ACTRA, the film, TV & radio actors union in Canada went on strike against the producer’s association for the first time in their 63 year history. They walked out of negotiations over the same issues as the WGA– digital media and internet rights.
ACTRA devised a special collective agreement that individual producers could sign to keep their in-production projects rolling. In that side-agreement was a slight wage increase.
A whole lot of producers broke solidarity with their organization and signed.
So, for the first time in Canadian labour history, a union was on strike but its members kept working and for a bump in pay!
posted by Skeleton on 12-5-2007 at 7:10 am
what about the general motors striks in flint michigan.
posted by bob a on 12-10-2007 at 4:59 am
The mentality of “always support a union & a strike” is so brainwashed I can’t get my head around it.
Besides, striking always seemed like a legal version of hijacking a company anyway. If you don’t like the conditions, don’t work there. This is 2007, not 1899.
posted by Lisa on 12-12-2007 at 5:37 pm
The mentality of “striking seemed like a legal version hijacking a company anyway) is so brainwashed I can’t get my head around it. If you don’t like the conditions, don’t work there??
posted by JPark on 1-7-2008 at 8:10 pm
Never fear, Brooklyn in here!
Newsies is quite honestly amazing. To anyone interested- there was a rally in New Yawk City for the 15th anniversary of the movie. It was awesome.
posted by jroon on 2-6-2008 at 7:52 pm