Streetcar strikes in the United States

Boys in Cleveland, Ohio with track obstruction, year unknown; Cleveland's streetcar system had eight strikes in its history.[1]

Date| 1895–1929
Location|

United States

Methods| Strikes, protest, demonstrations

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North American transit strikes

Streetcar strikes

* St. Louis 1900
* Indianapolis 1892
* Los Angeles 1903
* San Francisco 1907
* Pensacola 1908
* Columbus 1910
* Philadelphia 1910
* Indianapolis 1913
* St. John 1914
* Atlanta 1916
* Portland, ME 1916
* Bloomington, IL 1917
* Twin Cities 1917
* Los Angeles 1919
* New Orleans 1920
* Denver 1920
* New Orleans 1929

1930s–1970s

* Century Airlines 1932
* Philadelphia 1944
* New York City 1949
* Atlanta 1950
* New York City 1966

1980s–2020s

* Greyhound 1983
* New York City 2005
* Toronto 2006
* Toronto 2008
* Lyft and Uber 2019

From 1895 to 1929, streetcar strikes affected almost every major city in the United States. Sometimes lasting only a few days, these strikes were often "marked by almost continuous and often spectacular violent conflict,"[2] at times amounting to prolonged riots and weeks of civil insurrection.

Following the 1929 New Orleans streetcar strike, less violent strikes persisted for decades, such as the Atlanta transit strike of 1950. The rise of private automobile ownership limited its impact.[3]

## Tactics

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Electrified streetcars posed an attractive target for striking unions like the Amalgamated Street Railway Employees of America. Unlike factory buildings, streetcar routes and cars were spread out and difficult to protect. The routes went through the working class neighborhoods of cities; riders tended to be sympathetic to union causes. Their overhead lines and physical tracks were vulnerable to sabotage. And their function as transportation for workers in other industries opened the possibility of leveraging a transit strike into a general strike, as in the Philadelphia trolley strike and riots of 1910.

Streetcar strikes rank among the deadliest armed conflicts in American labor union history. Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor called the St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900 "the fiercest struggle ever waged by the organized toilers"[4] up to that point, with a total casualty count of 14 dead and about 200 wounded, more than the Pullman Strike of 1894. The casualty count for the San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907 saw 30 killed and about 1000 injured.[2]

Despite the transit disruption, which sometimes lasted for months, and despite the fact that many of the casualties were passengers and innocent bystanders, "the strikers invariably enjoyed wide public support, which extended beyond the working class."[2]

The owners' tactic was simply to keep the routes running. To counter hostile crowds, the line owners turned to strikebreakers. Foremost among them was James A. Farley (1874–1913), who specialized in streetcar strikes—he claimed to have broken 50—and was said to command an army of forty thousand scabs [5] to be deployed anywhere in the country. Much of the violence of the 1907 San Francisco strike was attributable to Farley, who reportedly cleared $1 million there. He was doing more than $10 million in business by 1914.[6]

## Examples

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National Guard soldiers guarding a Kansas City streetcar during a 1918 motorman and conductor strike

Examples of American streetcar strikes include:

* 1889, Twin Cities, Minnesota
* 1891, Detroit, Michigan, where strikers had the vocal support of Mayor Hazen S. Pingree, part of his administration's long successful struggle against local traction companies[7]
* 1892 Indianapolis streetcar strike
* 1895, Brooklyn, New York City, the first in which Farley was involved
* 1896, Milwaukee[8]
* 1899, Cleveland, Ohio
* 1900, St. Louis, where the dynamiting of streetcars was a "nightly occurrence" [9]
* 1903, Los Angeles
* 1907, San Francisco, California, with 31 killed and an estimated 1000 people injured
* 1908, Pensacola, Florida
* 1910, Columbus, Ohio
* 1913, Buffalo, where two regiments of the National Guard were called out to quell a full day of rioting and mob violence, with several wounded by gunfire, and widespread property damage [10][11]

Striking workers during the San Francisco streetcar strike in 1907 fell tree to obstruct the tracks.

* 1913, Indianapolis
* 1916, Atlanta
* 1916, Portland, Maine
* 1916–17, Springfield, Missouri
* 1917, Twin Cities, Minnesota
* 1917, Bloomington, Illinois
* 1917, the San Francisco United Railroads strike
* 1917, Seattle and Tacoma streetcar employees
* 1919, Los Angeles
* 1919, Charlotte, North Carolina[12]
* 1920, Denver, Colorado, which left 7 dead and 80 wounded
* 1929, New Orleans, Louisiana
* 1934, Milwaukee[13]
* 1944, Philadelphia

## Fiction

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Scenes of streetcar strikes, and the friction between owners and workers, appear in contemporary fiction such as Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie of 1900 (based on Dreiser's own experience in a Toledo, Ohio strike), and William Dean Howells' A Hazard of New Fortunes of 1890.

## References

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1. ^ Cleveland: the making of a city by William Ganson Rose, page 1013
2. ^ a b c Norwood, Stephen H. (2002). Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-century America. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 36. ISBN 0807853739.
3. ^ Norwood, Stephen H. Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-century America. p. 69.
4. ^ Motorman and Conductor, June 1900
5. ^ Leslie's Monthly Magazine, Volume 60, May 1905, page 106
6. ^ The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History by Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, Immanuel Ness, page 56
7. ^ Robert B., Ross; George B., Catlin (1898). LANDMARKS OF DETROIT A HISTORY OF THE CITY. pp. 547–553. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
8. ^ John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee, 198
9. ^ St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 21 June 1900
10. ^ "Troops Out to End Riots in Buffalo" (PDF). New York Times. April 9, 1913. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
11. ^ "Woman and Boy Shot in Car Riot" (PDF). New York Times. April 10, 1913. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
12. ^ "Street Car Strike in Charlotte". The Charlotte–Mecklenburg Story. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. 2017. Archived from the original on April 25, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
13. ^ Joseph Canfield, Bulletin 112 of the Central Electric Railfans Association (1972), 32–33

## Archives

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* Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 587 Records. 1941-2011. 15 cubic feet (17 boxes).
* Asahel Curtis photographs. 1881-1941. 5.46 cubic feet (13 boxes). 1,678 photographic prints.

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Major armed conflicts in American labor union history

19th century|

* Great Railroad Strike, 1877
* Rock Springs massacre, 1885
* Bay View massacre, 1886
* Haymarket affair, 1886
* Thibodaux massacre, 1887
* Morewood massacre, 1891
* Cotton pickers' strike of 1891
* Homestead Strike, 1892
* Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892
* Pullman Strike, 1894
* Streetcar strikes in the United States, 1895–1929
* Lattimer massacre, 1897
* Illinois coal wars, 1898–1899

20th century|

* Streetcar strikes in the United States, 1895–1929
* Colorado Labor Wars, 1903–1904
* 1905 Chicago teamsters' strike
* 1907 San Francisco streetcar strike
* Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909
* Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911
* Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912
* 1913 Ipswich Mills strike
* Colorado Coalfield War, including the Ludlow Massacre, 1913–1914
* Copper Country strike of 1913–1914
* Everett massacre, 1916
* 1920 Alabama coal strike
* Battle of Matewan, 1920
* Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921
* Herrin massacre, 1922
* Hanapepe massacre, 1924
* Columbine Mine massacre, 1927
* Harlan County War, 1931–1932
* Auto-Lite strike, 1934
* West Coast waterfront strike, 1934
* Minneapolis general strike of 1934, 1934
* Gulf Coast longshoremen's strike, 1935
* Memorial Day massacre, 1937
* Hilo massacre, 1938
* 1959 United Mine Workers strike, 1959

Related articles|

* List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
* Union violence in the United States
* Anti-union violence in the United States
* List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes

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