The 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike was a sympathy strike and lockout by the United Brotherhood of Teamsters in the summer of 1905 in the city of Chicago, Illinois. The strike was initiated by a small clothing workers' union. But it soon spread as nearly every union in the city, including the Teamsters, supported the job action with sympathy strikes. Initially, the strike was aimed at the Montgomery Ward department store, but it affected almost every employer in the metropolitan region after the Teamsters walked out. The strike eventually pitted the Teamsters against the Employers' Association of Chicago, a broad coalition of business owners formed a few years earlier to oppose unionization in Chicago.Fitch, Solidarity for Sale, 2006."Big Strike Has Small Beginning", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 20, 1905.
The strike was a violent and deadly one. Riots erupted on April 7 and continued almost daily until mid-July. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of striking workers and their supporters 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.Witwer, Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union, 2003."History of Great Teamsters' Strike Filled with Sensational Incidents", Chicago Daily Tribune, July 21, 1905. It was the second-most deadly labor dispute in 20th-century American history, surpassed only by the East St. Louis Riot of 1917.
Court testimony in late summer revealed that various businessmen (including the general manager of Montgomery Ward) had taken bribes to lock out their workers. The testimony also revealed that union leaders had asked for and received bribes to end their strikes. The testimony significantly undercut public support for labor unions, and the strike quickly collapsed.Cohen, The Racketeer's Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 1900–1940, 2004. The strike is generally considered to have lasted 103 days from the date the Teamsters entered the fray on April 6 until its conclusion on July 19, when most unions voted to withdraw from the dispute.
The strike is considered one of the most important of early 20th-century American history because of its violence, the strength and depth of inter-union solidarity, and the way it dramatically weakened public support for unions nationwide.Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925, 1987.
Background The Employers' Association of Chicago (the EA) was formed in 1902 during a strike against telephone equipment manufacturers.
In January 1902, Brass Molder's Union Local 83 struck Stromberg-Carlson and Western Electric, seeking to win the closed shop in collective bargaining negotiations. The employers locked out the workers and brought in strikebreakers. Union members began to physically attack the strikebreakers. On May 7, 1903, the union struck the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company. Kellogg Switchboard, too, locked out its workforce and hired strikebreakers. The Teamsters Joint Council of Chicago, a citywide organization of all Teamster locals in the Chicago area, began a sympathy strike on June 24, 1903. The three employers sought injunctions against the sympathy strike, which they won on July 20, 1903. The Brass Molders' strike collapsed soon afterward.Ernst, Lawyers Against Labor: From Individual Rights to Corporate Liberalism, 1995.
During this strike, the Employers' Association of Chicago was formed. John G. Shedd, vice-president of Marshall Field & Company, was the primary force behind the organization of the group. Shedd became the group's first president. Montgomery Ward president Robert J. Thorne was the EA's first vice-president; grocery store president Frank H. Armstrong of Reid, Murdoch & Company the second vice-president; and William E. Clow, president of plumbing manufacturer J.B. Clow & Co. the secretary."Labor War in Chicago", The New York Times, November 1, 1903. The EA's goal was to secure the open shop, resist unionization, and break unions in workplaces where they existed."Plans War on Teamsters", Chicago Daily Tribune, June 17, 1904. The EA was heavily funded by the city's banks and by large companies such as Rand McNally.
The Teamsters quickly became the target of the EA. The Teamsters were one of the largest unions in Chicago. But since the Teamsters controlled the city's transportation network, the union's support was also critical to the success of any other union's job action. In early 1904, the Teamsters aligned all their contracts to expire simultaneously on May 1, 1905. The EA then passed a resolution on June 16, 1904, declaring that no employer would sign a contract with the Teamsters after May 1, 1905.
Strike On December 15, 1904, 19 clothing cutters at Montgomery Ward went on strike to protest the company's use of nonunion subcontractors. The manager of the fabric cutting room for Montgomery Ward & Co. at the time of the initial incident was C. V. Boller. The Montgomery Ward company locked the remaining workers out. Sympathy strikes by several tailors' unions broke out, as did sympathy strikes by other unions. By April, 5,000 workers were on the picket line, with all 26 local members of the National Tailors' Association (a coalition of clothing manufacturers and retailers) struck."Gigantic Strike Is In Full Swing", Chicago Daily Tribune, April 28, 1905."To Test Union Sympathy", Chicago Daily Tribune, April 6, 1905.
The Teamsters engaged in a sympathy strike on April 6, 1905, adding another 10,000 members to the picket lines. Teamsters President Cornelius Shea targeted Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck and Company in particular, as these were the leaders in the National Tailors' Association. The sympathy strike had not occurred earlier in the year for fear it would have imperiled the candidacy of Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne for Mayor of Chicago."Strike Rioters Block Streets", Chicago Daily Tribune, April 8, 1905.
Violence broke out and continued almost daily until mid-July. Riots occurred on April 7 when Montgomery Ward attempted to use wagons driven by strikebreakers to deliver raw materials and finished goods. The most serious that day involved 1,000 striking workers and sympathizers, who attacked several heavily guarded wagons on Union Street."General Strike Now Threatens", Chicago Daily Tribune, April 21, 1905. On April 29, a crowd of 1,000 striking workers and sympathizers clashed with police, and three people were shot and two stabbed. Mayor Dunne immediately banned the carrying of firearms."Twelve Labor Heads Indicted in Chicago", The New York Times, April 30, 1905. On May 4, a riot involving more than 5,000 people coursed through the city's streets. Strikers hurled bricks and stones, and assaulted any African American or wagon driver caught on the streets. Police, strikers and strikebreakers used clubs and firearms against one another. During a stone-throwing melee on the Rush Street bridge, strikebreakers opened fire on striking workers, leading to one death."One Killed, 150 Hurt in Chicago Rioting", The New York Times, May 5, 1905. "Slugging"—the beating of non-union workers or union members who crossed picket lines—became common.
The EA mustered its substantial resources to break the Teamsters' support for the striking tailors. The EA collected $250,000 (about $6.7 million in 2017 dollars) from its members to hire strikebreakers. The EA also raised $1 million (about $27 million in 2017 dollars) to establish, on April 13, the Employers' Teaming Association-a new company which, within a matter of weeks, bought out a large number of team owners and imported hundreds of African American strikebreakers from St. Louis to work as teamsters and drive the wagons. Mark Morton, president of Morton Salt and an EA member, convinced the railroads to pressure the remaining team owners to lock out their Teamster members as well."Legal Tilt Over Strike", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 13, 1905.The railroads refused to engage in a lockout. See: "One Killed, 150 Hurt in Chicago Rioting", The New York Times, May 5, 1905. In response, the unions organized a boycott of all banks involved in the fundraising efforts."Labor Men Vote a Bank Boycott", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 8, 1905.
With the garment workers' strike all but forgotten, the tailors' union asked that the other unions end their sympathy strikes. The Teamsters, the critical union in the strike, agreed to do so if the employers would agree to rehire all striking workers. But on April 23, Montgomery Ward declared it would defer to the decision of the Employers' Association, and the EA announced a day later that no striking workers should be rehired.
Infuriated, the Teamsters called another 25,000 members off the job on April 25, 1905, paralyzing grocery stores, warehouses, railway shippers, department stores and coal companies. On April 30, the EA and its members then sued nearly every union involved in the strike.The EA had been planned to use injunctions long before the Teamsters began their sympathy strike, or any disturbances had occurred. See: "Strike Rioters Block Streets", Chicago Daily Tribune, April 8, 1905. Local and state courts issued numerous injunctions against the unions, ordering them to stop picketing and return to work. Historians point out that court actions strongly favored the employers. When a wagon owner refused to do business with Montgomery Ward for fear the Teamsters would picket him, a court forced the team owner to do business with the retailer or be found in contempt of court. In another case, a judge seated a grand jury whose foreman was A. A. McCormick, the reactionary publisher of the Chicago Evening Post.
The writs were sweeping in nature. One of the first, if interpreted literally and enforced, would have stripped the unions of their rights to strike:
On April 29, 12 prominent labor leaders in Chicago—including Charles Dold, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor; Shea; and 10 other local Teamster presidents—were indicted on six counts of conspiracy to restrain trade, commit violence, and prevent citizens from obtaining work.
The unions appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt on May 7, asking him to investigate the causes of the strike. The unions also requested that the president refuse to send troops to Chicago before investigating the status of the strike first. On May 10, Dold, Shea and other strike leaders met with Roosevelt personally in Chicago. Roosevelt refused to mediate an end to the strike, denounced the use of violence in the strike, and warned the labor leaders to settle the strike quickly before federal military intervention was needed."Shea Begs Help From Roosevelt", Chicago Daily Tribune, December 11, 1906.
With no collective bargaining negotiations scheduled, much of the strike's activities occurred in the courts in May, June and July. Shea refused to appear in court to provide pre-trial testimony regarding the April 29 indictment. When threatened with jail for contempt of court, he finally appeared but answered all questions with variations of "I don't know.""Strike Parleys Over, Chicago Troops Ready", The New York Times, May 24, 1905; "Strike Leaders Defy the Court", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1905. The injunctions also began having an effect. In late May, nearly all the building trade unions in Chicago agreed to return to work, significantly weakening the strike."Signs of Peace Supersede Shea", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 30, 1905, p5.
Shea's handling of the strike came under fire from the executive board of the international Teamsters union. On May 27, the board removed Shea from day-to-day control of the strike and transferred that authority to itself."Shea and Strike Growing Weaker", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 28, 1905.