WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:02.359 Hi, and welcome back to part two of our double 2 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:04.719 episode about the strike wave in the US during the 3 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:07.599 Vietnam War. If you haven't listened to part one yet, 4 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:09.320 I'd go back and listen to that. 5 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:26.320 First Alamatina Happenalta or the larger, very largile there Larchild 6 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:35.399 child chi Alamatina. 7 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:34.159 Before we get onto the main episodes. We thought it 8 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:36.520 was worth making a bit of an announcement because this 9 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:40.399 is our one hundredth episode, which seems like quite a milestone, 10 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:44.039 and one that is only possible because of support from you, 11 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:48.359 our listeners on Patreon. 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In the show notes, we left off last 25 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:38.400 time about to talk about the mass strike of US 26 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:42.079 postal workers in the US posts work for the United 27 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:46.799 States Postal Service USPS and are employees of the federal government, 28 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:50.280 and so they were and still are banned from striking. 29 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:54.799 Despite a Congressional commission recommending postal workers be given the 30 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:59.239 right to collective bargaining in nineteen sixty eight, Congress itself rejected. 31 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:02.879 Its workers got no pay increase at all from nineteen 32 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:06.359 sixty seven to nineteen sixty nine, while their union did 33 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:10.479 nothing about it. This meant that, counting inflation, they had 34 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.599 real pay cuts of nineteen point five percent over this 35 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:17.879 time period. In early nineteen seventy, they were eventually offered 36 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:22.080 an increase of just five point four percent. Union members 37 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:25.520 called for a ballot for strike action, which officials succeeded 38 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:30.120 in delaying but ultimately couldn't prevent. A majority of workers 39 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:33.879 voted to strike, and workers in New York City, without 40 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:37.560 waiting for authorization from union officials, set up picket lines 41 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.560 around post offices in the city. 42 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:44.039 It was a wildcast strike, never supported by the unions. 43 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:48.080 It was the largest strike of postal workers and in 44 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:51.800 fact the largest strike of public employees that there had 45 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:57.599 ever been. It started in New York Wish a few 46 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:01.719 locals that decided to go on strike, and then spread 47 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:06.840 and became extremely widespread in New York, and then within 48 00:03:07.159 --> 00:03:10.280 days people from all over the country began calling in 49 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:12.319 and said we're going out too, We're going out too, 50 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:16.439 and it became a strike that involved hundreds of thousands 51 00:03:16.439 --> 00:03:20.319 of people around the country. It grew out of near 52 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:25.479 poverty conditions or actual poverty conditions that postal workers were facing, 53 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:28.879 with many postal workers on welfare in order to get 54 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.039 by and just thought a not read what was regarded 55 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:36.759 as something that was acceptable if you were working. So 56 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:41.680 the union completely opposed it ordered people to go back 57 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:47.120 to work. They did not go back to work. Does 58 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:51.840 National Guard was sent in. Ultimately, the United States Army 59 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:55.280 was sent in. Twenty five thousand troops occupied the post 60 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.719 office in New York. There used to be an old saying, 61 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:02.360 when they send the military end to force the miners 62 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.000 back to work. You can't dig coal with bayonets, and 63 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:09.560 so the postal workers adopted the slogan you can't sort 64 00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:13.319 mail with bayonets. And from what we were told, the 65 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:17.920 army went into the post office and started slarting mail, 66 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.279 but it's not clear that the mail was better sorted 67 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:22.959 after they went to work than it was before they 68 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:27.199 went to work. There was not a successful military operation 69 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:29.920 from the point of view of just getting the mail out. 70 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:34.519 This unsuccessful military operation in breaking the postal strike was 71 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:39.040 mirroring the unsuccessful nature of US military intervention in Vietnam itself. 72 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:41.759 It might have been successful and that they got to 73 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.600 troops into the post office, but it was not successful 74 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:46.279 from the point of view getting the mail out of 75 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:51.160 the post office. And there was essentially a fake settlement 76 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:55.040 that was worked out between the union officials and the 77 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:58.600 Postal service, and then the workers were told to go 78 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:01.680 back to work and they didn't. 79 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:05.040 By this point, the striant could spread to over two 80 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:07.480 hundred cities and towns across the country. 81 00:05:08.279 --> 00:05:11.439 There became a complicated situation, and I don't want to 82 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:14.360 go into all the details, but essentially there was a 83 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:18.439 taskit arrangement that negotiations would not begin and tell the 84 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:20.360 workers had gone back to work, but as soon as 85 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:23.439 they went back to work, not only the Postal Service, 86 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:27.639 but the President and both houses of the Congress agreed 87 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:31.000 that they would make a major raise for postal workers 88 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:34.560 and meet many of the other demands. And that's essentially 89 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:37.920 what happened. The postal workers went back to work, but 90 00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:44.279 they created an independent organization and told the union leadership, 91 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:46.319 if you don't have this settled in a week or so, 92 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:48.319 we're just going to go back out, and we have 93 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:51.920 the organization to do it. So they went back into 94 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:58.600 the post offices, and the Congress passed the legislation necessary 95 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:02.120 to give them a raise put him on a decent 96 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:03.199 footing for the future. 97 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:07.399 Congress awarded an immediate six percent pay increase to all 98 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:11.160 government workers, with postal workers to receive an additional eight 99 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:13.439 percent with a reorganization plan later. 100 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.319 It was not everything that they wanted, but it made 101 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:21.199 a huge difference in the power of the postal workers. 102 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:27.680 There was a point at which the head of the 103 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:33.959 Federal Employees Union AFGE said he was being overwhelmed by 104 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.720 telegrams and calls from local unions all over the country 105 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:43.279 who represented other government employees, saying, if the postal workers 106 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:45.439 can do it, why can't we and demand that he 107 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:48.519 called strikes for them, and that was part of the 108 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:52.279 reason that management decided that the government decided it had 109 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:56.040 to settle fast with the postal workers because damn thing 110 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:59.199 was really threatening to get out of control. One of 111 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:03.839 the most vociferous locals, he said, for demanding a strike, 112 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:08.439 was one that organized the logistics for the American war 113 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:12.680 in Vietnam. Now that doesn't mean that workers were striking 114 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:16.000 against the war, but it meant that the demands that 115 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:20.199 they be patriotic and support the war had lost the 116 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:23.800 power and credibility to direct their action. 117 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:29.000 In wartime, governments and national media typically denounce any kind 118 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.199 of strike as an attack on the nation and say 119 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:35.399 it's putting the troops, the war effort, and the country 120 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:39.839 at risk. So any wartime strike is significant because it 121 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:42.600 is seen and reported as an attack on the troops 122 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:43.120 and the nation. 123 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:46.839 It's certainly true in the context of the Vietnam War 124 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:54.439 is that the strikes were portrayed as unpatriotic, as undermining 125 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:58.519 the war effort, partially directly if they know we were 126 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:04.560 producing things that were needed. Also, because inflation and the 127 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:09.079 economic conditions, high demand for labor meant that if people 128 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.680 struck effectively on a large scale, they actually were able 129 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:17.959 to win substantial wage increases, and that was something that 130 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.279 then the government blamed inflation on those ways increases. This 131 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:26.000 in fact happened with the teams strikes that we'll probably 132 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.639 get to here. It wasn't just not producing what was 133 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:33.480 needed for war, but also adding to inflation, and inflation 134 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.200 was of course actually caused by the war, but something 135 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:41.840 that was portrayed as itself interfering with a successful prosecution 136 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:46.720 of the war, and the United States actually established wage 137 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:50.120 and price controls in the latter stages of the Vietnam 138 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:54.000 War as a way of trying to prevent eWays increases 139 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:54.720 above inflation. 140 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:59.480 The next major dispute involved truck drivers in the Teamsters Union. 141 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:04.200 One of the most powerful of American unions was called 142 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:07.559 the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and they were usually known 143 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:11.039 as the Teamsters Union. It went back to the era 144 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:16.240 of people who hauled freight using horses, a team of horses, 145 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:19.240 and so they were known as Teamsters, and they were 146 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:24.639 a very powerful union throughout the country, a very essentialized union. 147 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:27.759 So the local groups had a lot of control and 148 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:33.039 were both very important in terms of their numbers, but 149 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:36.559 also very very important in the labor movement because their 150 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:42.120 ability to tie up traffic to make the delivery of 151 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:47.840 goods to factories difficult if they wanted to. Many many 152 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:53.399 strikes were won by industrial workers, auto workers of other 153 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:57.600 kinds of industrial workers because Teamsters refused to deliver across 154 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.960 their picket lines. So they had a very important role 155 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:05.600 in the labor movement and in labor solidarity. The Teamsters 156 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:10.159 union was another case where the trade union leadership had 157 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:17.559 been in cooperation with management to very extreme extent. The 158 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.720 head of the Teamsters said that the Teamsers will never 159 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.399 tie up American Free with a nationwide strike for example. 160 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:28.600 This leadership then negotiated a new pay deal with management. 161 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:35.399 The union leadership negotiated a contract for the essentially the 162 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:38.679 central part of the country that was where all afraid 163 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:41.840 for the entire country was in there and going across there. 164 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.000 The agreement broke it between management and the union in 165 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:48.440 nineteen seventy gave pay increases of one dollar ten an 166 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:50.279 hour over thirty nine months. 167 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:55.080 The workers rejected it and began going out on strike 168 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:57.480 and doing truckers blockades. 169 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:01.039 Drivers in sixteen cities, including to lead you know Columbus, 170 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:06.320 Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Saint Louis, Atlanta, Chicago, and others 171 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:09.679 walked out on wildcat strike and set up mobile picket 172 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:13.919 lines to intercept drivers at key locations, for example, at 173 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:15.480 crossings of the Mississippi River. 174 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.960 Essentially, somebody would be come bringing a truckle on and 175 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:23.080 they would pull the truck in front of them and say, 176 00:11:23.879 --> 00:11:28.600 essentially like roadblocks in a wartime situation. And then the 177 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:34.519 workers who were driving the trucks through might say, yeah, 178 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.960 I agree, this is great and enjoying them, or if 179 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:40.159 they weren't crazy enough to do that, they might go 180 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.039 back to their boss and said, oh, I can't go 181 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:45.639 through there. They're threatening my life. You know, I'll never 182 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:47.600 see my wife and choulder and again if you make 183 00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:51.080 me go through that trucker's blockade. It was not clear 184 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:54.600 exactly what the balance of intimidation and support was, but 185 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.679 it was predominantly support as we could tell. 186 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:02.399 Still, that definitely was some violence. The New York Times 187 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:05.480 reported that some trucks had rocks thrown at them, windows 188 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.759 had been smashed, tires slashed, and air hose is severed. 189 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:12.480 The mayor of Cleveland claimed that strike related violence had 190 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:15.360 affected two thirds of all counties in Ohio. 191 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:22.080 The West Coast companies said we can't get our trucks through, 192 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:26.120 and the entire travel between the West Coast and throughout 193 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:29.679 the country was largely cut off. This is an old 194 00:12:29.799 --> 00:12:32.399 tactic in American labor. It used to be called a 195 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:35.759 flying squadron. It came in with the coming in of 196 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:38.279 cars in the nineteen twenties and thirties. So you'd have 197 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:41.320 a highly mobile team of workers and somebody heard that 198 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.639 somebody was trying to break a strike. They would go 199 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:46.279 to the location and put up a picket line, or 200 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:48.240 you go and go and talk to people and say, 201 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:52.159 you know, we're on strike, suaded them to join. And 202 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:57.600 this was essentially a revival of rolling picket line strategy, 203 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:59.679 and it was incredibly effective. 204 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.960 The United Press estimated that overall half a million people 205 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.039 were off work because of the strike. The national head 206 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:09.080 of the union told members to get back to work, 207 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:13.879 as did the Federal Mediation Service. Trucking companies then started 208 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:17.879 getting injunctions against the strike. Workers in Saint Louis ignored 209 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:22.039 an injunction for a month. In California, strikers instead called 210 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:25.759 in saying that they were sick. Ten thousand strikers were fired, 211 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.519 but workers responded demanding a full amnesty as well as 212 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:30.840 ten days sick pay. 213 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:36.200 The ultimate response was that the National Guard was called 214 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:39.279 up in dozens of counties in Ohio and elsewhere in 215 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:42.720 the Middle West to try to break the strike. 216 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:47.320 Soldiers with helmets, trucks and m one rifles guarded roads, 217 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:52.399 escorted trucks, and protected truck terminals. In some cases, strikers 218 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:56.120 throwing rocks managed to repel police and National Guard troops. 219 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:01.480 It was very unsuccessful. The just were not able to 220 00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:04.799 get people to start driving again or to let the 221 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:09.080 trucks go through, and it ended up with the union 222 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:14.279 going back and negotiating a new contract with a several 223 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:19.080 times as large a wage increase as had been negotiated previously, 224 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:22.480 and then the truck drivers went back to work. 225 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:26.320 The strike ended up lasting twelve weeks and management had 226 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:28.879 to accept a pay increase two thirds high than the 227 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:30.240 one originally agreed to. 228 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:36.120 It was very much in violation of the federal wage guidelines, 229 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:40.360 and the impact of it was that other workers immediately 230 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:45.519 began making demands for a similar kind of wage increase, 231 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:50.240 and you had within a year major increases in the 232 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:55.679 average wages for the entire country basically because of workers 233 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:59.000 who were involded by the Keemsers wildcats. So it's a 234 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:03.559 very interesting dynamic. Each of these is in some ways 235 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.279 a unique situation, as most strike situations are, but certainly 236 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:10.799 something that you could look at and learn some lessons 237 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:11.639 from for the future. 238 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:16.600 In contrast to the unofficial wildcat strikes, in nineteen seventy, 239 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:19.879 workers at General Motors took part in an official strike 240 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:22.360 called by the United Auto Workers' Union. 241 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:31.080 The nineteen sixties is distinctive in that almost all the 242 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:35.759 major strikes and labor struggles took place as wildcats and 243 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.720 in opposition to union officialdom. 244 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:43.679 And there's one big exception which we haven't mentioned, which 245 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:47.399 was the General Motors strike, and that was the situation 246 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:53.200 in which it was just about universally recognized that the 247 00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:57.159 purpose of the strike was for the union and the 248 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:02.200 company to not this out of the workers, get them 249 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.759 to be less feisty by making them be on the 250 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.159 street for a month or two. And it was essentially 251 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.519 a strike by unions and management against the workers. If 252 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:16.120 this seems bizarre to you, you're right, but it's thoroughly 253 00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.039 documented in articles in the Wall Street Journal and a 254 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.080 book called The Company in the Union at the Time 255 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:25.480 that leaves no doubt that this is what was going 256 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:26.879 on now. 257 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:30.120 The GM strike is an unusual one, but it served 258 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:34.200 an important purpose both for General Motors Management and the UAW. 259 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:38.080 For the workers, they wanted more money and better conditions, 260 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:41.320 and especially given the other disputes which were taking place, 261 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:45.039 felt that they could win them. The UAW wanted to 262 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:48.759 assert their control over the workers. More than ten percent 263 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:52.279 of all agreements being made by UAW officials at the 264 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:56.000 time were being rejected by rank and file members, and 265 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.960 the recent death of the popular UAW leader Walter Royt 266 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:04.480 had also resulted in increasing division within the union. For 267 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:08.000 the company, they wanted to reassert control on the shop floor, 268 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:10.960 and so they were happy for workers to blow off 269 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.880 a bit of steam in a controlled fashion in order 270 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:16.039 for workers to be able to get back to work 271 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:20.839 and follow orders from management thereafter. So the intention was 272 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:24.599 to have a prolonged all out strike. As one UAW 273 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:28.680 official admitted to the Wall Street Journal quote, the guys 274 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.960 go out on strike expecting the moon. But after a 275 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.079 few weeks of mounting bills and the wife raising hell 276 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:37.839 about his hanging around the house all day watching TV 277 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:41.480 while she works, the average worker tends to soften his 278 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:46.680 demands end quote. A strike would also unite different factions 279 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:51.359 within the union behind their leadership against the common enemy management, 280 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:56.359 So in September nineteen seventy, an all outstrike began of 281 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:59.720 four hundred thousand GM workers across one hundred and fifty 282 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:04.000 five different local bargaining units around the US. The union 283 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:06.759 and management agreed that all local issues had to be 284 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.319 resolved by the strike as well as the national ones 285 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:11.799 in order to try to draw a line under all 286 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:16.119 of the turmoil nationwide. But while UAW officials thought they 287 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:19.240 could reach a national agreement with management in around ten days, 288 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:22.880 rank and file GM workers were refusing to settle their 289 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:27.799 local agreements. The strike started dragging on, and so General 290 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:31.160 Motors even loaned the UAW ten million dollars to help 291 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:35.319 cover the costs of the ongoing dispute. After two months, 292 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:38.279 it started to look like perhaps the union management plan 293 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.079 was backfiring, as the workers were so determined that even 294 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:46.839 a long running strike wasn't demobilizing or demoralizing them. In 295 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:51.000 the end, UAW leaders and GM management held secret meetings 296 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:54.119 in which they agreed to just settle the national dispute, 297 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.359 leaving many local issues unresolved, and so after sixty seven days, 298 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:02.519 the strike inn did and workers won a thirteen percent 299 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:06.519 pay increase. Like the car industry, most of the other 300 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:09.720 major disputes that happened at that time were also in 301 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:14.400 predominantly male industries like mining and trucking, but women were 302 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:17.640 deeply involved as well in these working class struggles. 303 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:23.279 The backstory here is that women flooded into the industry 304 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:26.039 during World War two and then were largely pushed out 305 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:29.519 again afterward, and there was an effort to return to 306 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:34.920 the traditional male breadwinner concept of society and how the 307 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.200 economy worked, But in fact it didn't happen. After they 308 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.839 pushed back, they came back in larger numbers than By 309 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.799 the mid nineteen fifties, there was a higher proportion of 310 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:48.000 women in the workforce than there had been at the 311 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:53.400 end of World War Two. However, they were concentrated in 312 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:57.839 a very small number of occupations that were overwhelmingly women's work. 313 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:00.279 The largest number who came in went to world and 314 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:08.799 clerical occupations in sales occupations, stores and all salers, and 315 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:14.359 the traditional women's industries like the garment textel industries were 316 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:18.119 in the clawing in terms of numbers, and there was 317 00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:22.319 huge discrimination against women in the heavy industry jobs that 318 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:25.039 they had briefly filled but then been pushed out of. 319 00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:29.480 So you had a growing number of women in the workforce, 320 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:33.519 but concentrated in low wage jobs, but also in white 321 00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:37.680 collar jobs that didn't have traditions of labor organizing and 322 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:41.880 resistance and didn't have in most cases the economic power 323 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:47.000 that steel worker or garbage worker was believed to have. 324 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:52.519 So you have also a labor movement that is almost 325 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.400 entirely male in its leadership and not interested in most 326 00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:00.960 cases and organizing women workers. There are death and exceptions. 327 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:05.319 For example, hospital workers in New York, social workers and 328 00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:09.559 above all teachers both male and female, engaged in very 329 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:13.359 militant strikes, lots of arrest, city ins, and so on, 330 00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:17.119 but on a local basis, because the industries were generally 331 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:18.559 organized on a local basis. 332 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:22.880 For example, in July nineteen seventy, following a one day strike, 333 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:27.000 fifteen thousand hospital workers in New York one pay increases 334 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:30.079 of thirty dollars a week or twenty five percent, whichever 335 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:34.480 was greater, and in November nineteen seventy three, around thirty thousand, 336 00:21:34.599 --> 00:21:37.480 mostly black and put a Rican hospital workers in New 337 00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:40.559 York walked out on strike, demanding the seven point five 338 00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:45.279 percent pay increase they were contractually owed. Nixon's Cost of 339 00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:48.000 Living Council was trying to cap pay rises at five 340 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.160 point five percent, and so they blocked the increase, even 341 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:54.640 though the hospitals were happy to pay it. Strikers defied 342 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.640 a federal injunction and hundreds of thousands of dollars in 343 00:21:57.720 --> 00:22:01.480 fines until after eight days the government shifted and agreed 344 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:05.039 for them to receive a six percent increase. Both struggles 345 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.880 were important in the development of unions which persist today, 346 00:22:08.319 --> 00:22:12.039 like the Service Employees International Union SDIU. 347 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:18.119 The forerunner to the large organizations of public employees. Service 348 00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:22.519 employees and teachers that we know today are back essentially 349 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:25.920 the largest unions the largest numbers of workers in the 350 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:30.359 labor movement, but it didn't manifest itself by and large 351 00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:37.160 in large strikes. However, the largest protests in American history 352 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:40.279 was conducted by women, where we were at that time 353 00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:46.759 generally referred to as housewives, in the nineteen seventy three 354 00:22:46.920 --> 00:22:52.079 consumer meat boycott. I've talked about the inflation of that era, 355 00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:55.519 and the biggest piece of inflation was in food, or 356 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:59.359 one of the biggest, and that was largely concentrated in very, 357 00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:02.000 very large increases in the quest of meat. 358 00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:06.279 The Nixon government had implemented price and wage controls, but 359 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.599 he'd loosened them by this point, and Nixon had specifically 360 00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:13.640 stated that he didn't want price controls on food. Initially, 361 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:16.319 the government advised people unhappy with the high cost of 362 00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:19.839 meat to instead eat fish, cheese, or just eat less. 363 00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:23.240 This predictably caused outrage. 364 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:30.079 The idea of boycotting meat sprang up in a thousand places. 365 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:34.519 For example, one woman who got outraged about it just 366 00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:37.799 started calling random numbers in the phone book and asking 367 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:40.839 people what they thought about the price of meat. And 368 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:44.240 then when many as the women she talked to said 369 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:48.119 it's terrible and my family won't talk to me because 370 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.119 I can't feed the meat anymore, or whatever, it was, swell. 371 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:54.200 He held a meeting in a local bowling alley. This 372 00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:56.680 was in Staten Island, but the same thing was happening 373 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:01.319 all over the country. No national organization, no call, no 374 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:05.160 pre existing network beyond the very local level, and yet 375 00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:09.599 it became coordinated on a colossal national scale. 376 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:13.039 Thousands of women protested in the streets, picket lines were 377 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:16.519 set up outside supermarkets, and The New York Times reported 378 00:24:16.519 --> 00:24:20.799 that quote in some stores, militant women snatched cuts of 379 00:24:20.839 --> 00:24:23.799 meat out of their neighbors shopping carts and restored them 380 00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:27.519 to the freezer bins end quote. But at the same time, 381 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:31.279 the paper pointed out that quote, in general, no external 382 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:34.640 pressure was used or needed to enforce the don't buy 383 00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:39.400 movement end quote. Retailers reported that meat sales fell by 384 00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:42.759 fifty to sixty seven percent, and up to two hundred 385 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:45.200 thousand meat workers were temporarily laid off. 386 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:49.720 There was a gallup pol that was done immediately afterwards 387 00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:55.440 that asked did you participate in the meatboycutt and twenty 388 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.279 five percent of family said yes, which is about fifty 389 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:02.359 million people at that time. So this is really not 390 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:05.160 anything that I'm aware of in American history that compares 391 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:10.559 to it. Richard Nixon, a free market Republican, actually declared 392 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:15.440 a freeze on the price of meat, and that was 393 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:17.400 supposed to stop the boycott. 394 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:20.640 On the eighth of April nineteen seventy three, Nixon was 395 00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:24.079 forced to reverse course and appear on TV to announce 396 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:27.640 new price ceilings on beef, pork, and lamb to prevent 397 00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:31.440 them rising any further. The boycott was hailed by Time 398 00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:36.680 magazine as a quote triumph and the most successful boycott 399 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:41.680 by women since Lysistrata, referring to the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, 400 00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:44.880 in which women try to stop a war by boycotting sex. 401 00:25:45.720 --> 00:25:48.799