Fighting racism from Charlottesville to Cincinnati

Thanks for allowing me to speak this afternoon, as I’d like to offer some perspective on U Va history from 40+ years ago and how I see that it’s connected to the struggles against racists and Nazis today.

I’m primarily a volunteer organizer for the Interfaith Workers Center here, supporting low wage and unorganized workers in their struggles, but I lived and studied in Charlottesville for 9 years in the 60s and 70s. That’s where I first got involved in the anti-war and anti-racist movements on campus, and early on we realized that we needed to extend our message off campus to make real change.

Of course, Jefferson is central to Charlottesville and U Va’s history and his example shows both the good and bad of US history. On the good side, I still remember often walking under an archway at the U, saying something like ‘never fear to follow the truth wherever it may lead’. At the same time that he was a champion of independence and education, he was a slave owner with a now-recognized slave-mistress, who was also aware that 10 year olds were whipped in his ‘nailery’ if they were not sufficiently productive.

One early example of our activism, from about 1968, included knocking on doors in a white neighborhood to ask people how they would react if a Black family moved onto their block. Background, of course, is the residential segregation that often follows from ‘white flight’ when people get scared that residential integration is not possible that that their neighborhood will ‘go bad’ when Blacks arrive.

I bring up this example since I believe that racist stereotypes that provide the groundwork for the right wing and Nazi organizing – are found in the residential segregation and institutional racism that pervade various sectors of US society today. Our struggle is not just against a few hundred misguided individuals, or against the perpetrators of some especially racist murders. Yes, I believe that James Fields and Ray Tensing are both guilty of murder – but the conditions that led to the assumptions they made are all around us.

To come back to present day Cincinnati, many of our liberal leaders would rather push the problems of homelessness and crime into neighborhoods where they won’t be seen, rather than dealing with job and residential segregation by offering development solutions that benefit all of our people.

I’ll grant you that present-day Over the Rhine looks nicer than it did 20 years ago, but what has happened to the former residents of this neighborhood? They certainly seem not to be employed in the many restaurants and bars that have sprung up, with major tax breaks from a succession of city administrations. Three times in the past year and a half I’ve walked by the kitchen for one of the high end restaurants, The Mercer; and despite there being a cooking school a few blocks away, this restaurant seems to only employ whites.

This sounds like ‘development for the few’ that does not provide jobs for all, and does not take into account the need for affordable housing; to me these are examples of the institutional racism that lies behind the terrible right wing violence that we’ve witnessed this weekend.

To close I want to encourage all of you to stay involved in whatever way you’re comfortable, since it’s going to be a long struggle. We can be demanding clear answers from City Council candidates; we can be insisting on real tax reform so that the rich pay their share; or we can organize in our neighborhoods or workplaces for concrete improvements.

Thank you – stay strong and stay active.

 

N Ky steelworkers strike in 1921 with community support

If we think of Newport history, we more often think of the gambling, sex and booze that ended some few decades ago. But who knew that large strikes in the iron foundries and steel mills took place there in 1904 and 1921, with major support from the community.

First, in late 1904 the managers at Newport Foundry tried to force their union men to accept lower wages and refused to negotiate, setting off a long strike. The company tried to discredit the strikers (in the Iron Molders Union) by claiming that they were initiating violence, but the local police disagreed, saying that shots had been fired by supervisors and strike-breakers from within the plant. This industry was quite important in Newport at the time, with 28 foundries, 12 of which tried to force their workers to accept lower pay. Newport Foundry’s owners got so desperate in the face of community and police support for the strikers, that they went to Federal Court to try to transfer jurisdiction over local policing to federal marshals. Several mass meetings were held in Newport city council chambers, and one local activist expressed his support for the strikers by saying that ‘if the law was enforced, half of your capitalist parasites would be in the penitentiary.’

Press coverage in the Kentucky Post was certainly not hostile to the strikers nor to the labor movement as a whole, which at the time was made up of numerous craft unions. In one brief listing on Jan 6, 1905 – they listed that nearly 30 craft unions were having meetings that night, including the Shoe Lasters, Broom Makers, Stove Mounters and Carriage Trimmers. Only in the 1930s would industrial unions gradually develop more strength, with everyone in a single workplace in the same union.

Then in December 1921 2500 workers at Newport Steel went on strike, again with huge community support. The principal issues were union recognition, the obligation of the company to bargain and the desire that all workers belong to the union. Wages and working conditions were not an issue. The company insisted on an open shop, but the Kentucky Post wrote in an editorial in support of the workers: “This newspaper believes that the open shop is bad for workers but is also bad for the community”.

In one example of neighborhood support: a non-union bread delivery guy was stopped by local women, who explained that even though the bread had a union label, they would not allow him to deliver it in their neighborhood since he did not belong to the Teamster’s Union.

These striking workers were in the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (AA), which had grown into a large craft union during the 1917-19 war years when demand for steel was high and the Wilson administration was not opposed to workers organizing. The AA grew with the use of member organizers as they did not have the resources to send out staff organizers from their headquarters in Pittsburgh.

The early 20s were not friendly to workers organizing, as this was a period of repression with the Palmer Raids occurring against left activists in many parts of the country. One national strike took place later in 1922: all the railway shopmen (mechanics) struck around the country, including in Corbin, KY where community support was complete. Eventually this strike was lost, because of government repression and no support from the ‘operating brotherhoods’ (rail engineers etc).

Newport Steel responded to the community support for the strikers by erecting no fewer than 36 machine guns and search lights on their mill, which they claimed were needed in case the plant was attacked. The company occasionally used these guns, and there was some striker violence against scabs – although one union leader, John Williams reported that the union was urging its members to abstain from violence, and that most shooting was being initiated by the company.

Disagreement continued about who was responsible for violence on the picket lines, and in one case a strike supporter (identified as an umbrella mender) was arrested for refusing an order to ‘move on’ from a militia member. He had a jury trial for ‘breach of the peace’ and was found not guilty by a jury that was even identified by name in the article. Later, a ‘mill guard was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon – based on a complaint by striking workers.’

This large mill had at least 5 open hearth furnaces and had been in operation at least since 1867. Their products include galvanized steel roofing sheets and corrugated piping for culverts. Work weeks of more than 70 hours were not unusual, sometimes with only a day off every 2 weeks. Much earlier in 1873, skilled workers struck to protest a 10% pay cut.

After the company realized that the Newport police were not doing enough to curb the pickets, they appealed to the Governor to send in the state militia, which he did. The company also sought a Temporary Restraining Order from the Campbell County Court, which among other things restricted the strikers to just 2 picketers at each entrance to the mill. The community was not thrilled about the militia, and a state representative from Newport, Herman Thompson, called for an investigation into the reasons for sending in the troops; the company opposed such an investigation. A local druggist was quoted as saying that he had “suffered untold indignities at the hands of the militia.”

Neither of these steps had the desired effect, as the militia commander was quoted as upholding the rights of the strikers, and the soldiers confiscated the machine guns which the company had installed. The state militia commander, Col HH Denhardt, apparently had conflicting loyalties, at one point giving orders to ‘shoot to kill’ (Jan 4) but later (Jan 8) being quoted: “I am a friend of union labor because I believe in collective bargaining. Workmen have a right to organize for that purpose.” The militia built wooden barracks within the steel mill and stayed more than 4 months.

 

Notes on early efforts by northern Kentucky workers to organize

Even before the remarkable strike in west Newport of 2500 steel workers in the winter of 1921-22, other groups of workers around N Ky were getting organized to improve their working conditions and wages. That strike had such widespread community support that the neighborhood women insisted that bread delivery drivers show their Teamsters union card before delivering in the area.

While the Pullman strike is generally thought of as only a Chicago milestone of the American Railway Union struggles in 1894, that firm had a major repair facility in Ludlow where the workers also went out on strike at the same time. They were protesting a 35% reduction in pay from a year previously; the Ky Post published an ARU circular that listed some of the piecework wages for specific tasks like cutting carpet, making mattresses and setting trucks.

One other newspaper headline read “Strikers wives to help the men in their struggle” and reported further on their “desire to educate the masses.”  A telegram from Eugene Debs was read at one large rally, saying that “our cause is gaining ground.” To demand arbitration from George Pullman, they called for a sympathy strike from all other unions across Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.

Strikers had major community support on both sides of the river, with Southern Railway workers and their neighbors vocally opposing the arrival of the militia and private detectives. Both had been called out to force the strikers back to work. Ludlow residents began wearing white armbands to declare their support for the strikers. After Pres. Grover Cleveland sent troops to Chicago and the companies continued to operate with strikebreakers, the strike was gradually lost – and strike leaders were blacklisted from further employment. Some moved to seek work in other cities. At a time when rail workers were split up into many craft unions, the ARU, with 150,000 members around the country, was a major step to bring people together in one organization. (That is still a problem more than 120 years later.)

Not just male workers were involved in these early organizing efforts. Early on, garment workers on both sides of the river came together to form local unions. In 1895 members in Covington enrolled in a new branch of the clothing workers union at a meeting addressed by a Miss Francis Taylor, of the Typographical Union #3. The Ky Post reported that ‘an earnest effort will be made to bring into the organization everyone identified with the craft.’ In 1905 Mamie Wanke, of the Covington garment workers Local 77, rose to become the first woman in the leadership of the KY state federation of labor; she became the ‘5th vice president.’ Who knew that what we now refer to as Water Tower Square (601 Washington St, Newport) was once Hyde Park Clothes, employing more than 1000 women in the early 20th century?

In Covington in 1902 the drivers of horse-carts (teamsters) were already getting organized and demanding $1.50 per day for a one-horse cart delivering coal, sand, cement or lumber. After a threatened strike, a KY Post headline in 1902 reported: ‘Trouble is not serious – bosses agree to increased wages.’ In 1917 the drivers of milk wagons threatened a general strike, and the Enquirer reported that ‘union officials advised against a strike, but the men are determined’, saying that ‘they cannot get along on the present wage.’ Then in 1919 laundry wagon drivers also went on strike for 10 days, after which an agreement was signed to make sure strikers got their jobs back; a wage agreement was to be decided later. Another major strike of milk drivers took place in 1951 when pickets were placed at all 43 local dairies, in a dispute over hours to be worked and a pension plan.

By 1872 the Covington area had 2800 members of the “United Sons of Vulcan” in 73 local unions, known as ‘forges’ in that early iron foundry workers organization; although this was a craft union with workers paid by the tonnage produced, 64 local delegates attended a national convention that year.

Then in the winter of 1904-05 a major strike among iron foundry workers in Newport began when the companies tried to force union men to accept lower wages. This strike had major community support, with landlords refusing to rent to out of town strikebreakers, and the companies pleading for protection in Federal court after local police sided with the strikers. Among the products of these foundries were some of the decorative iron railings on New Orleans porches. These were the precursors of the Molders Union, which had its headquarters in Cincinnati through the 1980s.

Then in 1917 Covington firefighters formed a local union, and struck briefly in 1920 over wages and short staffing. In 1932 the President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Frederick Baer was in the area for the AFL convention in Cincinnati, and spoke in Covington on the benefits of getting organized. A representative of the Postal Civil Service Union also spoke at the same event supporting the firemen – so there was already an effort among other public workers to get organized. The fire fighters would have to struggle for another 57 years for a union contract with the city, following another strike in 1974.

Early history of workers’ struggles in Cincinnati

One of the most significant early events in Cincinnati was the May Day walkout in 1886 of 32,000 previously unorganized workers here who were demanding an 8 hr workday (at a time when 10 to 14 hour workdays were common, often 6 days per week). That evening multiple union meetings (brewers, furniture workers, molders..) were held at Workmen’s Hall in the 1400 block of Walnut St.

Even earlier, in 1847, Cincinnati iron molders organized and struck for higher wages and were unsuccessful; they responded by setting up their own worker-owned foundry. By 1872 the Covington area also had 2800 members of the “United Sons of Vulcan” in 73 local unions, known as ‘forges’ in that early iron workers organization; although this was a craft union with workers paid by the tonnage produced, 64 local delegates attended a national convention that year.

Also in 1866, despite a history of major tension between Irish immigrants and free Blacks, both groups cooperated in a march of dock workers to demand shorter hours and better pay. In both 1829 and 1862 competition between these groups for the worst jobs, such as canal digging, had led to violence.

Then in 1883 in Newport, rolling mill workers walked out and ‘resolved to present the $5.50 scale to the manufacturers.’ They expected an agreement to be signed and return to work the next day. Then in 1921 about 2500 workers at this corrugated-iron mill walked out for union recognition, with major community support.

Brewery workers first started to get organized in 1879 and struck for better wages and shorter hours in 1881, but the strike was broken when the companies brought in strike breakers from other cities. Work weeks over 80 hours were common at the time, and some workers were required to live at the brewery.

Then one of the very first sit-down strikes happened right here in Cincinnati at the Jackson Brewery on the east end of Mohawk St above W. McMicken at Elm in 1884. (The building is still there, now called ‘Metal Blast’.) As described in the IWW’s One Big Union Monthly of October 1937, at the time ‘brewery peons’ were required to live at the workplace in barracks-like spaces so that they could be available to work whenever needed by the boss. Working hours were from 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning until 7 or 8 o’clock at night, sometimes longer. Often the workers were so tired that they simply threw themselves down on the hop sacks in the brewery for a few hours of sleep before work began again.

In summer 1884 they grew tired of these long hours and organized a “Folded Arms” demonstration and asked the bosses to leave, barricading themselves inside with beer barrels. The dispute was settled peacefully in a few days, and led directly to the formation of the United Brewery Workers union. Between 1913 and 1973 the headquarters of this nationwide union was at 2347 Vine St, opposite the park.

In 1887 the AFL chartered this first industrial union of brewery workers – which by the ‘30s represented all workers in the industry with the exception of a few workplaces in the Pacific northwest. In 1910 Herman Schlueter published a 300 page book of the union’s history, including a detailed chapter on accidents and industrial diseases among brewers. The main causes were reported to be the great variations in temperature from one part of the plant to another, the higher speed of the machinery and the excessive use of alcohol. Some workers in the malt kiln rooms (drying sprouted barley) had to withstand temperatures well above 110 deg, and then have to move to cold temperatures in the cellar or outdoors.

Many of the members and leaders of the Brewery Workers Union were immigrants who had been active in the unsuccessful revolution in Germany in 1848, and they carried their democratic principles with them to the US. As a result they often differed with the leadership of the AFL. For example, in 1901 they thanked Blacks in Virginia for their assistance in boycotting a nonunion brewery in Alexandria, and objected to the prohibition against Black membership in most AFL unions at the time. They also objected to efforts to limit immigration from Asian countries.

As an industrial union with everyone in the brewery in the same organization, they later had problems with some of the craft unions – such as those representing ‘stationary engineers’ (who tended the boilers). At that time it was much more common for each ‘craft’ in the plant to have their own union, a situation that was often taken advantage of by the company – playing one craft group off against another.

This local movement for shorter workdays and better working conditions was closely connected to the movements on other cities, such as Chicago and Milwaukee. In early 1886 Albert Parsons, a well-known Chicago anarchist spoke at the Bellevue House in Clifton on behalf of the 8 hr day movement, shortly before the important events at Haymarket in Chicago in May of that year. He spoke there at the May 4 rally where policemen were killed and was among the people convicted, even though he had left the rally before the bombing. A year later he was executed following his conviction – just 39 years old.

Another union, the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks also had its national offices here (at 1015 Vine), and included freight handlers after 1908. Remarkably, they opened their own bank in 1923 modeled on a similar bank opened in Cleveland by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Sadly, it only lasted until 1930. They even issued their own currency in the 1920s, images of which are available on the internet. As transportation changed with improved trucking and interstate highways, the number of rail clerks fell from 360,000 in 1920 to 190,000 in 1960.

According to a 1937 history of the rail clerk’s union by Harry Henig, an economics prof at UC, approximately 74% of eligible clerks were covered by union contracts in 1935. Black workers could not join this union, but they could pay a ‘per capita tax’ of about one-half union dues, and get some minimal representation.

In the late 30s the Clerks union tried to assert jurisdiction over the mostly black Redcaps (who carried luggage through the stations) and failed, as the Redcaps gained their own AFL charter for an International Brotherhood of Redcaps, IBRC – organizing for an end to reliance on tips and no more 7-day work weeks. Later the Red Caps union joined the CIO as the United Transport Services Employees of America (UTSEA) and their president, Cincinnati native Willard Townsend (born 1895), became the first black member of the CIO executive board. In 1943 the UTSEA held their national convention here at the Emery Auditorium. By 1947, they had become full-fledged employees with a 6-day, 48 hr work week, earning $0.91 per hour, considered decent pay at that time. 

Earlier, in the clothing industry right after WW1 while unions were under severe attack, there were a series of strikes by men and women in downtown Cincinnati, and in March 1919 many manufacturers entered into an agreement with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers for a reduction to a 44 hour workweek with holidays. The union continued to organize for a 20 cent increase in wages and an equal distribution of work during slack seasons. This was clearly part of a major national movement, as Clarence Darrow was here to defend a striker against theft charges, after she attempted to interfere with the delivery of some coats that were sewn by strikebreakers.

Shoe manufacture was also important downtown in the early 20th century, and in summer 1921 workers at 14 of 16 shoe factories went out on strike to protest a proposed 10% reduction in wages. The union was especially concerned that this reduction would also be applied to ‘the lower paid help’ – which probably referred to the many women and children who worked in this industry.  The building that now houses the Pendleton Art Center was once a large vertically-integrated (literally) shoe factory owned by Isaac Krohn – so some of the wealth that built the Conservatory came from the women and children that worked there.

As working conditions and wages worsened with the Depression of the early 1930s, and the New Deal Congress responded by reducing penalties for agitation, a wave of new organizing and strikes developed. In 1934, for example, clothing workers, mattress makers and piano makers all went on strike here, often for union recognition and better pay. In the case of the shirt makers, demands also included sanitary washrooms, a lunch room, and adequate light; the company had demanded that workers eat at their machines. The Butchers union cooperated with the mostly Black mattress makers (at Stearns and Foster), and planned a march of 1800 workers thru Lockland which was addressed by a union organizer who had once been a professional boxer.

Then in 1938, food manufacturers at Kroger, plastics workers in Oakley, and even workers at the Works Progress Administration all organized and threatened strikes. At the WPA, the CIO initially resisted worker demands, but the members insisted on union representation to end to favoritism and political interference.

One of the most active CIO unions in the area was the United Auto Workers (UAW), which had 6 locals here when they had their national convention in Cincinnati in Dec 1941. Besides industrial workers, such as 2200 people at Globe-Wernicke (making office furniture in Norwood), they also represented workers at dealerships. In 1938 workers at Heinz Motors (on Gilbert Ave) won an 11 week strike with a 20% wage increase, a 44 hr week, seniority recognition and a grievance procedure. Even during WW2 when many unions agreed not to strike, 84% of Globe Wernicke workers voted to strike in Oct 1944 when the company suspended 2 union officials in violation of a written agreement; at the time that plant was 100% engaged in war work.

Then as part of a strike wave immediately after the war, to make up for a wartime wage freeze, 1500 workers at Allis Chalmers went on strike in March 1946. Represented by United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 765, the strike dragged on for 3 months, with an injunction limiting the union to 4 pickets per entrance, and court proceedings for contempt.

During this time efforts were also being made to organize non-union workplaces. In April 1946 the Hotel and Restaurant workers union lost a vote at the Greyhound terminal’s restaurant, and the United Office and Professional Workers lost another election to represent employees at Metropolitan Life Insurance in N Ky.

Then the late 40s and early 50s saw attacks on one progressive local union of the United Electrical workers (UE-CIO) at Formica at the time of widespread anti-communist hysteria. As an example of its democratic style, this union has a clause in its constitution that the President of the union shall earn no more than the highest paid working member.

Much more recently in 2011 a broad coalition of public workers’ unions in Cincinnati and around the state were able to beat back a Republican attack on the right to organize and bargain collectively. That struggle continues.

Modern dock work and safety

Looking over Herb Mill’s work on traditional longshore work (from 1976) got me thinking of the continuing hazards, despite the major mechanization of ship loading and unloading. So many photos of modern dock work don’t show any workers at all, so some folks even believe that dock work is now automated. The tall gantry cranes used to load and unload containers have an operator who rides in a little cabin directly over the spreader and container, looking straight down past his or her knees to position the load. Chronic back problems are common from leaning forward all day.

But the containers on a modern ship need to be lashed down after being loaded, so that they won’t be swept overboard during a storm at sea. And this lashing is done by longshoremen (not the sailors) and is skilled and dangerous work – standing in congested and narrow spaces, reaching with lashing rods and twisting turnbuckles which may be different from one ship line to another. Sometimes this lashing is done from platforms in precarious places, where a fall would be very serious.

Another type of modern cargo ship, the so-called ro-ro ship (roll on, roll off), entire truck trailers and other machinery are towed on board via a ramp, is much more versatile than a container ship, since it doesn’t require large shore-based cranes. On one ship line connecting Miami to various Caribbean islands, 2 longshoreman were killed in separate accidents at work in 2011, struck by trailers while they were lashing or unlashing them to the deck. (The difference between a container and a trailer is that the latter includes the chassis – the ‘box’ plus the wheels.)

Some further discussion on the details of recent serious accidents on the docks can be found on the Facebook page ‘longshore safety.

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