A Historical Look at the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937

In the late 1930s America was still under the influence of the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce if they were to be found at all, and those that had jobs guarded them with their very lives. Interestingly enough during this time there was an upheaval of social changes coming around, and the labor unions were flexing their muscle demanding the rights passed under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

One of those rights was the right to organize to pursue collective bargaining on behalf of the workers, made possible by the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. Because of this act there was the highest level of strike activity in America during the years of 1933 and 1937. Some 10,000 strikes involving more than 5,600,000 workers took place. Although the NIRA was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1935, the labor provisions were replaces by the National Labor Relations Act also known as the Wagner-Connery Act (commonly known as the Wagner Act).

During this time, the American Federation of Labor decided that the steel industry would have to organize by their respective crafts rather than by the industry as a whole. This would force the smaller unions to organize their contracts as individuals unions and possible lessen the benefits and rights for the respective members based on how well or how poorly their unions bargained. The leader of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, was the president of the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), who believed that the steel workers should organize industry wide and each worker then have the rights and benefits that the larger union could deliver.

In June 1936 the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was created and began to engage steel workers into the union. United States Steel tried to undercut the union by giving the workers a raise, but it was to no avail, the SWOC was gaining strength. In early 1937 a contract negotiation was held between U.S. Steel and the SWOC, resulting in a $5.00 per day wage and an 8 hour day with time and a half for overtime. With this victory over U. S. Steel, the SWOC felt that the little steel companies would follow U.S. Steel's example.

However the little steel companies fought back by saying the Wagner act only provided law for negotiations and not contracts, and refused to honor the agreement. Further, they employed union breakers and strike busters to head off the strikes they felt were coming. At Republic Steel, they brought in food and cots for the non-union workers (scabs, as the union workers called them) to continue production without having to cross a picket line. The factory officials had also been in contact with the Chicago police department in anticipation of a strike.

When the strike began, the police moved quickly to prevent the strikers from harassing the scab workers. When the police broke up a picket line, the strikers began to march to the gate. For several days the strike had minor skirmishes between strikers and police, with only a few minor indications of violence.

It was unusually hot on May 30^th. It had reached 88 degrees by the afternoon, and by 3:00 PM the strikers had moved to a position to create their picket line. The police, some armed with Republic Steel supplied billy clubs and tear gas as well as their police side arms waited. The tensions were high and foul words were exchanged between the two sides. Suddenly, a police officer it he rear drew his pistol and fired into the air. at this time policemen in the front drew their weapons and fired into the crowd that was beginning to retreat. About 200 shots were fired in 15 seconds. Ten strikers were dead or fatally wounded, and thirty were wounded by gunfire. Of the dead, all of the wounds were either back or side wounds.

One year later, the Little Steel companies signed a collective bargain agreement with the newly organized United Steelworkers of America.