The 1917 Twin Cities streetcar strike was a labor strike involving streetcar workers for the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Minnesota, popularly known as the Twin Cities. The initial strike lasted from October 6 to 9, 1917, though the broader labor dispute between the streetcar workers and the company lasted for several months afterwards and included a lockout, a sympathetic general strike, and months of litigation before ending in failure for the strikers.
The labor dispute began in August 1917, when streetcar workers began to openly discuss their grievances regarding their poor working conditions and low pay. In September, the workers met with Horace Lowry, the president of the company, to discuss possible wage increases and changes to working conditions, though Lowry resisted both. As a result, the workers organized with the International Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees, which established two local unions in the Twin Cities. Lowry responded by firing several union employees and offering remaining employees a ten percent wage increase, though they rejected the offer because it would not have included the rehiring of those employees. Fearing a possible labor strike, the Civic and Commerce Association, Minneapolis's employers' organization, mobilized the Civilian Auxiliary, an auxiliary group they had formed at the beginning of the United States's entry into World War I earlier that year.
On October 6, the streetcar workers went on strike, which went relatively peacefully in Minneapolis, but became violent in nearby Saint Paul, where a mob of about 3,000 people roamed the streets and committed acts of violence and property damage against both TCRT and non-TCRT owned property. The violence became so bad that Minnesota Governor Joseph A. A. Burnquist mobilized the state's home guard. On October 9, the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety (MCPS, a watchdog organization formed by the state government during the war) became involved, bringing an end to the strike as they mandated that the company institute improved working conditions and pay increases while they reviewed the terminations on a case-by-case basis. While the union claimed a partial victory with the strike, the company soon after began to plan ways to damage the union. They created a company union whose members often engaged in confrontations with amalgamated union employees, prompting the streetcar union to request the MCPS to intervene again. The MCPS organized a committee to address both sides' grievances and ultimately found in favor of the company, ruling that the union could not solicit or propagandize on company property, such as with wearing buttons advocating for the union. Taking advantage of the ruling, the company committed a lockout of about 800 union employees on November 25, further inflaming tensions. On December 2, a pro-labor rally at Saint Paul's Rice Park in support of the streetcar workers turned violent and resulted in a mob of about 2,500 damaging property in the city, and around the same time, labor leaders in the Twin Cities announced plans for a general strike. This general strike, which involved about 10,000 workers, was held on December 13 and was called off after less than four hours when it was announced that federal mediators would become involved in the streetcar labor dispute. The mediators found in favor of the union, but the company refused to obey their recommendations, which the mediators were powerless to enforce, and the union, which had previously agreed to a no-strike clause, was powerless to protest. After several months of litigation stretching into 1918, the labor dispute ended in failure for the union.
Following World War I, the Civilian Auxiliary and the MCPS would be disbanded. It would take until 1934 for employees of the TCRT to become unionized under the banner of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union. The company would continue operations until 1970, when its assets were absorbed by Metro Transit. Discussing the strike in a 2001 book, historian Mary Lethert Wingerd said, "I think it’s one of the most important events in the history of Minnesota, and one of the least recognized". Wingerd states that the strike exposed the federal government's limited power in addressing local labor disputes and resulted in later changes at the national level to address this. Additionally, the strike, which was supported by the Nonpartisan League, resulted in closer collaboration between organized labor and agricultural interests, contributing to the formation of the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party the following year.
Background Twin City Rapid Transit Company
By the beginning of the 1900s, electric streetcars had mostly replaced horse-drawn streetcars and cable cars as the dominant form of public transit in many cities across the United States. In the U.S. state of Minnesota, may cities had electric streetcar systems, including Duluth, East Grand Forks, and Winona. The streetcar systems for the neighboring cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul (which form a metropolitan area commonly referred to as the "Twin Cities") had been electrified in 1891, and that same year, the systems merged to form the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT), which held a monopoly on public transit in the cities. As in other localities, the Minneapolis-based company was granted a franchise by the cities to lay tracks and operate on their public roads, but in exchange, the company had to provide certain public services at its own cost, such as maintaining the road surface and performing snow removal. The company had a board of directors that included many noted area citizens and was led by its president, Thomas Lowry, a real estate developer who had been involved in the creation of many of the Twin Cities' neighborhoods, which were serviced by the streetcars. Lowry also oversaw a previous streetcar strike in the Twin Cities in 1889. He died in 1909, and by 1915, his son, Horace Lowry, had become the president of the company. By the mid-1910s, the company was struggling financially as its operating expenses had grown over the past several years. Additionally, while the company wanted to raise its fare, the prices were set by the local governments of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and the local politicians did not want to raise the nickel-fare that had been in place since before the system had been electrified.
Labor organizing amongst the streetcar workers Conductors and motormen for the company during this time experienced poor working conditions, working up to 12-hour shifts with no paid time off. As a result, starting in August 1917 and continuing into September, workers began to hold talks with labor union activists and pushed for a wage increase of $0.03 per hour. In September, a committee of streetcar workers met with Lowry and company management to demand increased wages and improved working conditions, though Lowry denied these requests, citing inadequate revenue that could not cover the increased costs. After this, many of the workers sought assistance from the Minneapolis Trades and Labor Assembly, the local trades council. On September 23, 32 workers held a meeting to discuss unionizing. Many unions during this time were taking advantage of the general nationwide labor shortage caused by the U.S. involvement in World War I by pushing for higher wages, better working conditions, and union recognition. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical anticapitalist union that had regional headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, was one such organization, and many employees who had pushed for the wage increases and better working conditions had ties to the group.
By September 25, Lowry had discovered the identity of 20 of the 32 men who had participated in the union meeting on September 23 and immediately fired them. This incensed many of the workers, and on October 1, about 400 workers held a meeting to discuss the situation with the company and decided to fully unionize with the International Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees, a union for streetcar employees, whose organizers established two local unions for the streetcar workers in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Around the same time, Lowry attempted to counter the growing labor movement in his company by offering a ten percent wage increase to remaining employees, though this offer was rejected because it would not have included the rehiring of the fired men. At the same time, Lowry fired another 37 workers for union activities. Alongside this one of the fired union workers was attacked by a foremen with another non-union employee holding him down, this was after he demanded the pay from his last week of work before being discharged. With no progress in negotiating with Lowry, the streetcar workers began to prepare for a labor strike. It would not be the first in the history of the Twin Cities streetcar system, as in 1889, workers for the Minneapolis Street Railway Company (a predecessor of the TCRT) went on strike over a wage decrease.
Political developments in Minnesota