User:Jeff in CA/Deaths of workers in labor disputes in the United States

Labor history in the United States dates from around 1636 with the earliest worker demands for better working conditions. In the nineteenth century, industrialists wielded enormous power over all aspects of the means of production, to the detriment of impoverished workers who endured long hours, hazardous and harsh working conditions, few safety measures, low wages, and the lack of a government safety net. The courts perpetuated a prevailing judicial deference toward property rights of corporations over worker rights and struck down many of the relatively few laws that were enacted to enhance workers' lives. When labor disputes erupted, law enforcement most often sided with the interests of companies, which also deployed private militias, armed guards and undercover detectives. Owners could afford to use their wealth to pay government officials and free from jail any enforcement personnel that were arrested. Efforts by workers to organize and to strike were met with ownership actions that are today illegal, such as summary firing of union sympathizers. Inevitably, violence committed by those who held the upper hand in such disputes sometimes resulted in injury and death of workers and their families, company men and bystanders.

Author Ronald Filipelli described the typical response of the era by companies faced with labor strife in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries: ^p.325-326

• Local law enforcement officials swear in deputies loyal to the companies, sometimes several thousand.
• As soon as a few minor disturbances mar the picket lines, the governor sends in the National Guard. The soldiers are clearly there with serious intentions and are heavily armed.
• The companies add to this gathering army by contracting with a detective agency to supply company guards. The strikebreaking agency’s main task is to recruit replacements for the strikers and protect them.
• The president of the detective agency boasts that the result will be a “triumph for law and order” and the company owners, thus providing excellent advertising for the agency.
• A “citizens’ alliance” of local businessmen who share the view of the company mobilizes to drive the union out of the area.
• The companies turn to the courts for relief and secure an injunction forbidding picketing, mass demonstrations or any interference with company operations.
• Those who defy it are arrested.
• The injunction and arrests bring even more oppression to the workers.

By authorities

Law enforcement and companies' militia, armed detectives and guards

Date	Location	Industry	Type of dispute	Workers violently killed by authorities	Notes
July 7, 1851	Portage, NY	railroad	strike	2	Two striking workers of the New York and Erie Railroad were shot and killed by police officers. Strikers were dispersed the following morning by the state militia.
July 20, 1877	Baltimore, MD	railroad	strike	10	During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, first national strike in United States, National Guard regiments were ordered to Cumberland, Maryland, to face strikers. As they marched toward their train in Baltimore, violent street battles between the striking workers and the guardsmen erupted. The troops fired on the crowd, killing 10 and wounding 25. (Killed: Thomas V. Byrne, William Haurand, Patrick Gill, Cornelius Murphy, Lewis Zwarowitch, John H. Frank, George McDonald, Otto Manecke, John Rinehardt, Mark J. Doud.)
July 21-22, 1877	Pittsburgh, PA	railroad	strike	40	Great Railroad Strike of 1877: As militiamen approached and sought to protect the roundhouse, they bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20 people and wounding 29. The next day, the militia mounted an assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing 20 more people.
July 21-28, 1877	East St. Louis, IL and St. Louis, MO	railroad, then general	strike	as many as 18 or more	Great Railroad Strike of 1877: In St. Louis the strike turned into the first general strike in the United States. The strike on both sides of the river was ended when 3000 federal troops and 5000 deputized police had killed at least 18 people in skirmishes around the city.
July 23, 1877	Reading, PA	railroad	strike	10	Reading Railroad massacre: Bombarded from above with bricks and stones, soldiers fired rifle volleys into a crowd at the Seventh Street Cut.
July 25-26, 1877	Chicago, IL	railroad	strike	30	Battle of the Viaduct: Violence erupted between a crowd and police, federal troops, and state militia at the Halsted Street Viaduct. When it ended, 30 were dead.
August 1, 1877	Scranton, PA	coal, railroad	strike	4	Great Railroad Strike of 1877: The day after railroad workers conceded and returned to work, angry striking miners clashed with a 50-person posse under the command of William Walker Scranton, general manager of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company. When a posse member was shot in the knee, the posse responded by killing or fatally wounding four of the strikers.
May 5, 1886	Milwaukee, WI	building trades	strike	15	Bay View Massacre: As protesters chanted for an 8-hour workday, 250 state militia were ordered to shoot into the crowd as it approached the iron rolling mill at Bay View, leaving 7 dead at the scene, including a 13-year-old boy. The Milwaukee Journal reported that eight more died within 24 hours.
November 5, 1887	Pattersonville, LA	sugar	strike	as many as 20	10,000 sugar workers (90% of whom were black), organized by the Knights of Labor, went on strike. A battalion of national guardsmen supporting a sheriff's posse massacred as many as 20 people in the black village of Pattersonville in St. Mary Parish.
November 23, 1887	Thibodaux, LA	sugar	strike	37 or more estimated	Thibodaux Massacre: Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage and lynched two strike leaders. "No credible official count of the victims was ever made; bodies continued to turn up in shallow graves outside of town for weeks to come."
April 3, 1891	Morewood, PA	coal mining	strike	9	Morewood massacre: Miners struck the coke works of industrialist Henry Clay Frick for higher wages and an 8-hour work day. As a crowd of about 1000 strikers accompanied by a brass band marched on the company store, deputized members of the 10th Regiment of the National Guard fired two rounds into the crowd, killing 6 strikers and fatally wounding 3.
July 6, 1892	Homestead, PA	steel	strike	9	Homestead Massacre: Some of 300 Pinkerton Agency guards opened fire on striking Carnegie Steel mill-workers. 9 strikers were shot to death. (Among those killed: Peter Fares, John Morris, Joseph Sotak, Henry Striegel, Silas Wain, William Foy.) 7 guards also died.
July 1892	Couer d'Alene, ID	hardrock mining	strike	4	Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892: In July a union miner was killed by mine guards. Company guards also fired into a saloon where union men were sheltering, killing 3 (funerals were held on July 13).
July 10, 1894	Chicago, IL	railroad	strike	34	Pullman Strike: 14,000 federal and state troops killed 34 union members in or near Jackson Park in Chicago to put down a strike against the Pullman Company.
1896–1897	Leadville, CO	silver mining	strike	as many as 6	Leadville Miners' strike: The union asked for a wage increase of 50 cents-per-day for those making less than $3-per-day, to restore a 50-cent cut imposed in 1893. The mine owners exerted local political clout, and the Leadville city police took their side. They recruited new officers from Denver and "apparently kept up a near-constant campaign of harassment and violence against union members throughout the strike." Possibly as many as six union men were randomly killed during the strike, either by the Denver deputies, or under mysterious circumstances.
September 10, 1897	Lattimer, PA	coal mining	strike	19	Lattimer Massacre: 19 unarmed striking Polish, Lithuanian and Slovak coal miners were killed and 36 wounded by the Luzerne County sheriff’s posse for refusing to disperse during a peaceful march. Most were shot in the back.
October 12, 1898	Virden, IL	coal mining	strike	8	Virden Massacre: The Chicago-Virden Coal Company attempted to break a strike by importing replacement workers. After union workers stopped a train transporting non-union workers, 8 of the union workers were killed when Thiel Agency guards opened fire from the train. 6 guards were also killed and 30 persons were wounded.
April 10, 1899	Pana, IL	coal mining	strike	up to 7 or more	Pana Massacre: A minor skirmish escalated into armed conflict between the strikebreakers and mine guards on one side and the Pana unionists and sympathizers on the other. More than 7 were killed and 28 wounded, many of them bystanders.
started May 1899	Couer d'Alene, ID	hardrock mining	organizing drive	3	Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899: Following a dynamite incident, President McKinley sent in U.S. Army troops, who, upon the order of Idaho officials, arrested nearly every adult male. 1000 men were held as prisoners in a pine board prison surrounded by a 6-foot barbed wire fence patrolled by armed soldiers. Hundreds of union miners remained locked up by the militia in the vermin-infested bullpens for a year or more. Three workers died in the primitive conditions.
September 17, 1899	Carterville, IL	coal mining	strike	5	In the Illinois coal wars, unionists and strikebreakers clashed again; government troops were again summoned after five deaths occurred.
June 10, 1900	St. Louis, MO	streetcar	strike	3 or more	St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900: The Police Board swore in 2500 citizens in a posse commanded by John H. Cavender, who had played a similar paramilitary role in the 1877 general strike. On the evening of June 10, men of that posse fatally shot three strikers returning from a picnic and left 14 others wounded. Between May 7 and the end of the strike in September, 14 people had been killed.
October 12, 1902	Pana, IL	coal mining	strike	14	"Fourteen miners killed, 22 wounded by scab herders (detective agency guards) at Pana, Illinois."
June 8, 1904	Dunnville, CO	hardrock mining	strike	1	Colorado Labor Wars: In December 1903, the governor declared martial law. The Colorado National Guard under Adjutant General Sherman Bell took the side of the mine owners against the miners. Bell announced that "the military will have sole charge of everything..." and suspended the Bill of Rights, including freedom of assembly and the right to bear arms. Union leaders were arrested and either thrown in the bullpen, or banished. The Victor Daily Record was placed under military censorship; all WFM-friendly information was prohibited. On June 8, 130 armed soldiers and deputies attacked 65 unsuspecting miners in their camp, killing John Carley and taking 14 prisoners.
April 7–July, 1905	Chicago, IL	clothing mfg., teamsters	strike	as many as 21	1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike: Riots erupted on April 7 and continued almost daily until mid-July. Sometimes thousands of striking workers would clash with strikebreakers and armed police each day. By late July, when the strike ended, 21 people had been killed and a total of 416 injured.
May 7, 1907	San Francisco, CA	streetcar	strike	2 to 6	San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907:As the strike loomed, United Railroads contracted with the nationally known "King of the Strikebreakers", James Farley, for four hundred replacement workers. Farley's armed workers took control of the entire streetcar system. Violence started two days into the strike when a shootout on Turk Street left 2 dead and about 20 injured. Of the 31 deaths from shootings and streetcar accidents, 25 were among passengers.
August 22, 1909	McKees Rocks, PA	railroad	strike	4 to as many as 8	Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909: At least 12 people died when strikers battled with private security agents and Pennsylvania State Police mounted on horseback. Eight men died on August 22, including 4 strikers. By the time the rioting was over, a dozen men were dead and more than 50 were wounded.
March 9, 1910–July 1, 1911	Westmoreland County, PA	coal mining	strike	6 (plus 9 miners’ wives)	Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911: 70 percent of the miners were Slovak immigrants. Employers used force to intimidate striking miners, partially paying the cost for the Coal and Iron Police, local law enforcement and the Pennsylvania State Police. May 8, 1910 – Yukon, PA: As 25 sheriff's deputies and state police vainly searched a boarding house, a crowd of striking miners gathered and ridiculed them. The deputies then fired into the crowd, killing one and injuring 30. May 1910 – Export, PA: Miners who were walking home passed by coal company property, whereupon 20 sheriff's deputies and State Police attacked and severely beat them. One miner, trying to protect a child in his arms, was killed. July 1910 – South Greensburg: Striking miners had obtained a permit to march, but as they began, deputy sheriffs on horseback stopped them. In defiance of the local police chief, the deputies charged with their horses, swinging clubs and then firing into the crowd, killing a miner. A legislator’s survey found that violence significantly increased after the arrival of the State Police, and that almost all acts of violence committed by state troopers were without provocation. Mounted State Police routinely charged onto sidewalks or into crowds, severely injuring men, women and children. Severe beatings of citizens and striking miners for no reason were common, with troopers resisting local police attempts to stop them and breaking into homes without warrants. State Police troopers shot up towns and fired indiscriminately into crowds and tent cities (killing and wounding sleeping women and children). May 1910 – State police stopped four non-English speaking striking miners to question them. A bilingual miner came by and told the four to leave, but the troopers chased, shot and killed the fifth man, allegedly in cold blood.
January 29, 1912	Lawrence, MA	textile	strike	1	1912 Lawrence textile strike: A police officer fired into a crowd of strikers, killing Anna LoPizzo.
April 18, 1912–July 1913	Kanawha County, WV	coal mining	strike	up to 50 violent deaths (estimated)	Paint Creek Mine War: a confrontation between striking coal miners and coal operators in Kanawha County, West Virginia, centered on the area between two streams, Paint Creek and Cabin Creek. 12 miners were killed on July 26, 1912 at Mucklow. On February 7, 1913, the county sheriff’s posse attacked the Holly Grove miners’ camp with machine guns, killing striker Cesco Estep. Many more than 50 deaths among miners and their families were indirectly caused, as a result of starvation and malnutrition.
July 7, 1912	Grabow, LA	lumber	strike	4	Grabow Riot: Galloway Lumber Company guards fired on striking demonstrators of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, causing 4 deaths (including Decatur Hall) and 50 wounded.
June 11, 1913	New Orleans, LA	banana	strike	1	Police shot at maritime workers who were striking against the United Fruit Company, killing one and wounding 2 others.
August 14, 1913	Seeberville, MI	copper mining	strike	2	Copper Country strike of 1913–1914: Sheriff’s deputies visited a boarding house with the intent to arrest one of the boarders who had "trespassed" on company property while taking a shortcut home. The suspect, John Kalan, resisted arrest and went inside the house. As the deputies prepared to leave, someone tossed a bowling pin at them. The deputies opened fire into the crowded home, killing Alois Tijan and Steve Putich and injuring two others. The people inside the house were unarmed.p.326
1913–14	Area from Trinidad to Walsenburg, southern CO	coal mining	strike	up to 47 estimated (in addition to Ludlow)	Colorado Labor Wars: Amid escalating violence in the coalfields and pressure from mine operators, the governor called out the National Guard, which arrived at the mining towns in October 1913. After the Ludlow Massacre in April 1914, for ten days striking miners at the other tent colonies went to war. They attacked and destroyed mines, fighting pitched battles with mine guards and militia along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg. The strike ended in defeat for the UMWA in December 1914.
November 4, 1913	Indianapolis, IN	streetcar	strike	4	Indianapolis streetcar strike of 1913: The Terminal and Traction Company hired 300 professional strikebreakers from the Pinkerton Agency to operate the streetcars. When the strikebreakers attempted to move the streetcars into their carhouses, the crowd attacked the policemen who were protecting the strikebreakers. Strikebreakers then opened fire on the crowd, killing four.
April 20, 1914	Ludlow, CO	mining	strike	5 (plus 2 women, 12 children)	Ludlow Massacre: On Greek Easter morning, 177 company "guards," engaged by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and other mine operators, and sworn into the State Militia just for the occasion, attacked a union tent camp with machine guns, then set it afire. Luka Vahernik, 50, was shot in the head. Louis Tikas and two other miners were captured, shot and killed by the militia. 5 miners, 2 women and 12 children died in the attack.
January 19, 1915	Carteret, NJ	fertilizer mfg.	strike	5	Leibig Fertilizer strike: In an unprovoked attack, 40 deputies fired on strikers at the Williams & Clark Fertilizing Company after the strikers had stopped a train to check for strikebreakers and had found none.
July 20-21, 1915	Bayonne, NJ	oil	strike	4	Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916: During a strike by stillcleaners at Standard Oil of New Jersey and Tidewater Petroleum, armed strikebreakers protected by police fired into a crowd of strikers and sympathizers, killing four striking workers (John Sterancsak was one).
August 2, 1915	Massena, NY	aluminum	strike	1	In 1915 workers revolted at the Mellon family’s aluminum mill and took over every section of the plant. The sheriff of St. Lawrence County deputized businessmen to break the strike. The governor of New York sent in two companies of the National Guard, who bayoneted workers and killed strike leader Joseph Solunski, who died in an Ogdensburg hospital.
January 1916	East Youngstown, OH	steel	strike	3	Youngstown Strike of 1916: When two trainloads of strikebreakers from the South were smuggled into the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. plant, angry strikers assembled at the mill gates. Mill guards fired into the crowd, killing 3 strikers. A riot then began that burned six square blocks of the city. A grand jury found that the guards had precipitated the disturbance.p. 239-240
May 1916	Braddock, PA	steel	strike	2	Strikers had arranged to parade outside the Carnegie Steel Co. plant, but the company had stationed an armed force inside the plant. When the paraders arrived, the guards opened fire, shooting strikers and bystanders. Two strikers were killed.p. 240-241
July 3, 1916	Area of Chisholm, MN	iron mining	strike	1	Mesabi Range strike of 1916: On June 25, 1916, a miner left his shift after being paid less than the contracted rate. His action led to the Mesabi Range strike of 1916. The IWW supported the strike for better pay and shorter hours. On July 3, a clash between guards and several strikers left a guard and a bystander dead.p.331 Davis states that a miner was shot and killed on the picket line.p.237-238
November 5, 1916	Everett, WA	shingle mfg.	strike	5 or more	Everett Massacre: 200 "citizen deputies" under the authority of the Snohomish County sheriff waited for the arrival by passenger ship of IWW workers coming to support the strikers. A 10-minute gun battle ensued, with most gunfire coming from the dock. The IWW listed 5 dead with 27 wounded, although as many as 12 members may have been killed (some people were last seen drowning in the harbor waters). Two deputies were killed by fellow deputies. (IWW members killed: Felix Baran, a Frenchman; Hugo Gerlat, a German; Gustav Johnson, a Swede; John Looney, an Irishman; and Abraham Rabinowitz, a Russian Jew.)
August 26, 1919	Brackenridge, PA	steel	strike	2	United Mine Workers' organizer Fannie Sellins was riddled with bullets by Steel Trust gunmen on the eve of a nationwide steel strike. Joseph Starzelski, a miner, was also gunned down that same day.
1919	several	steel	strike	18	Steel Strike of 1919: 18 strikers were killed, hundreds seriously injured, and thousands jailed on flimsy pretexts over the course of the strike.p. 247
April 21, 1920	Butte, MT	copper mining	strike	1	Anaconda Road Massacre: A strike by Butte miners was suppressed with gunfire when deputized mine guards suddenly fired upon unarmed picketers. 17 were shot in the back as they tried to flee, and one man died.
May 19, 1920	Matewan, WV	coal mining	strike	3 (Bob Mullins, Tot Tinsley, Cabel Testerman)	Battle of Matewan: Baldwin-Felts agents and 13 of the mining company's managers arrived to evict miners and their families from the mine camp. Sheriff Sid Hatfield tried to arrest the detectives for illegally evicting miners and carrying weapons. A gun battle ensued, resulting in the deaths of 7 private agents, Mayor Cabel Testerman, and 2 miners.
1920	Alabama	coal mining	strike	at least 16	1920 Alabama coal strike: The Alabama miners' strike was a statewide strike of the UMWA against coal mine operators. On December 23, 1920, local union official Adrian Northcutt of Nauvo was summoned out of his home by soldiers of Company M of the Alabama Guard, who fired 7 shots, killing him.p.9
1921	Wheeling, WV	steel	strike	1	Elmer Cost, a striker, was shot and killed by a guard.p. 251
August 1, 1921	Welch, WV	coal mining	strike	2 (Sheriff Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers)	On the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse, the gunmen of the Baldwin-Felts Agency avenged the deaths of their colleagues by shooting to death the unarmed Sid Hatfield and his colleague, Ed Chambers, as the two men and their wives prepared to enter the court building. One of the agents approached and killed the wounded and fallen Chambers with a bullet to his head.
August 25–Sept. 2, 1921	Logan County, WV	coal mining	strike, organizing	50–100	Battle of Blair Mountain: the largest labor uprising in United States history and the largest organized armed uprising since the American Civil War. During an attempt by the miners to unionize, and following the murder of Sid Hatfield, 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3000 lawmen and Baldwin-Felts strikebreakers, who were backed by coal mine operators. In the summer of 1921 in Mingo County, hundreds of miners were arrested without habeas corpus and other basic legal rights. Talk spread of a march to free those confined miners, end martial law, and organize the county. In Kanawha County, up to 13,000 miners gathered and began marching toward Logan County on August 24. The reviled anti-union sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin set up defenses on Blair Mountain, with the nation's largest private armed force of 2000. By August 29, battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private hired planes dropped homemade bombs on the miners near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. Army bombers were used for aerial surveillance. Sporadic gun battles continued for a week. Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin's side and 50–100 on the union miners' side, with hundreds more injured. On September 2, federal troops arrived by presidential order, and the miners started heading home the next day. About one million rounds were fired in the battle.
August 27, 1921	Sharples, WV	coal mining	arrest attempt	at least 2	Posse of 70 to 100 deputies and state police went to the small mining community of Sharples to arrest miners and their leaders. The confrontation resulted in a gunfight in which at least two miners were killed and two others were wounded.
June 22, 1922	Herrin, IL	coal mining	strike	3	Herrin Massacre: Armed union miners surrounded W.J. Lester's mine. Lester's guards opened fire, killing two of the UMWA members (Jordie Henderson, Joseph Pitkewicius} and mortally wounding a third. The next day, union miners killed 19 of the 50 strikebreakers and mine guards.
September 9, 1924	Hanapēpē, Kauaʻi, HI	sugar	strike	16	Hanapēpē massacre: Sixteen striking Filipino sugar workers on the Hawaiʻi island of Kauaʻi were killed by police; four police also died. Many of the surviving strikers were jailed, then deported.
November 21, 1927	Serene, CO	coal mining	strike	6	Columbine Mine massacre: State police and mine guards fired pistols, rifles and a machine gun into a group of five hundred striking miners and their wives.
February 9, 1929	Imperial, PA	coal mining	police brutality	1	Three members of the Coal and Iron Police beat miner John Barkoski to death. He had gone to his mother-in-law's home and there fell into the hands of two coal and iron policemen employed by the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Eyewitnesses said one of them had launched an unprovoked attack on Barkoski, who received a laceration of the left cheek, five or six head wounds, two broken ribs and a fractured nose. Later at police barracks over the course of four hours, according to trial testimony, a third officer beat Barkoski with a strap while he lay semiconscious on the floor, twisted his ears until the miner cried aloud, and twisted his broken nose until he lapsed again into unconsciousness. Then he beat Barkoski over the chest with a poker until the poker bent, straightened the implement and beat the man again. He stripped the miner to the waist in order to better use a strap and kicked Barkoski until the miner's body rolled over and over on the floor. The original attacker also beat Barkoski, kicked him, struck him over the head with knucklers, and slapped him on the arms and legs and neck with his blackjack. The next morning he was taken to a hospital where he died. A jury acquitted the three officers of murder.
October 2, 1929	Marion, NC	textile	strike	6	Marion Massacre: A sheriff and 11 deputies attempting to disperse a picket line opened fire on strikers, killing 6 and wounding 17 others. Most of the dead and wounded were shot in the back. (Killed: George Jonas, Sam Vickers, Randolph Hall, James Roberts, Luther Black, W.F. Bryson)
1931–1939	Harlan County, KY	coal mining	various	13	The Harlan County War was a violent, nearly decade-long conflict between miners and mine operators who adamantly resisted unionization. It consisted of skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes. The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side and coal firms and law enforcement officials on the other. Before its conclusion, state and federal troops would occupy the county more than half a dozen times.
March 7, 1932	Dearborn, MI	auto	demonstration by unemployed workers	5	Ford Massacre: Thousands of unemployed hunger marchers sought to present petitions to Ford Motor Company at the end of a planned march to the Dearborn plant. Dearborn police and Ford security guards opened fire on the marchers. As protestors retreated, machine guns were fired at them. 4 workers were shot to death (Joe York, Coleman Leny, Joe DeBlasio, Joe Bussell), and over 60 were injured, many by gunshot wounds. Three months later, Curtis Williams died of his injuries.
October 5, 1933	Ambridge, PA	steel	strike	1	Executives at Jones & Laughlin Steel in Aliquippa, PA recruited a group of 200 deputies, armed them with tear gas and rifles, and sent them armed across the river to a sister plant that was on strike. They attacked a picket line outisde the Spang-Chalfant Seamless Tube Mill, shooting 21 strikers, killing one with a bullet in the neck.p. 256
October 10, 1933	Pixley and Arvin, CA	agriculture	strike	4	San Joaquin cotton strike: Up to 18,000 cotton workers had gone on strike. About 30 armed ranchers surrounded a meeting of strikers in Pixley and fired on them, killing 3. That same day, a group of striking grape-pickers faced armed growers' men at a farm near Arvin, 60 miles (97 km) south of Pixley. After a stand-off, the two sides attacked each other (the workers using wooden poles, the growers' men using their rifle butts). A shot rang out, killing a striking worker. 8 growers were charged with murder.
May 15, 1934	San Pedro, CA	shipping	strike	2	1934 West Coast waterfront strike: When 500 strikers attacked the stockade that housed strikebreakers in San Pedro, company guards shot into the crowd, killing two (Richard Parker was one).
May 24, 1934	Toledo, OH	auto	strike	2	Battle of Toledo, the Electric Auto-Lite Strike: Ohio National Guardsmen guarding the Auto-Lite plant fired into the crowd, killing Frank Hubay and Steve Cyigon, who were strike sympathizers. At least 15 others were shot and wounded.
June 30, 1934	Seattle, WA	shipping	strike	1	1934 West Coast waterfront strike: Upon hearing that scab crews were about to take two oil tankers out of the port, union members went to the dock. When the longshoremen tried to get past the dock’s gates, they were ambushed by guards. Worker Shelvy Daffron was shot in the back and later died.
July 5, 1934	San Francisco, CA	shipping	strike	2	1934 West Coast waterfront strike: Two longshoremen, Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry, were shot to death by the San Francisco Police.
July 12, 1934	Portland, OR	shipping	strike	1	1934 West Coast waterfront strike: Portland police chief ordered his force to "shoot to kill" picketers at the dock. Four were shot, one of whom died of his wounds.
July 20, 1934	Minneapolis, MN	trucking, then general	strike	2	Minneapolis general strike of 1934: 50 armed policemen were escorting a non-union truck that was then cut off by a vehicle carrying picketers. The police opened fire on the vehicle with shotguns and then turned their guns on the strikers filling the streets. Two strikers were killed and 67 wounded.
September 2, 1934	Trion, GA	textile	strike	1	Textile workers strike (1934): A picketer and mill guard died in a shootout.
September 2, 1934	Augusta, GA	textile	strike	2	Textile workers strike (1934): Guards killed two picketers.
September 6, 1934	Honea Path, SC	textile	strike	7	Textile workers strike (1934): Deputies stationed in and around Chiquola Mill opened fire on picketing textile workers with pistols and shotguns. They killed 7 and wounded about 30. (Killed: Claude Cannon, Lee Crawford, Thomas Yarbrough, E.M. "Bill" Knight, Ira Davis, Maxie Peterson, C.R. Rucker)
September 12, 1934	Woonsocket, RI	textile	strike	1	Textile workers strike (1934): National Guardsmen fired on strikers at the Rayon plant, killing one and injuring three others, one day after the governor placed the area under martial law.
June 21, 1935	Humboldt County, CA	lumber	strike	3	Pacific Northwest lumber strike: three lumber workers were killed in a fight with police and strikebreakers outside of the Holmes-Eureka lumber mill.
May 30, 1937	Chicago, IL	steel	strike	10	Little Steel strike at Republic Steel: Police opened fire, killing 10 protestors in the Memorial Day massacre of 1937.
June 19, 1937	Youngstown, OH	steel	strike	2	"Little Steel" strike at Republic Steel: A gunfight between heavily armed police officers and scantily armed protesters lasted into the night, leaving dozens injured and two dead.
July 9, 1937	Alcoa, TN	aluminum	strike	2	The city deployed a large police force to forcibly end a strike at the Alcoa plant. Two striking workers were shot and killed, and the National Guard was called upon to intervene.
July 11, 1937	Massillon, OH	steel	strike	2	"Little Steel" strike: The local police force destroyed local union headquarters, killing 2 unionists.
1937	several	steel	strike	3	Other killings occurred during the "Little Steel" strike.

Execution by the state

Date	Location	Type of dispute	Workers executed by the State	Notes
June 21, 1877 – October 9, 1879	Pennsylvania (Pottsville, Mauch Chunk, Bloomsburg, Sunbury)	coal mining strike	20 (10 in 1877) Alexander Campbell, John Donahue, Michael J. Doyle, Edward J. Kelly, Hugh McGeehan, Thomas Munley, James Carroll, James Roarity, James Boyle, Thomas Duffy – all hanged June 21, 1887. (10 in 1878 & 1879) Thomas Fisher, John Kehoe, Patrick Hester, Peter McHugh, Patrick Tully, Peter McManus, Dennis Donnelly, Martin Bergan, James McDonnell, Charles Sharpe.	A 20% pay cut in December, 1874, led to a long strike that began on January 1, 1875,p.51 and quickly turned violent. Several company bosses were killed. Bodies of militant miners were sometimes found in deserted mine shafts.p.53 20 workers (suspected Molly Maguires)p.5,10 were tried for murder and convicted largely on testimony of a Pinkerton spy.p.234-5 Franklin B. Gowen, owner of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the person who hired Pinkerton, had himself appointed special prosecutor.p.54 The 20 men were hanged by the State of Pennsylvania. "The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows. ... Any objective study of the tenor of the times and the entire record must conclude that (the Mollies) ... did not have fair and impartial juries. They were, therefore, denied one of the fundamental rights that William Penn guaranteed to all of Pennsylvania’s citizens." Following an investigation 100 years after his death, John Kehoe was posthumously pardoned by the governor, who wrote, "[I]t is impossible for us to imagine the plight of the 19th Century miners in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region. ... We can be proud of the men known as the Molly Maguires," whom he praised as "these martyred men of labor."p.284
November 11, 1887	Illinois	strike	4 hanged on Nov. 11, 1887 (Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, Adolph Fischer) 1 suicide on Nov. 10, 1887 (Louis Lingg)	On May 4, 1886, one day after police fired into a crowd of striking McCormick Harvesting Machine workers outside Chicago, 3000 people rallied at Chicago's Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality. A bomb thrown at the rally caused police to open fire, killing at least one worker and injuring many. Blamed for the Haymarket bomb, four labor leaders were eventually hanged and one committed suicide the day before the scheduled executions. The prosecution admitted that none of eight defendants was involved in the bombing. In 1893 Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld found that "much of the evidence given in the trial was pure fabrication," and that the police had bribed and "terrorized ignorant men," or threatened witnesses "with torture if they refused to swear to anything desired."
November 19, 1915	Utah	organizing	Joe Hill	Joe Hill, IWW labor organizer and song writer, was executed by firing squad by the State of Utah for the murder of a grocer, despite worldwide protests and two attempts to intervene by President Woodrow Wilson. With the backing of the IWW, his conviction was appealed to the Utah Supreme Court. Citing dozens of alleged errors in procedure and fairness, attorney O.N. Hilton called Hill's case "utterly lacking in the essential fundamentals of proof." Recent research findings support "that the circumstantial case made against the man who ultimately was executed for the crime was nowhere near as convincing as the one that could and should have been made against (Frank Z.) Wilson," who was a serial criminal well-known to police, who picked him up mere blocks from the murders, detained him and then let him go.

By vigilante, mob and hate group

Date	Location	Industry	Type of dispute	Workers* killed by vigilante/mob	Notes
September 25, 1891	Lee County, TX	cotton	strike	15	African-American cotton pickers organized and went on strike in Lee County, Texas, against miserably low wages and other injustices. Over the course of September a white mob put down the strike, killing 15 strikers in the process.
1910	Tampa, FL	cigar mfg.	organizing	5	Five labor organizers were lynched in Tampa during 1910. The Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights in Tampa stated, "The Tampa cigar bosses carry on a constant campaign to prevent the organization of cigar makers unions."p. 8
August 3, 1913	Wheatland, CA	agriculture	strike	2	Wheatland Hop Riot: Fighting broke out when sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest IWW leader Richie "Blackie" Ford as he addressed striking field workers at the Durst Ranch. Four persons died, including two workers, the local district attorney and a deputy. Despite the lack of evidence against them, Ford and another strike leader were found guilty of murder.
December 24, 1913	Red Jacket, MI	copper mining	strike	11 (plus 62 children)	Italian Hall disaster: As the Copper Country strike of 1913–1914 dragged on into the cold of December, the hatred on both sides grew.p.326 Anna Klobuchar Clemenc and the Women's Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners organized a Christmas-Eve party for strikers and their families. The hall was packed with 400 to 500 people when someone shouted "fire." There was no fire, but 73 people, 62 of them children, were crushed to death trying to escape.
August 1, 1917	Butte, MT	copper mining	organizing	1	IWW organizer Frank Little was lynched by six masked men. 10,000 workers lined the route of his funeral procession. Years later writer Dashiell Hammett would recall his early days as a Pinkerton detective agency operative and recount how a mine company representative offered him $5,000 to kill Little.
September 30, 1919	Elaine, AR	agriculture	organizing	up to 100 or more	African-American farmers met to establish the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices. They were shot at by a group of whites and returned the fire. News of the confrontation spread and a riot ensued, leaving at least 100 blacks dead.
November 11, 1919	Centralia, WA	lumber	organizing	1	Centralia Massacre: American Legion members attempted to force their way into an IWW hall during an Armistice Day celebration. Four Legionnaires were shot dead by members of the IWW, after which IWW organizer Wesley Everest was lynched by vigilantes.
November 22, 1919	Bogalusa, LA	lumber	organizing	4	The Great Southern Lumber Company crushed by brute force an effort to unionize the Bogalusa mills, which left four International Union of Timber Workers organizers dead. A horde of the mill's hired gunmen converged on the union offices and without warning began to shoot. Lem Williams was the first to be shot dead, without a word being spoken by either side. J. P. Bouchillon and Thomas Gaines, who were in his office at the time, were shot down, and the bodies of the three men fell one on top of the other. Stanley O’Rourke attempted to leave by the back door where he was shot down while coming out with his hands above his head.
September 14, 1929	Gastonia, NC	textile	strike	1	Textile mill striker and songwriter Ella May Wiggins, 29, a mother of five, was killed when local vigilantes and thugs forced the pickup truck in which she was riding off the road and began shooting.
April 1934	Lakeland, FL	citrus	organizing	1	Frank Norman, an organizer of citrus workers, was abducted by Klansmen and never seen or heard from again.p. 9
November 30, 1935	Tampa, FL	cigar mfg.	organizing	1	In the 1930s, the Ku Klux Klan actively harassed and intimidated union leaders. On November 30, 1935, Tampa police raided an organizational meeting of "Modern Democrats" in a private home without a warrant. Joseph A. Shoemaker and five other organizers were taken to a Tampa police station. Five policemen then turned three of them over to a mob of Klansmen. Shoemaker died nine days later after he was stripped, flogged with tire chains, clubbed on the head, burned with a hot poker in the genitals, covered in boiling tar and feathers and paralyzed on one side. The cigar industry moguls of Tampa had actively opposed Shoemaker, had close ties to the police and posted bail for the arrested policemen. "A thorough investigation revealed that the murder resulted from a collaboration between Tampa Chief of Police R. G. Tittsworth and (the) local Klan." However, no one was ever punished for Shoemaker’s murder.
May 12, 1936	Detroit, MI		organizing	1	Charles Poole, an organizer for the Works Progress Administration, was murdered by the Black Legion. The legion saw as its enemies not only blacks, Jews, and Catholics, but also welfare workers and recipients and labor union organizers.
April 4, 1968	Memphis, TN	sanitation	strike	1	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated when he returned to Memphis to lead a non-violent march in support of the strike by city sanitation workers, members of AFSCME Local 1733.
November 3, 1979	Greensboro, NC	textile	organizing	5	Five labor organizers were killed at the Greensboro Massacre, as workers were attempting to organize across racial lines at various textile mills in the area. A rally to protest recruitment at the mills by the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis turned violent, resulting in the deaths of the organizers. (Killed: Cesar Cauce, William Sampson, Sandra Smith, Dr. James Waller , Dr. Michael Nathan)

* includes labor organizers

See also

• Anti-union violence
• List of strikes
• Timeline of labor issues and events

References

* * * * Labor issues and events Labor issues and events * Labor issues and events