On this day in Labor History the year was 1954. It began what some have called the “longest major strike in U.S. history.”
The strike was against Kohler, the Wisconsin-based manufacturer of bathroom fixtures.
Two years before the strike, the workers had formed Local 833 as part of the United Auto Workers.
They wanted the right to join the union of their choice, improved wages, and recognition of seniority.
When the company refused to bargain in good faith the members voted to strike.
On the first day of the strike 3,000 workers marched around the plant. Few could have imagined when they walked off the job that many of them would not return for six years or even longer.
The Kohler Company remained unwilling to negotiate.
As the days turned into weeks and then into months, sometimes violence broke out between scabs and the strikers.
But what sustained the strikers was the strong sense of solidarity and community they built together.
One pamphlet produced by the union had a picture of a baby on the cover. Above the baby was written “all my life my daddy’s been on strike to make my future better.”
Finally in 1960, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the company had not followed bargaining laws.
It ordered the company to let 1,400 striking workers return to work and to pay back wages.
Another six years would pass before the issue of payment would be resolved.
In the end the company had to pay $3 million in back pay and another $1.5 million in pension payments.
At the sixty year commemoration of the strike, Local 833 President Dave Boucher, declared, “I stand here in awe of the sacrifices of these people.”
Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show