The Strike of 1934 :: United States History Essays

The peach of 1934 On May 9th 1934 a nonionized labor guide started in San Francisco that would snowball into a metropolis crippling strike. The Inter demesneal Longshoremens Association (ILA) declared a strike for all longshoremen on the west coast, until they received better wages, a conjugation-administered hiring hall, and union membership as a prerequisite for employed longshoremen. The Strike of 1934 lasted for one-third months, stopping maritime trade in the ports of the Western United States, from San Diego to Seattle. The clang was between the Industrial Association (IA), composed of big business and employers absentminded to break the strike, and the ILA, along with other unions that dealt with maritime trades. The Strike of 1934 displayed the power the organized labor had, and how the mistreatment of labor can shut down an entire city and coast. The timing was just right for the maritime workers to strike. The grips of the Great Depression furnish laborers to maintain and improve their quality of life and security for their families. Congresses investigation into the 1934 San Francisco Strike concluded that the aspirations of labor which led to the strike were directed from the change in public opinion expressed in the National Industrial retrieval Act. The potentialities of a protected right to bargain collectively were quickly perceive by waterfront workers.1 The shift in public opinion came from the need for the regimen to be more socially responsible to insure survival of the nation during the depression. The depression was as devastating as it was due to the lack of establishment involvement, a welfare state was needed. According to the Congressional investigation, The first chance upon that forceful demands would be made by the longshoremen appeared in December 1933 when the local voted on the question of participating in a coast-wide strike. Lee J. Holman, accordingly president of the local, stated the l ongshoremen would demand a 6-day, 30-hour week at a minimum rate of $1 per hour.2 Such demands were modest when considering the necessity of waterfront workers to a maritime based economy. This was at a time when the Bay and well-disposed Gate bridges were still under construction. Before the bridges, overland blend in the San Francisco Bay Area was longer, slower, and couldnt carry as heavy(p) loads as sailing across the bay.