These practices provoked a strike which began on May 26 and quickly grew to include seventy thousand workers at thirty steel plants spread across the industrial heartland. But Little Steel’s aim was not to abide by the Wagner Act but to nullify it. They responded to the CIO’s organizing efforts by firing, threatening, and assaulting hundreds of union supporters and categorically refusing to bargain with the union. Just declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in April, it purported to protect the right to strike and engage in collective bargaining, and gave legal license to the CIO’s campaign.īacked by this coalition, Republic and several other steel producers known collectively as “Little Steel,” unleashed a counteroffensive. This new statute was the legislative centerpiece of the New Deal. It also required finding a way to undermine the National Labor Relations Act, or Wagner Act. Accomplishing this required defeating the CIO, which had emerged as an increasingly powerful ally of the Roosevelt administration. In fact, the broader aim of this coalition, which counted among its key members the National Association of Manufactures, the Chamber of Commerce, and a semi-fascist organization called the American Liberty League, was to undo the entire New Deal. It stood at the head of a coalition of corporations, industry groups, and wealthy people who were intent on destroying the CIO. Republic was a powerful company, one of the largest steel producers in the world. They were associated with a new labor federation called the Committee for Industrial Organization, or CIO, which in the space of a year had managed, often by audacious and militant strikes, to build unions in long-time anti-union strongholds like General Motors and US Steel. The men who were killed were among 1,500 striking steel workers and their supporters who had marched on a plant owned by the Republic Steel Corporation. This incident, known as the “Memorial Day Massacre,” is what makes this holiday so essential to American history. This made the city’s southernmost reaches an incongruous backdrop to the killing that day of ten unarmed men by the Chicago Police. In Chicago, the holiday could not have been better accommodated by the bright and warm weather. In 1937, most of the country celebrated Memorial Day on May 30, which was a Sunday. On that day, eighty years ago, one of the most important events in American history unfolded, an event that transformed the course of labor rights in this country. District 13 United Steelworkers (USW) District 13 includes the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.Few people think of unions or the plight of the working class when they think of Memorial Day.District 12 United Steelworkers (USW) District 12 includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.District 11 United Steelworkers (USW) District 11 includes the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.District 10 United Steelworkers (USW) District 10 includes the state of Pennsylvania.District 9 United Steelworkers (USW) District 9 includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina and the Virgin Islands.District 8 United Steelworkers (USW) District 8 includes the states of Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.District 7 United Steelworkers (USW) District 7 includes the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.District 6 New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario.District 4 United Steelworkers (USW) District 4 includes the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and the territory of Puerto Rico.District 3 Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, Yukon.District 1 United Steelworkers (USW) District 1 includes the states of Michigan and Ohio.Sign-up for email updates from your union!.Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR)
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