However, The Last Great Strike tells a different story about the conflict and its significance for unions and labor rights.
Traditionally the Little Steel Strike has been understood as a modest setback for steel workers, one that actually confirmed the potency of New Deal reforms and did little to impede the progress of the labor movement. In many ways it was the last great strike in modern America. The violence and brutality of the Little Steel Strike became legendary. At least sixteen died and hundreds more were injured before the strike ended in failure. For two months a grinding struggle unfolded, punctuated by bloody clashes in which police, company agents, and National Guardsmen ruthlessly beat and shot unionists. In May 1937, seventy thousand workers walked off their jobs at four large steel companies known collectively as “Little Steel.” The strikers sought to make the companies retreat from decades of antiunion repression, abide by the newly enacted federal labor law, and recognize their union.
0 kommentar(er)
