The Hardin County onion pickers strike was a strike by agricultural workers in Hardin County, Ohio, in 1934. Led by the Agricultural Workers Union, Local 19724, the strike began on June 20, two days after the trade union formed. After the kidnapping and beating of the union's leader and the intervention of the Ohio National Guard on behalf of the growers, the strike ended in October with a partial victory for the union. Some growers met the union's demand for a 35-cents-an-hour minimum wage, but the majority did not.
The Hardin County onion fields
Hardin County, Ohio, contained a large onion-growing region about east of the town of Lima. Two main growing areas existed. Scioto Marsh consisted of about of farmland. The top three growers controlled about 30 percent of Scioto Marsh land under cultivation. Hog Creek Marsh was a smaller growing area which consisted of about . The largest owner of Hog Creek marshland controlled about a third of that area's total land under cultivation. Roughly 25 smaller growers cultivated the rest of the farmland."Labor Conditions in the Onion Fields of Ohio," Monthly Labor Report, February 1935.Jamieson, Labor Unionism in American Agriculture, 1976.
Wages and working conditions for agricultural workers in Hardin County were poor even before the onset of the Great Depression. A plentiful supply of Caucasian migrant farm workers kept wages far below those of other counties and states. Working conditions were harsh. Laborers worked on their hands and knees weeding and picking onions. The work day was 10 hours long, with a 15-minute break for lunch and no overtime. There were no toilet facilities or restroom breaks, and water and first aid for injuries or heat exhaustion were not provided. The black earth absorbed heat, and temperatures near the ground could reach . Many workers lived in employer-provided housing, and were given an employer-owned milk cow (on loan) to prevent starvation.Montross, "Stepchildren of the New Deal," The Nation, September 12, 1934."Anti-Unionists Seize Ohio Town After Mayor's Home Is Bombed," Associated Press, August 26, 1934.Berry, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles, 2000.
Crop yields from the Hardin County onion fields were declining significantly by 1930 due to soil exhaustion as crop rotation was not practiced. As the Great Depression worsened, growers reduced the amount of land under cultivation even further to only . Growers also cut wages and required laborers to work longer hours.Rumer, Unearthing the Land: The Story of Ohio's Scioto Marsh, 1999.Sternsher, "Scioto Marsh Onion Workers Strike, Hardin County, Ohio, 1934," Northwest Ohio Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1986.
By June 1934, economic conditions for farm workers in Hardin County were especially severe. The prevailing wage was 12 cents an hour, but many workers earned only 8 cents an hour. Eight out of 10 families were considered to be living in extreme poverty, and almost half of all workers reported working only 26 days a year.
Legality of farm labor unions When the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed in 1935, it specifically exempted agricultural workers from the protection of the law. Although it was not illegal for farm workers to organize unions, federal (and state) law did not protect their ability to do so. Subsequently, most employers discriminated heavily against agricultural workers who attempted to form unions, and used a variety of techniques (many heavy-handed, and some actually coercive) to resist farm unionization.Valdes, "Legal Status and the Struggles of Farmworkers in West Texas and New Mexico, 1942-1993," Latin American Perspectives, Winter 1995; Jenkins, The Politics of Insurgency: The Farm Worker Movement in the 1960s. 1985; Majka and Majka, Farm Workers, Agribusiness and the State, 1982.
Beginning of the strike On June 18 and June 19, 1934, weeders and pickers working on onion farms in Hardin County formed a union, the Agricultural Workers Union, under the leadership of Okey Odell, a 38-year-old weeder. The workers were assisted by J.M. Rizor, an organizer for the International Quarrymen's Union. Their union was recognized by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as a federal union, and listed as Local 19724.
The workers immediately demanded recognition of their union, a 23-cents-an-hour wage increase (to obtain a minimum wage of 35 cents an hour), and an eight-hour work day.
Led by the top four landowners, the 30 growers formed the Onion Growers' Association to oppose the union. Odell and Rizor asked to meet with the Association, but the growers refused and said they would let their fields be overgrown with weeds first. The growers subsequently told the press that meeting with the union was pointless, since the growers were already losing money. The union challenged this claim, pointing out that at least one grower had recently purchased three new automobiles. But the growers stuck by their claim. A few weeks later, the Ohio state legislature asked the growers to open their books as part of a state investigation into the strike. But the growers declined to do so. To the union, this was merely additional evidence that the growers were profitable.
Odell called a strike on June 20. About 800 of the county's 1,000 onion field workers walked out. To prevent replacement workers from entering the fields and breaking the strike, the strikers attempted to stop and search all automobiles entering the Scioto Marsh and Hog Creek Marsh areas. For the first week of the strike, there was no violence. The Socialist Party of America and the American Civil Liberties Union raised funds for strike relief.
The union also received assistance from the Ohio Unemployed League. The League was a branch of the American Workers Party (AWP). The goal of the League was to organize jobless workers, advocate for higher relief payments for the unemployed, and help the unemployed resist employer calls to take striking workers' jobs.Hentoff, Peace Agitator: The Story of A.J. Muste, 1982; Bernstein, The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941, 1970. The League and the union struck a deal which provided for the legal defense of union members by the AWP and the League. League leaders obtained representation on the union's strike committee, assurances that the strike would be carried out using militant tactics, and that no settlement of the strike would be made without agreement of the strikers. Pursuant to this agreement, Toledo League leader Sam Pollock became part of the union's strike leadership team.
Injunction The growers immediately went to court to prevent the union from picketing in the fields.
On June 22, Court of Common Pleas Judge Hamilton E. Hoge issued one of the most sweeping anti-labor injunctions in American history.
The injunction restricted picketing to groups of two. Judge Hoge left it up to the discretion of sheriffs' deputies how far apart each group must be. Initially, the union established 34 pickets at least apart. Deputies arrested half the strikers. The union increased the distance between pickets to , and still arrests occurred. Distance between pickets was extended to , then a , and in some cases a . Arrests continued. On a number of occasions, deputies called pickets together and, when they obeyed, arrested them for congregating unlawfully.
To enforce the injunction, 54 "special" sheriff's deputies were hired and sworn in. The deputies' salaries were paid for by the growers. Although the deputies technically remained under the supervision of the Hardin County sheriff, the deputies were under the control of the growers and their field foremen. Most of the special sheriff's deputies were members of the Hardin County detachment of the Ohio National Guard and veterans of the Auto-Lite strike in nearby Toledo, which had only recently ended. The National Guard troops, most of whom were only 18 years old, were determined not to be intimidated by the picketers as they had been in Toledo. The newly appointed special deputies were armed with riot guns, machine guns, and tear gas equipment from the National Guard armory in Kenton, Ohio.
The union demanded to know why the state was providing the county with troops. When Governor George White was asked why the special deputies were recruited solely from the Ohio National Guard, he replied that the guardsmen were merely private citizens who had sought temporary employment. The governor saw no problem with arming the county deputies with state-owned weaponry or having full-time, on-duty officers of the Ohio National Guard command and drill the special deputies.
The special deputies quickly proved unruly. Local citizens complained that the guards were harassing them. The sheriff referred complaints to the commanding general of the Ohio National Guard, who then told petitioners that this was a matter for the local county sheriff. When prominent Hardin County business leaders forced the sheriff to deal with these problems, the sheriff ordered an investigation. But the investigation was never carried out, and the National Guard troops' behavior worsened.
First settlement attempt and outbreak of violence On June 27, the United States Department of Labor sent a mediator to Hardin County to help settle the strike. The growers agreed to raise the minimum wage to 15 cents an hour, but the union rejected the offer."Secretary Perkins Acts," Associated Press, August 26, 1934.
After the settlement's rejection, employers began evicting workers from employer-owned homes.
The employers also began to resort to violence to protect their replacement workers and break the strike. Vigilante groups were formed which beat strikers and union sympathizers, and ran them out of town at gunpoint. Shots were fired at picketers and at union members attending meetings. The growers hired another 50 special deputies to patrol the fields with machine guns, and special deputies used extensive amounts of tear gas to harass and break up pickets. National Guard troops began clubbing and beating picketers whenever they encountered them. On June 29, two strikers were shot and wounded by National Guard troops after they attempted to stop a truck of strikebreakers from entering a field."Two Onion Field Strikers Shot," Associated Press, June 29, 1934.
Union members and their supporters also resorted to violence. The growers began large-scale importation of replacement workers to break the strike. When they could intercept trucks carrying replacement workers, the strikers would throw rocks, bricks and bottles at the strikebreakers. Fistfights broke out whenever striking workers and strikebreakers encountered one another. Union members and sympathizers cut telephone wires throughout the county, blew up bridges, scattered nails on roads to stop and slow truck traffic, fired shots at strikebreakers, burned warehouses, and set off small explosions in towns, villages and onion processing stations throughout the county. Strikers even bombed the home of the owner of the Scioto Land Company, the largest landowner in Scioto Marsh.