222 ChaPter^4
Workers Union Local 24 and affiliated with the CIO. Industry, however, still
fought against the unions, leading to the violent Little Steel Strikes in the
spring. The first sit-down strikes took on industrial giants like Ford and GM,
which made such huge profits they could afford to pay higher wages, but there
were smaller manufacturers which continued to refuse to recognize unions in
their workplaces, and companies like Republic Steel and Youngstown Sheet
and Tube stockpiled weapons and hired additional private police forces.
This was the CIO’s next target, and led to another major strike wave in- On May 26th, over 75,000 steelworkers both sat in and walked out of
their plants at various locations in the Midwest, including Republic and
Youngstown Sheet and Tube, for better wages, health benefits, and safer work-
ing conditions. As at Flint, supporters brought food and supplies to the strik-
ers, even renting a plane to drop goods into the plant. The strike became most
violent in Chicago, where police fired upon unarmed strikers and their sup-
porters, killing 10 and wounding at least 100 others on May 30th. This event,
which became known as the Memorial Day Massacre, shocked Americans, but
did not motivate the factory owners to back down. The Little Steel conflict
continued for several more years across the nation. In fact, in 1938, class
conflict even reached Hawai’i, where dockworkers had gone on strike
demanding wages equal to those of longshoremen on the U.S. west coast. The
shippers called in scabs in August, and as unarmed strikers went to the docks
to meet their ships police opened fire on them, wounding over 50 in the Hilo
Massacre, including 2 women and 2 children. Labor tensions went down after
that, mostly because the coming of war in Europe brought military contracts
that led owners to reopen their plants and rehire workers. With production
again secured, it was easier for bosses to accept unions and collective bargain-
ing because profits were rising. Still, conflict continued until the U.S. actu-
ally entered the war. In fact, there were more strikes in 1941 than any year
since 1937—in the auto industry, shipyards, transportation, the building trades,
textiles, steel, and coal. In just that year there were almost 4300 strikes, with
over 2 million workers involved, and 23 million man-hours of labor lost. Still,
labor relations in the U.S. had changed, significantly, as workers could now
form unions without being fired or intimidated by their bosses. But these
changes were not radical; they did not challenge the capitalist system. While
the sit-downs surely would have made the Wobblies smile, the major struggles
of the 1930s were movements for inclusion, to receive rights and recognition,