1850
The first great Fall River textile strike was triggered in November, 1850, following announcement of another wage reduction. Workers at the Metacomet mill were frustrated when they approached Colonel Richard Borden, Fall River's foremost citizen, as he was standing outside
this establishment that he controlled. Their appeal to him to reconsider the wage cut met
with a stern rebuff; Borden, pointing toward the mill, replied: "I saw that mill built stone
by stone; I saw the pickers, the carding engines, the spinning mules and the looms put into it, and I
would see every machine and stone crumble and fall to the floor again before I would accede to
your wishes."
In this earliest major strike the strikers demonstrated a conservative, property-conscious, nonviolent approach toward labor conflicts that would become uniformly copied by Fall River workers in all
subsequent labor disputes.
By May 1, 1851, only a few of the operatives had returned. Resistance then collapsed when the Watauppa Manufacturing Company, the sole corporation not struck because it had continued to pay pre-strike wages, announced a cutback to the wage stipulations of its sister mills. The month of May witnessed an influx of labor into the town which offset a previous exodus. By June all three cotton mills were once again in full operation.
1867
Late in 1867 the weavers at the Union, Granite and part of the Durfee struck because of a cut in wages. At the meeting which voted the strike, no one wanted to consider compromise or wait for arbitration, but within ten days the weavers decided to return to work, and the next
day the spinners capitulated. A strike at the Durfee in September of the same year, the first record in this period of violence over labor troubles. The occasion was the discharge of an overseer
for quarreling with his second, who was kept on.
Much of the early organizes activity after the war was in connection with ten-hour movement.
The ten-hour system meant a 60-hour week ending at 4 p.m. Saturday by dint of starting at 6:40 a.m. six days a week and running to 6 p.m. five days a week with an hour out for dinner. The manufacturers claimed that they were satisfied because the eleventh hour always produced so much bad work as to be practically useless.
1870
A spinner's strike for the restoration of an 8 per cent wage cut diverted local labor interests and energy for two months. Two reasons were given for the reduction -- that other places paid less and that Fall River mills were not making as much money as the
Fall River an argument that was to become time-honored -- that it was unfair for 500 spinners to cause the lockout of 10,000 other operatives. During the strike, many of the spinners left for other textile centers in New England, and some of them returned to England. This was the first labor disturbance in Fall River where thoroughly bad feeling was evidenced on both
sides. The correspondent whose figures were quoted in behalf of the owners made the statement that
no statistics had been published before, because the manufacturers did not care to stoop to
controversy, preferring to let their help discover the extent of their delusion when they played into
the hands of their employers by curtailing production on a falling market. Similarly, Fall River executives refused to cooperate with state investigators. Though it was the city with the largest number of cotton mills in the state, not one mill answered the questionnaires of the state bureau.
The manufacturers then made their first bid to stamp out union activity. Some of the strikers were
blacklisted, and some of the mills took back only those who would agree not to belong to any more unions while employed. It was this strike which crystallized the bitter feeling between labor and management. The men were
angry that the owners cut wages, used specious arguments, refused to deal with the unions and called
out the militia. The employers, on the other hand, were furious the workers should fight the attempts to increase profits, that they should unionize and that they had caused riots.
1875
Labor leaders had not been unmindful of the need for organization, for despite the blow to the unions suffered at the end of the 1870 strike, the loom fixers had formed a mutual aid society, and the slashers had a union for mutual protection and "to supply competent workers to the mills." There were also societies for the card grinders and pickers, but it was the weavers and the spinners who led the strike activity in 1875. The weavers made an effort to include the French in their organization by having an interpreter at the meetings. The Central Committee called a special meeting of French operatives to get their cooperation and protect their interests during the strike. However, the French operatives took little part in the strike or any other during this period. The owners and managers had not been idle since their victory in 1870. The formation of the Manufacturers' Board of Trade in 1874 was undoubtedly a most important aspect of Fall River labor history for the decade. Avowedly it was a simple advisory body of treasurers and agents of the local mills for mutual advice and trade information. However, it functioned as a manufacturer' union, and as such it came to be regarded by the operatives as they observed its activities, particularly during the strikes of 1875 and 1879. Unrest was apparent among the leaders were laying plans for an organized effort in the spring. The weavers at the Crescent went out for an adjustment of their piece rates when they were transferred to longer goods. Then the women weavers took matters into their own hands, called a meeting by themselves, and decided that they would strike anyway. Appointing a committee to consult with the men weavers, they agreed that, if it was necessary to act without the men, they would. One woman said that though she had two children to support they got plenty of fresh air and they might as well starve at one time as another. The decisive move by the women precipitated the strike several weeks before schedule. The leaders decided to concentrate their efforts against three mills -- the Merchants and Granite, where the pay cut supposedly originated, and the Crescent, which was considered the weakest mill. By limiting the strike, suffering among the operatives would be reduced, some those left at work could support the others. The Board of Trade, for its part, agreed with the managers of the three mills affected that those still running should share the loss. In the gestation of the second strike in 1875 the Card and Picker room Association played a part by declaring for a month's vacation before the weavers and the spinners did. Yet it was the spinners who determined the second strike, for all other branches voted against a strike. In the Spinners Association the motion was reputedly by the young and unmarried. With the Spinners out, the mills soon had to close when they found themselves without enough yarn to keep running. It was apparent that by the end of the "long vacation," as it came to be called, unionization had become the chief bone of contention. All the usual arguments against unions appeared:
the leaders were selfish, subversive, outsiders, and no longer mill workers. The real issue, of course, was that of control, and it is obvious that the manufacturers emerged from the struggle with a strong upper hand. Union activity was effectively halted for four and a half years.
1879
The decisive move before the strike of 1879 was the appointment of Robert Howard as the first full-time, salaried secretary for the Spinners' Association. Simultaneously they voted to send six delegates to the International Labor Congress in Paterson, N.J. Henceforth Howard assumed the labor leadership in Fall River as executive of the only surviving well-organized union. When the Osborn and the Flint put in their first few ring spinning frames it was done to cancel the power of the mule spinners. But the mule spinners refused to be frightened out of what they considered self-defense on their part. The mills stayed open, 32 of them reporting 167 out of 518 pairs of mules running in the first week with an increase of 7 per cent in the next week. Out-of-town spinners were imported. However, the mills had to house them in barracks within the mill yards, and they paid them more than the strikers asked as an increase, When the agents tried to reduce their pay after the trouble was over, many left. Before the strike had gotten fairly under way one third to one half of the spindles were running. Violence started among gatherings of strikers watching the "nobsticks" spinners coming and going from the mill yards on week-ends. The nobsticks, as the strike-breakers were called, were armed. The dealers claimed that they sold 600 revolvers during the strike, though they did not add whether they sold to strikers or strike-breakers. The manufacturers said the strikers were intimidating honest workers, and the strikers said the manufacturers were attempting to provoke trouble which could be laid at their door. This strike did not really end; it just dwindled off. First, the spinners at several mills applied to be taken back as a group. Then some few of them went back to work singly. The back of the strike was broken by the first of October, seventeen weeks after it had started. This strike in 1879 best illustrates the way in which the mule spinners functioned as the spearhead of labor agitation in Fall River. They held a key position in the cotton textile industry for several reasons. Not only were they wise in the ways of organization, but they were a small, compact group. They lived close together and kept their English tastes and habits. Out of up to 15,000 mill workers, only about a 1,000 were mule spinners. It was easier for them to maintain a solid union than it was for a large and unwieldy group like the weavers. Furthermore, a strike among the mule spinners almost immediately produced a bottleneck in production. Substitutes were hard to find and often proved ineffective. Sometimes they damaged the machinery and the yarn to such an extent that production was badly crippled. Where girls were employed to replace men, nearly twice as many of them had to be used because they could not handle the heavy machinery, which had to be run more slowly for the less experienced strike-breakers. Only 80,000 pieces were produced weekly during the strike, as opposed to a normal output of from 150,000 to 155,000.
1884
Mills struck February 1884. The strikes were selective and only
1889
1889
New union formed by Weavers started strike March 11, 1889. New tactic employed. Mule spinners
kept working. Management was able to sell yarn to out of town mills at a considerable profit. Strike
conducted in a quiet manner. Management was sure it would win. The unions did not interfere with workers entering mills; the owners did not hire nobsticks.
no violence.
1904
Great textile strike. Started July 25, 1904. Lasted for six months. The Cotton Manufacturer's Association mills (82 mills) were struck. Lock out started in July and not lifted until November. Strike still continued into 1905. Non-members such as the M.C.D. Borden mills and the Wampanoag did not have strikes.
For the first time, the Roman Catholic clergy sided with the operatives and the mill owners were
denounced from the pulpit. Sliding scale of payment introduced.
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