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Philadelphia general strike (1835) -

The labor dispute that began in Philadelphia on June 6, 1835 was the first general strike in North America. Around 20,000 disgruntled employees, among them carpenters, masons, and coal heavers, went on strike for a 10-hour workday and increased wages. The image shows a  Philadelphia Journeyman House Carpenters' Association of Philadelphia banner promoting the 10-hour day. A carpenter points to the clock indicating to his co-worker that it is time to quit work.

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Philadelphia general strike (1835) -

This notice outlines rules to regulate the working conditions of shipyard workers advocating for a 10-hour day. Besides those in Pennsylvania, workers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts also took part in the dispute, which ended on June 22 in a victory for the workers.

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Great Southwest Railroad Strike (1886) -

Protesting unsafe conditions, oppressive hours, and paltry pay, some 200,000 railroad workers in five states voted to strike in March 1886 against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads, owned by Jay Goud, a reviled "robber baron."

For six months, violent clashes ensued between pro-labor crowds and company-hired security forces and police across the country, from Texas to Illinois. At least 10 people were killed and dozens more injured. Not all railroad unions supported the walkout, enabling the railroad companies to hire non-union labor. The strike eventually unraveled, leading to the collapse of the once powerful Knights of Labor federation.

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Homestead Steel Strike (1892) -

One of the most notorious strikes to take place on US soil is also regarded as a pivotal event in American labor history. On July 1, 1892, an industrial lockout and strike began at the Homestead Steel Works near Pittsburgh.

The dispute between members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company turned ugly on July 6, when a battle between strikers and private security agents resulted in the deaths of 12 people and numerous injuries. The union ultimately failed in its objectives and the encounter remains one of the deadliest labor-management conflicts in the nation's history.

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Pullman Strike (1894) -

The nationwide railroad strike and boycott that near-paralyzed rail traffic in the Midwest in June–July 1894 helped shape national labor policy in the United States during a period of painful economic depression, the so-called Panic of 1893. The dispute pitted the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company. Pictured are Pullman strikers outside the Arcade Building in Pullman, Chicago. The Illinois National Guard can be seen protecting the building.

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Pullman Strike (1894) -

The dispute is noted for the injunction issued by the federal government to break the strike—the first time a court order had been used against unions. The US Army was eventually called in to disperse striking workers, with violence erupting in many cities. Boycott leaders were arrested and the ARU dissolved.

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Great anthracite coal strike (1902) -

So-named for the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania where the strike broke out, members of the United Mine Workers of America demanded higher wages, shorter workdays, and the wider recognition of their union. The dispute threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to major American cities.

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Great anthracite coal strike (1902) -

The strike ended after arbitration on October 23, having lasted for 163 days. But while the union claimed a victory, with workers gaining a 10% pay rise, many had endured hardship, such as these people lining up for their allotment of coal at the height of the dispute.

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Bread and Roses Strike (1912) -

Officially called the Lawrence Textile Strike but better known as the Bread and Roses Strike, this early 1912 industrial dispute involved immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

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Bread and Roses Strike (1912) -

The workforce, made up of 51 different nationalities, walked out after receiving a pay cut, bringing production to a stand still. Their demands for both living wages and dignity—"We want bread, and roses, too"—gave the work stoppage its name. The strike exposed the brutal working conditions and poor pay inside the Lawrence mills. But it was the testimony from child workers—many of school age—and government intervention that turned the tide of public opinion in favor of the strikers. Pictured are children of striking workers waiting for a free meal during the dispute.

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Steel strike (1919) -

Breaking out in Pittsburgh in late September 1919, the industrial dispute that became known as the Steel Strike of 1919 was an attempt by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (AA) to organize the country's steel industry in the wake of WWI. Soon afterwards, half of the American steel industry had ground to a halt. This photo shows defiant strikers in Chicago.

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Steel strike (1919) -

In retaliation, steel companies used the media to poison public opinion, a move that also saw many opting to return to work. After strikebreakers and police clashed with unionists in Gary, Indiana, (pictured), the US Army took over the city on October 6, 1919, and martial law was declared. With racism and bigotry within the workforce also playing its part, the strike was doomed to fail.

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Textile workers' strike (1934) -

At the time the largest labor dispute in the history of the United States, the textile workers' strike of 1934 saw 400,000 strikers in Maine to Alabama walking off the job seeking better pay and working conditions.

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Textile workers' strike (1934) -

The center of the strike was in Gastonia in North Carolina, where on September 3, 1934 (Labor Da) thousands of textile workers held a downtown parade (pictured). The strike effectively ended after President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself implored the striking workers to return to the mills. The unions, however, had ultimately failed to secure a better deal for their members.

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Flint sit-down strike (1936–1937) -

On December 30, 1936, in one of the first sit-down strikes in the United States, automobile workers at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant Number One in Flint, Michigan, downed tools and effectively brought production to a halt.

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Flint sit-down strike (1936–1937) -

The workforce demanded that GM stop sending work to non-union plants. It also pressed for the establishment of a fair minimum wage scale. Members of the fledgling United Automobile Workers (UAW) union clashed with police before eventually winning concessions from GM. The actions of the UAW led to the unionization of the domestic automobile industry, and one of the most decisive victories in American labor history.

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United Mine Workers of America (1946) -

In May 1946, the United Mine Workers of American struck a deal with the United States government in what became known as the "Promise of 1946." Earlier in the year, 400,000 bituminous coal miners had walked off the job in 26 states demanding higher wages, better health benefits, and more stringent safety regulations. 

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United Mine Workers of America (1946) -

In May, the government seized the mines. Miners returned to work after the "promise"—in fact officially called the Krug-Lewis Agreement, named for John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, and Secretary of the Interior, Julius Krug—had been signed guaranteeing a wage increase, vacation pay, a five-day working week, and contributions to a retirement fund so long as miners honored their contract "and to mine the coal in which the nation needs."

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Steel strike (1959) -

For 116 days in the summer and fall of 1959, more than half a million workers across the United States brought to a halt the country's massive steel industry. At the heart of the strike was a contract clause that limited management's ability to change working conditions, an article the unions sought to retain but which steel bosses wanted removed. The walkout caused hardship for thousands. Pictured is a long line of striking steelworkers queuing up at the gate of a Chicago steelworks to receive paychecks due them since they went out on strike. It would be their last wage packet for the duration of the dispute.

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Steel strike (1959) -

The strike garnered sympathy within some sections of the community. Here a bar owner places a sign offering a "strikers special" in the window of a tavern near the South Chicago steelworks. Eventually, President Dwight D. Eisenhower forced union members back to work. The dispute had damaging repercussions in that it led to wide-scale imports of foreign steel, from which the domestic industry never recovered.

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Delano Grape Strike (1965–70) -

The events that began on September 8, 1965 in Delano, California, would herald one of the most important strikes in American history. On that day, over 2,000 Filipino-American farm workers refused to go to work picking grapes in a direct stand against the exploitation of farm workers. One week later, they were joined by Mexican farm laborers. The dispute would continue for the next five years. Pictured are farm workers during their boycott. The word huelga is Spanish means strike. 

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Delano Grape Strike (1965–70) -

Strike leaders requested the support of the National Farm Workers Association and its Mexican-American founders, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Chavez subsequently became a figurehead of the struggle. Three years into an increasingly bloody dispute, he went on a hunger strike to publicize the union's non-violent cause. Chavez ended a 25-day fast with a symbolic breaking of bread with Senator Robert Kennedy on March 10, 1968, just three months before Kennedy was assassinated. In July 1970, the strike ended with major concessions granted to the workforce.

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Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike (1968) -

On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck. Their deaths sparked widespread protests 10 days later when 1,300 African-American men from the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike. They are pictured here taking to the streets patrolled by National Guard troops with bayonets fixed, as the sanitation workers peacefully march by while wearing placards reading "I AM A MAN."

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Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike (1968) -

The Memphis sanitation strike prompted Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence, where he famously gave the "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" speech. On April 4, King was assassinated at the city's Lorraine Motel. Pictured is his widow, Coretta Scott King, leading thousands of silent protestors past City Hall in Memphis in support of the city's striking sanitation workers.

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US postal strike (1970) -

The 1970 US postal strike began as a wild cat strike called by local New York City leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers. The eight-day dispute had a knock-on effect in cities across the nation. Pictured is a Denver post office secretary pointing to dozens of undelivered mail bags, held pending settlement of the strike.

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US postal strike (1970) -

In an attempt to break the strike and distribute the mail, the US government drafted in members of the Armed Forces and National Guard, redeploying them to sorting offices and other mail-handling duties.

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Air-Traffic Controllers' Strike (1981) -

The Air-Traffic Controllers' Strike was declared on August 3, 1981, called by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) over a dispute regarding pay, a reduced 32-hour working week, and a better benefits package for retirement. Two days later, President Ronald Reagan began firing 11,359 air-traffic controllers striking in violation of his order for them to return to work. Pictured inside the control tower at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport are supervisors standing in for their air-traffic controller colleagues.

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Air-Traffic Controllers' Strike (1981) -

The strike caused the cancellation of some 7,000 flights and caused chaos at airports across the country. On August 17, the Federal Aviation Administration began accepting applications for new air-traffic controllers, and on October 22 the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified PATCO.

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Hollywood artist strike (2023) -

In 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) unions went on strike simultaneously for the first time since 1960. The WGA strike lasted from May 2 to September 27, while the SAG-AFTRA strike lasted from July 14 to November 9. Both unions were attempting to negotiate deals with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to secure better pay and benefits, streaming royalties, and job security in the face of advancing AI technology. The strikes ended after they signed historic contracts worth billions of dollars. 

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ILA US port workers strike (2024) -

Originating from the expiration of the labor contract of the workers from the International Longshoremen's Association, this strike came to be the first in 50 years for the sector, shutting down US ports from the East and Gulf Coast facilities. This decision came after months of stalled negotiations between the union and the United States Maritime Alliance focusing on wage disputes. The biggest impact will be felt across consumer products from both the fresh foods and drinks sectors.

Sources: (Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia) (History) (Politico) (United for Human Rights)

See also: Historical disasters that could have been avoided

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