G12 



STRIKTS. 



tablMiments were affected by strikes in 1882. 2105; 



a L88i,9867; in iss:,. 22*4; I 



ito less than 9861. In every case the majority of 

 these were closed, the average being 23 il.i 

 these six years the aggregate of idle days was 487,- 

 CIS, with a loss to l,tli;o,.H:t.-> employes of 151,814,738, 

 anil to employers of over 830,000,000. Very many 

 of the old hand* lost tln'ir work, and 37,1*3 weie 

 brought from other places. Nearly four-fifths of 

 the strikes were ordered by labor organizations ; 

 over 10,000 succeeded, about 3000 won partial suc- 

 cess, and nearly 9000 failed. New York was the State 

 most largely affected ; after it came Pennsylvania, 

 Illinois, Connecticut, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Texas 

 judging by the number of persons involved ; 

 looked at from other points of view, the order differs ; 

 somewhat The chief industries concerned were 

 building trades, 6075 houses; tobacco, 29o9 ; mining, 

 2060; clothing, 1728; metals and metallic goods, 

 1570; transportation, 1478; food preparations, 1419. 

 The lock-outs for the samo years numbered 2214, of 

 which 1753 were ordered by organization. About 

 564 of them succeeded and 190 in part, while 1339 

 failed. One thousand six hundred and twenty-five 

 establishments were closed for an average of 28.4 days, 

 with a loss to employers of 83,402,261, and to em- 

 ployes of 88,157,717. ' The proportion borne by the 

 year 1886 in these totals is even greater than with 

 the strikes. 



The figures for New York during 1887 are given in 

 the Fifth Annual Report of the State Bureau of Statis- 

 tics for Labor. In that year strikes affected 1(104 

 shops, including 144 trades and callings. Of these at- 

 tempts 694 succeeded, 696 failed, 190 were compro- 

 mised, 42 i were yet pending. The number of work- 

 men engaged was 51,731, only about two-fifths that of 

 1886 ; but the number to whom employment was af- 

 terward refused was greater, being 8176 as against 

 <;:: il. The loss of wages was over 82,000,000, and 

 82 17,069 was spent by the labor organizations in aid 

 to the strikers. Employers lost over SI, 100, 000, and 

 11,472 persons acquired an increase of wages esti- 

 mated at ^944,632. As to the causes of the strikes 

 (which here include lock-outs also), 409, or only about 

 :;i per cent., were for increase of wages; 158 \\ 

 for a reduction of the hours of labor; 118 wero duo 

 to refusals to handle boycotted coal or freight ; 113 

 to the employment of non union men, and 11 to tho 

 discharge of members of the unions. The boycott 

 showed an increase, 212 cases against ISO in ]- 

 of these 101 were professedly successful, 36 foiled. 

 and 105 were yet pending. 



Bradstreot's report gives nearly 1000 strikes as oc- 

 curring in the United States from Jan. 1, INS 7, to 

 April 1, 1888,884 of which were in 1887 this nninl., r 

 indicating movements, and not establishments ntt 

 ed, as in the N. Y. report above cited. Some, 340, s:, | 

 workers struck during 1887. Of these strikes, 1 1n- 

 most recent as to which statistics ure available, it is in- 

 structive to note tho more important. The year 1887 

 began with a strike of 2000 brewers in Philadelphia 

 to resist a reduced schedule of wages; after four 

 months it was partially successful. It was dire, 

 by a combination of local unions under the guidance 

 of the Knights of Labor, from whom, however, the 

 brewers withdrew as soon as their affair was settled. 

 Far more important in its results was tho strike of 

 the coal handlers at Bayonne, Perth Atnbov, South 

 Amboy, and other places in eastern New Jersey at the 

 name time. It failed after lasting six weeks, Init the 

 various associations of coal handlers in New York 

 and Brooklyn followed, seeking a higher nnd uni- 

 form rate of wages. James E. Qninn, of District 

 Assembly 49, assumed the leadership of the move- 

 ment, instigated a series of sympathetic strikes, in- 

 terrupted the movement of coal to New York so seri- 

 ously that a coal famine was threatened, and called 



' out all the men connected with work on the wharves. 

 Of these 'longshoremen, boatmen, grain hainli, 

 coal handlers, bag sewers, grain seal- ;-. . , .,] train 

 hiakemen, etc. in New York. Brooklyn, and. I. 



. including the employes of the Dominion Steam- 

 ship line, some 23,000 belonged to the several U..-.1 

 assemblies, and 15,000 of them obeyed the call. 

 Tin- corporations resisted this effort to paralyze their 

 trade, used strenuous efforts to procure new laborers, 

 and em ployed a great number of Pinki-rton detectives 

 to protect these and the property about the wharves 

 and tracks. Collisions occurred, nnd for several weeks 

 tho strike was the object of universal attention and 

 wide anxiety. Qninn threatened and attempted 

 likewise to affect the gas and electric light companies, 

 the machine shops, breweries, etc., and practically 

 to sus)M>nd all business in New York. He undertook 

 too much ; most of the local assemblies refused to 

 obey. Then he tried, with but partial and temporary 

 success, to call off the employes of the coal carrying 

 roads terminating in ami about Jersey City, and 

 finally to paralyze the coal trade in New Knglai-d and 

 elsewhere. The main strike ended lief ore the middle 

 of February, having substantially failed some time, 

 previous. iJradltrttfl estimates that above 34,000 

 men wern engaged in it, with a loss in woges of 

 $2, (150, 000; the official figures of New York arc 

 (x>74 men. and a loss of over 400,000 in that State. 

 Tho drivers and conductors of the Consolidated 

 Street Car Co. in Boston, offended by a new inle to 

 pay them by the trip instead of by the day. struck, 

 .Ian. 1 1 : they were members of District 30, K. of L., 

 but acted independently of tho Assembly. Public 

 sympathy was with tho men, and they won a compU to 



rv in a single day. 



A strike which began about this time nmong tlio 

 shoe factories in Worcester Co., Mass., was turned 

 into a lock-out by a combination of the cnijs 

 who refused to employ union men or to treat except 

 with individuals. After live months the men, num- 

 bering 8000, were entirely defeated, with n loss in 

 wages of 82.500,000. The' strike was directed by tho 

 leaders of District Assembly 30, tho funds of which 

 wero largely expended in aid; but the strikers wero 

 dissatisfied, and ultimately withdrowand formed nn 

 Assembly of their own, K. of L. Toward the end of 

 January 2400 employes of the Higginscarpct factory, 

 in New York, struck against a proposed reduction of 

 cent, ill their want's ; a compromise was ef- 

 fected after four days. In February they went out 

 again, at tho instigation of District Assembly 49. to 

 aid tho coal handlers, but two weeks' idleness re- 

 sulted in a failure. Early in April, 7500 of the 

 8000 carpenters in Chicago, members of the local 

 Trades Assembly, struck for fewer hours nnd more, 

 pay. The K. of L., to whom one fointli of them be- 

 longed, interfered as" ] eaccmakcrs," but the unions 

 won a victory in a fortnight. Similar strikes of 

 trades unions wero induced by this success ; in Cin- 

 cinnati 1100 men wero idle a week, and in Brooklyn 

 NOD won after ten days. In April several move; 

 of stove-moulders against certain boycotted patterns 

 wen- merged into a general strike bv the Amalga- 

 mated Association of Iron nnd Steel \Vorl.ers ; :::;il 

 men in Chicago, Milwaukee, Keokuk, Qnincy, I'itts- 

 bnrg, and elsewhere were affected, and won after 

 being out from six to eight weeks. Early in May 

 5000 hod-carriers of Chicago struck, with the au- 

 thority of the Trades Assembly. The result was 

 complicated, and led to a combination and lock-out 

 of the employers, whose terms wore so severe (in- 

 cluding a boycott on their men) as to suspend all 

 building operations, and throw 15,000 men out of 

 work. After nine weeks the workmen yielded. In 

 May, 5000 shoemakers in Haverhill, Mass., and 

 2600 in Cincinnati, were locked out because of dis- 

 putes as to wages ; compromises were effected, speed- 



