Michael Cheslock
97-526: James F. Martin The Lattimer massacre was the killing of at least 19 unarmed striking immigrant anthracite miners by a Luzerne County sheriff's posse at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania , on September 10, 1897. The miners were mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and German ethnicities. Scores more miners were wounded in the attack by the posse. The massacre was a turning point in
194-458: A posse of about 100 English and Irish men to prevent any further marches. But, within five days, 8,000 to 10,000 miners were on strike. On September 8, mine owners demanded that the sheriff of Schuylkill County arrest several thousand miners who had assembled near Pottsville and had forced a mine to shut down, but the sheriff refused. On Friday, September 10, 1897, about 300 to 400 unarmed strikers—nearly all of them Slavs and Germans—marched to
291-404: A UMW call for a 15 percent wage increase attracted many Slavic miners into the union. The first wave of the strike ended on August 23, 1897, after the company agreed to pay overtime, bring wages up to the regional average, allow miners to see their own doctors when injured, and no longer force miners to live in company-owned housing. A second strike began on August 25. Teenaged breaker boys at
388-399: A boat. The state's National Guard was again summoned to put down the strike. In 1897, at least nineteen striking mineworkers were killed and dozens more were injured while marching to Lattimer , after a posse of deputies and company police fired on the unarmed crowd. The Lattimer Massacre bolstered sympathy and support for the miners' grievances and marked a turning point in the history of
485-584: A case involving the International Longshoremen's Association refusing to work with goods for export to the Soviet Union in protest against its invasion of Afghanistan , that a no-strike clause does not bar unions from refusing to work as a political protest (since that is not an "arbitrable" issue), although such activity may lead to damages for a secondary boycott . Whether a no-strike clause applies to sympathy strikes depends on
582-487: A coal mine owned by Calvin Pardee at the town of Lattimer to support a newly formed United Mine Workers union. Their goal was to support the newly formed UMW union at the still-open Lattimer mine. The demonstrators were confronted by law enforcement officials several times on the road and ordered to disperse, but kept marching. The deputies had spent most of the morning joking about how many miners they would kill. While on
679-500: A few workers received raises. Management did agree to treat Slavic workers more fairly, but the mine owners reneged on their other promises. The strikes resumed. On September 3, 3,000 workers marched on four mines, shutting them down. The mine owners' private armed force, the Coal and Iron Police , proved too few in number to break the strike, so the owners appealed for help from Luzerne County Sheriff James F. Martin . Martin established
776-429: A form of political protest. Like student strikes, a hunger strike aims to worsen the public image of the target. A "sickout", or (especially by uniformed police officers) " blue flu ", is a type of strike action in which the strikers call in sick . This is used in cases where laws prohibit certain employees from declaring a strike. Police, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and teachers in some U.S. states are among
873-446: A fraction of a day per worker per annum, on average, exceeding one day only in a few exceptional years. Since the 1990s, strike actions have generally further declined, a phenomenon that might be attributable to lower information costs (and thus more readily available access to information on economic rents ) made possible by computerization and rising personal indebtedness, which increases the cost of job loss for striking workers. In
970-460: A group of Slavic women armed with fireplace pokers and rolling pins led some 150 men and boys to shut down the McAdoo coal works, but were turned back by the quick arrival of National Guard troops. The Guard's artillery unit was withdrawn on September 24, and the rest of the troops five days later. Sheriff Martin and 73 deputies were arrested and put on trial. At trial, the defendants claimed that
1067-442: A last resort. The object of collective bargaining is for the employer and the union to come to an agreement over wages, benefits, and working conditions. A collective bargaining agreement may include a clause (a contractual "no-strike clause") which prohibits the union from striking during the term of the agreement. Under U.S. labor law, a strike in violation of a no-strike clause is not a protected concerted activity . The scope of
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#17327727502381164-545: A member refuses to cross a picket line. Sympathy strikes may be undertaken by a union as an organization, or by individual union members choosing not to cross a picket line. A jurisdictional strike in United States labor law refers to a concerted refusal to work undertaken by a union to assert its members' right to particular job assignments and to protest the assignment of disputed work to members of another union or to unorganized workers. A rolling strike refers to
1261-420: A minimum guarantee for these services and punish violations. Similar limitations are applied to workers in the private sector whose strike can affect public services. The employer is explicitly forbidden to apply sanctions to employees participating to the strikes, with the exception of the aforementioned essential services cases. The government , under exceptional circumstances, can impose the precettazione of
1358-452: A more common practice, governments were often pushed to act (either by private business or by union workers). When government intervention occurred, it was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in
1455-490: A no-strike clause varies; generally, the U.S. courts and National Labor Relations Board have determined that a collective bargaining agreement's no-strike clause has the same scope as the agreement's arbitration clauses, such that "the union cannot strike over an arbitrable issue." The U.S. Supreme Court held in Jacksonville Bulk Terminals Inc. v. International Longshoremen's Association (1982),
1552-456: A penal action (for a maximum of 4 years of prison) if the illegal strike causes the suspension of an essential service. Precettazione has been rarely applied, usually after several days of strikes affecting transport or fuel services or extraordinary events. Recent cases include the cancellation of the 2015 strike of the company providing transportation services in Milan during Expo 2015 , and
1649-412: A streetcar headed for Lattimer with the sheriff and his posse, one deputy was overheard saying, "I bet I drop six of them when I get over there." When the demonstrators reached Lattimer at 3:45 pm, they were met again by the sheriff and 150 armed deputies. Sheriff Martin ordered the marchers to disperse, and attempted to grab an American flag out of the hands of the lead marcher. A scuffle ensued, and
1746-421: A strike where only some employees in key departments or locations go on strike. These strikes are performed in order to increase stakes as negotiations draw on and to be unpredictable to the employer. Rolling strikes also serve to conserve strike funds . A student strike involves students (sometimes supported by faculty) refusing to attend classes. In some cases, the strike is intended to draw media attention to
1843-453: A stronger role for the state in preserving order in industrial disputes. On 16 March 1892 Coal and Iron police officer John Merget was shot and killed when he tried to stop 3 tramps from stealing from a boxcar. Coal and Iron Police again played a significant role in the 1892 Homestead Strike . As in 1877, The C&Is were overwhelmed by striking workers. They were herded together with the sheriff and local militia and sent away from town on
1940-445: A work stoppage each year on average, these strikes also contained more workers than ever recorded with an average of 20,000 workers participating in each major work stoppage in 2018 and 2019. For the period from 1996 to 2000, the ten countries with the most strike action (measured by average number of days not worked for every 1000 employees) were as follows: Most strikes are organized by labor unions during collective bargaining as
2037-459: Is work-to-rule (also known as an Italian strike , in Italian : Sciopero bianco ), in which workers perform their tasks exactly as they are required to but no better. For example, workers might follow all safety regulations in such a way that it impedes their productivity or they might refuse to work overtime . Such strikes may in some cases be a form of "partial strike" or "slowdown". During
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#17327727502382134-559: Is because the thugs and the Coal and Iron Police are armed and the strikers are not armed, and are not permitted to be armed; and they are beaten up by the thugs, and that is about the time the constabulary appear on the scene, and they come around, mounted like cavalry, and they come around and see the disturbance, and they always take good care to arrest only the strikers. During the Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911 ,
2231-548: The Chartist movement was at its peak in Britain, a true and widespread 'workers consciousness' was awakening. In 1838, a Statistical Society of London committee "used the first written questionnaire… The committee prepared and printed a list of questions 'designed to elicit the complete and impartial history of strikes.'" In 1842 the demands for fairer wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into
2328-619: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights , which guaranteed the right to unions and striking, but Chinese officials declared that they had no interest in allowing these liberties. In June 2008, the municipal government in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone introduced draft labor regulations, which a labor rights advocacy group says would, if implemented and enforced, virtually restore Chinese workers' right to strike. In
2425-491: The National Labor Relations Board permitting employers to establish separate or "reserved" gates for particular trades, making it an unlawful secondary boycott for a union to establish a picket line at any gate other than the one reserved for the employer it is picketing. Still, the practice continues to occur; for example, some Teamsters contracts often protect members from disciplinary action if
2522-491: The Pennsylvania State Police on May 2, 1905, when Senate Bill 278 was signed into law by Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker . The stated purpose was to act as fire, forest, game and fish wardens, and to protect the farmers, but some observers felt that it really was to serve the interests of the coal and iron operators because the same legislation created a "trespassing offense" that wherever a warning sign
2619-729: The Preamble to the French Constitution of 27 October 1946 ever since the Constitutional Council 's 1971 decision on the freedom of association recognized that document as being invested with constitutional value. A "minimum service" during strikes in public transport was a promise of Nicolas Sarkozy during his campaign for the French presidential election. A law "on social dialogue and continuity of public service in regular terrestrial transports of passengers"
2716-530: The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that there is a constitutional right to strike. In this 5–2 majority decision, Justice Rosalie Abella ruled that "[a]long with their right to associate, speak through a bargaining representative of their choice, and bargain collectively with their employer through that representative, the right of employees to strike is vital to protecting the meaningful process of collective bargaining…" [paragraph 24]. This decision adopted
2813-675: The U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 , and the subsequent coal strike of 1902 . A 1936 study of strikes in the United States indicated that about one third of the total number of strikes between 1927 and 1928, and over 40 percent in 1929, were due to "demands for union recognition, closed shop, and protest against union discrimination and violation of union agreements". A 1988 study of strike activity and unionization in non-union municipal police departments between 1972 and 1978 found that recognition strikes were carried out "primarily where bargaining laws [provided] little or no protection of bargaining rights." In 1937, there were 4,740 strikes in
2910-518: The UMWA . When the company imported strikebreakers to the region, many of whom had little to no English-speaking ability, the C&;I corralled the workers in company housing complexes and forced them to work, even as some attempted to leave. Sixteen strikers and their wives were killed during the strike. In August 1911 a Coal and Iron Policeman, Deputy Constable Edgar Rice of Coatesville, Pennsylvania ,
3007-568: The United Mine Workers of America . None of the deputies or company police were convicted for the murder of the unarmed workers. The end of the Coal and Iron Police began in 1902 during what became known as The Anthracite Coal Strike . It began May 15 and lasted until October 23. The strike led to violence throughout seven counties and caused a nationwide coal shortage, driving up the price of anthracite coal . The strike did not end until President Theodore Roosevelt intervened. In
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3104-409: The general strike may have been the secessio plebis in ancient Rome . In The Outline of History , H. G. Wells characterized this event as "the general strike of the plebeians ; the plebeians seem to have invented the strike, which now makes its first appearance in history." Their first strike occurred because they "saw with indignation their friends, who had often served the state bravely in
3201-424: The 2007 precettazione to stop the strike of the truck drivers that was causing food and fuel shortage after several days of strike. Legislation was enacted in the aftermath of the 1919 police strikes , forbidding British police from both taking industrial action, and discussing the possibility with colleagues. Coal and Iron Police The Coal and Iron Police (C&I) was a private police force in
3298-624: The 2011 Canada Post lockout was ruled unconstitutional, with the judge specifically referencing the Supreme Court of Canada's 2015 decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v Saskatchewan . In some Marxist–Leninist states, such as the People's Republic of China , striking was illegal and viewed as counter-revolutionary , and labor strikes are considered to be taboo in most East Asian cultures. In 1976, China signed
3395-493: The A.S. Van Wickle coal breaker in the nearby village of Colerain struck for higher wages as well. When Van Wickle attempted to use Slavic workers as strikebreakers, the Slavs also joined the strike. Although the strike spread to two other nearby coal works, the company quickly agreed to raise wages up to the regional average, and the strike ended on about August 28. When the new pay rates were announced on September 1, 1897, only
3492-564: The English-speaking immigrants and American miners of the region. Conditions in coal mines of the late 19th century were harsh. Mine safety was so poor that 32,000 miners in Northeast Pennsylvania had died since 1870. Wages, already low in a competitive industry, fell 17% during the mid-1890s after a coal industry slump. Although wages had improved to some extent by the fall of 1897, anthracite coal companies in
3589-621: The Lattimer massacre: Strike action Strike action , also called labor strike , labour strike in British English , or simply strike , is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work . A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances . Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution , when mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became
3686-504: The Pennsylvania State Police worked with the Coal and Iron Police to suppress the strike. Coal and Iron Police served as enforcers on company property during the workday, and state police harassed and surveilled the workers outside of company property and time. The two police forces worked together to evict a mostly Slovakian workforce from company-owned homes, forcing the workers to spend the winter in tents provided by
3783-553: The Royal Necropolis at Deir el-Medina walked off their jobs in protest at the failure of the government of Ramesses III to pay their wages on time and in full. The royal government ended the strike by raising the artisans' wages. The first Jewish source for the idea of a labor strike appears in the Talmud , which records that the bakers who prepared showbread for the altar went on strike. An early predecessor of
3880-511: The Soviet Union, strikes occurred throughout the existence of the USSR, most notably in the 1930s. After World War II, they diminished both in number and in scale. Trade unions in the Soviet Union served in part as a means to educate workers about the country's economic system. Vladimir Lenin referred to trade unions as "Schools of Communism". In France , the first law aimed at limiting
3977-464: The State or other authorities or may be a response to unsafe conditions in the workplace. A sympathy strike is a strike action in which one group of workers refuses to cross a picket line established by another as a means of supporting the striking workers. Sympathy strikes, once the norm in the construction industry in the United States, have been made much more difficult to conduct, due to decisions of
Lattimer massacre - Misplaced Pages Continue
4074-623: The US state of Pennsylvania that existed between 1865 and 1931. It was established by the Pennsylvania General Assembly but employed and paid for by the various coal companies. The Coal and Iron Police worked alongside the Pennsylvania National Guard, and later the Pennsylvania State Police, beginning in 1877. The remaining Coal and Iron Police commissions were allowed to expire in 1931, ostensibly ending
4171-414: The United States, the number of workers involved in major work stoppages (including strikes and, less commonly, lockouts) that involved at least a thousand workers for at least one full shift generally declined from 1973 to 2017 (coinciding with a general decrease in overall union membership), before substantially increasing in 2018 and 2019. In the 2018 and 2019 period, 3.1% of union members were involved in
4268-587: The United States. This was the greatest strike wave in American labor history . The number of major strikes and lockouts in the U.S. fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010. Companies countered the threat of a strike by threatening to close or move a plant. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights , adopted in 1967, ensures the right to strike in Article 8. The European Social Charter , adopted in 1961, also ensures
4365-662: The ability of workers to take collective action was the Le Chapelier Law , passed by the National Assembly on 14 June 1791 and which introduced the "crime of coalition." In his speech in support of the law, the titular author Isaac René Guy le Chapelier explained that it "must be without a doubt permitted for all citizens to assemble," but he maintained that it "must not be permitted for citizens from certain professions to assemble for their so-called common interests." Strike actions were specifically banned with
4462-463: The aftermath of the strike, there was growing determination that peace and order should be maintained by regularly appointed and responsible officers employed by the public. In March of 1903, Roosevelt's coal commission recommended the abolition of the Coal and Iron Police. Though the Roosevelt commission's recommendation was not heeded, it added to the public pressure which led to the formation of
4559-708: The alleged murder of mine boss Thomas Sanger by Charles Kehoe, a leader of the Mollies. Though the gunmen were never brought to trial, later evidence implicated Pinkerton, McParland, and Linden. Many in the Irish-American working class at the time, and some scholars today, question whether tales of the Molly Maguires were invented by the Pinkertons to justify repression in the anthracite coal fields. Many suspected Mollies maintained their innocence throughout
4656-427: The area's company towns . The company consolidated its mule stables, forcing teenage mule drivers to travel, unpaid, much farther each day to pick up their mules. After inconclusive talks, 25 to 35 teenaged drivers struck on August 14, 1897. A scuffle between a supervisor and some drivers led to additional walkouts by strip miners and underground coal miners; by August 16 nearly 2,000 workers were on strike. Nearly all
4753-484: The arrest and execution of 20 suspected Molly Maguires, but not without complications. Violence continued throughout the investigation. Tamaqua police officer Benjamin Yost was murdered in 1875 and the Mollies were blamed. This incident turned some of the public against the Mollies. Later that year, an Irish family was murdered by gunmen under suspicious circumstances. The attack was thought to have been motivated by revenge for
4850-508: The collapse of the putsch. The use of the English word "strike" to describe a work protest was first seen in 1768, when sailors, in support of demonstrations in London , "struck" or removed the topgallant sails of merchant ships at port, thus crippling the ships. The first historically certain account of strike action was in ancient Egypt on 14 November in 1152 BCE, when artisans of
4947-717: The companies used them as strikebreakers, and to coerce and discipline workers and their families. C&Is were sometimes used to crack down on unemployed miners and the families of miners' practice of "bootlegging" or picking up loose scraps of coal along the railways to sell or for use heating their homes. Many coal miners disdained the C&Is and called them " Cossacks " and "Yellow Dogs". Common gunmen, hoodlums , and adventurers were often hired to fill these commissions. They served their own interests and regularly abused their power. The first Coal and Iron Police were established in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania , under
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#17327727502385044-467: The context. Some in the labor movement consider no-strike clauses to be an unnecessary detriment to unions in the collective bargaining process. Occasionally, workers decide to strike without the sanction of a labor union, either because the union refuses to endorse such a tactic, or because the workers involved are non-unionized. Strikes without formal union authorization are also known as wildcat strikes . In many countries, wildcat strikes do not enjoy
5141-708: The county to restore order. Late on the evening of September 10, 1897, more than 2,500 troops of the Third Brigade (partly stationed in Luzerne County) had been deployed. Local Slavic community leaders held a rally on September 11 to try to calm the workers, raise money for the support of families of the dead and wounded, and seek the prosecution of Sheriff Martin and his deputies. Outraged miners searched in vain on September 12 for Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company mine superintendent Gomer Jones, and destroyed his home when they could not find him. On September 20,
5238-525: The development boom of the 1970s in Australia, the Green ban was developed by certain unions described by some as more socially conscious. This is a form of strike action taken by a trade union or other organized labor group for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. This developed from the black ban, strike action taken against a particular job or employer in order to protect the economic interests of
5335-421: The dissent by Chief Justice Brian Dickson in a 1987 Supreme Court ruling on a reference case brought by the province of Alberta ( Reference Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta) ). The exact scope of this right to strike remains unclear. Prior to this Supreme Court decision, the federal and provincial governments had the ability to introduce "back-to-work legislation", a special law that blocks
5432-491: The factors that drove most of the mass immigration to the US, where the economy was booming and many industrial jobs were available requiring little English. Disproportionate numbers of new Slavic immigrants worked in the coal mining industry; they were among the most exploited of all mine workers. During strikes in Northeast Pennsylvania by English-speaking miners in 1875 and 1887, mine owners imported many Slavic miners as strikebreakers , and they were "despised as scabs" by
5529-517: The first modern general strike . After the second Chartist Petition was presented to Parliament in April 1842 and rejected, the strike began in the coal mines of Staffordshire , England , and soon spread through Britain affecting factories , cotton mills in Lancashire and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall . Instead of being a spontaneous uprising of the mutinous masses,
5626-410: The general strike ) about 9 workdays per worker were lost due to strikes. In 1979, the loss due to strikes was a little more than one day per worker. These are the extreme cases. In the 79 years following 1926, the number of workdays lost in Britain was less than 2 hours per year per worker. In the U.S., idleness due to strikes never exceeded one half of one percent of total working days in any year during
5723-571: The groups commonly barred from striking usually by state and federal laws meant to ensure the safety or security of the general public. Newspaper writers may withhold their names from their stories as a way to protest actions of their employer. Activists may form " flying squad " groups for strikes or other actions, a form of picketing , to disrupt the workplace or another aspect of capitalist production: supporting other strikers or unemployed workers, participating in protests against globalization, or opposing abusive landlords. On 30 January 2015,
5820-464: The history of the United Mine Workers (UMW). The economies of Central and Eastern Europe were struggling in the late 19th century. The European rural population was growing faster than either the agricultural or new industrial sectors of the economy could absorb, industrialization was disrupting both the agricultural and craft economy , and there was increasing competition from large-scale commercial and foreign agricultural producers. These were
5917-453: The institution so that the grievances that are causing the students to strike can be aired before the public; this usually damages the institution's (or government's) public image. In other cases, especially in government-supported institutions, the student strike can cause a budgetary imbalance and have actual economic repercussions for the institution. A hunger strike is a deliberate refusal to eat. Hunger strikes are often used in prisons as
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#17327727502386014-671: The last forty years or more". One example cited was the successful formation of the United Auto Workers , which achieved recognition from General Motors through the Flint sit-down strike of 1936-37. They were more common prior to the advent of modern American labor law (including the National Labor Relations Act ), which introduced processes legally compelling an employer to recognize the legitimacy of properly certified unions. Two examples include
6111-451: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilize the rule of a particular political party or ruler; in such cases, strikes are often part of a broader social movement taking the form of a campaign of civil resistance . Notable examples are the 1980 Gdańsk Shipyard and the 1981 Warning Strike led by Lech Wałęsa . These strikes were significant in
6208-402: The legions, thrown into chains and reduced to slavery at the demand of patrician creditors". The strike action only became a feature of the political landscape with the onset of the Industrial Revolution . For the first time in history, large numbers of people were members of the industrial working class; they lived in towns and cities, exchanging their labor for payment. By the 1830s, when
6305-792: The long campaign of civil resistance for political change in Poland , and were an important mobilizing effort that contributed to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of communist party rule in Eastern Europe. Another example is the general strike in Weimar Germany that followed the March 1920 Kapp Putsch . It was called by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and received such broad support that it resulted in
6402-464: The marchers had refused to obey an order to disperse and were charging toward the sheriff and his deputies. Witness John Pusti gave a different account in formal testimony: I was with the strikers when the shooting occurred. When we approached the Sheriff he walked to the middle of the road and told us to stop. Some few of the men went forward, and I then heard two volleys from the deputies. None of
6499-459: The massacre resulted in a dramatic entry of more than 10,000 new members. The incident also helped end a longstanding myth about the docility of non-English speaking miners. Three years later, the union was strong enough to win large wage increases and safety improvements for miners throughout the region. These events significantly boosted the union career of John Mitchell , an activist for the UMW who
6596-464: The mine and steel mill owners commissions conferring police power upon whoever the owners selected. A total of 7,632 commissions were given for the Coal and Iron Police. In 1871, Governor John White Geary instituted a $ 1 fee for each C&I commission. Prior to that, there was no cost associated with obtaining the legal right to hire a private policeman. Although the Coal and Iron Police nominally existed solely to protect company property, in practice
6693-438: The miners joined the UMW (United Mine Workers) on August 18; within two days, almost all the mines in the region had closed due to the spreading strike. Many Slavic miners had not joined the nascent United Mine Workers. This was because of ethnic discrimination by English-speaking and American miners and also because of the poor relationship between unionized miners and the former strikebreakers. But, worsening working conditions and
6790-411: The national coal miner's strike in 1922. In February 1927 Coal and Iron Police officers Paul Fox and Lewis Knapp were killed in the line of duty. In 1929, Michael Musmanno , a Pennsylvania state legislator, fought to banish the Coal and Iron Police after they had beaten worker John Barkoski to death. The final disbandment was helped along by Musmanno's writing a short story based on the case, which
6887-481: The passage of Napoleon 's French Penal Code of 1810 . Article 415 of the Code declared that participants in an attempted strike action would be subject to an imprisonment of between one and three months and that the organizers of the attempted strike action would be subject to an imprisonment of between two and five years. The right to strike under the current French Fifth Republic has been recognized and guaranteed by
6984-518: The period 1948-2005; the average loss was 0.1% per year. Similarly, in Canada over the period 1980-2005, the annual number of work days lost due to strikes never exceeded one day per worker; on average over this period lost worktime due to strikes was about one-third of a day per worker. Although the data are not readily available for a broad sample of developed countries, the pattern described above seems quite general: days lost due to strikes amount to only
7081-479: The police opened fire on the unarmed crowd. At least 19 miners were killed, and between 17 and 49 were wounded. Many had been shot in the back, and several had multiple gunshot wounds, which indicated that they had been targeted by the deputies. The strike led to temporary mass unrest in the area. After Sheriff Martin telephoned for help, the Pennsylvania National Guard was dispatched to
7178-427: The postal service), and in more cases provincially. In addition, certain parts of the economy can be proclaimed " essential services " in which case all strikes are illegal. Examples include when the government of Canada passed back-to-work legislation during the 2011 Canada Post lockout and the 2012 CP Rail strike, thus effectively ending the strikes. In 2016, the government's use of back-to-work legislation during
7275-427: The proceedings against them. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 led to increased public-private police cooperation, with Pennsylvania National Guard regiments and eventually federal troops deployed when Pinkertons and Coal and Iron Police failed to quell disorder on their own. The difficulties faced by Pennsylvania authorities in routing entrenched strikers led to reforms in the state's National Guard, and established
7372-416: The railroads to organize private police forces. In 1866, a supplement to the act was passed extending the privilege to "embrace all corporations, firms, or individuals, owning, leasing, or being in possession of any colliery, furnace, or rolling mill within this commonwealth". The 1866 supplement also stipulated that the words "coal and iron police" appear on their badges. For one dollar each, the state sold to
7469-553: The region cut wages and consolidated operations within the mines, often worsening working conditions. In some cases, companies forced workers to lease homes from the company and required them to see only company doctors when injured. In August 1897, the Honey Brook division of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company laid off workers at its strip mines , cut the pay of the remaining employees, and raised fees for workers residing in
7566-478: The right to strike in Article 6. The Farah Strike , 1972–1974, labeled the "strike of the century," was organized and led by Mexican American women predominantly in El Paso, Texas. Strikes are rare, in part because many workers are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement . Strikes that do occur are generally fairly short in duration. Labor economist John Kennan notes: In Britain in 1926 (the year of
7663-609: The same legal protections as recognized union strikes, and may result in penalties for the union members who participate, or for their union. The same often applies in the case of strikes conducted without an official ballot of the union membership, as is required in some countries such as the United Kingdom . A strike may consist of workers refusing to attend work or picketing outside the workplace to prevent or dissuade people from working in their place or conducting business with their employer. Less frequently, workers may occupy
7760-538: The state-sanctioned organization of a private police force. Industrial policing continued in limited form until the later 1930s, when the National Labor Relations Act , the Fair Labor Standards Act , and other federal legislation made armed industrial forces illegal. Prior to 1865 (and until 1905), Law enforcement in Pennsylvania existed only on the county level or below; an elected sheriff
7857-412: The strike action (or a lockout) from happening or continuing. Canadian governments could also have imposed binding arbitration or a new contract on the disputing parties. Back-to-work legislation was first used in 1950 during a railway strike, and as of 2012 had been used 33 times by the federal government for those parts of the economy that are regulated federally (grain handling, rail and air travel, and
7954-426: The strike was politically motivated and was driven by an agenda to win concessions. As much as half of the then industrial work force were on strike at its peak – over 500,000 men. The local leadership marshaled a growing working class tradition to politically organize their followers to mount an articulate challenge to the capitalist, political establishment. Friedrich Engels , an observer in London at
8051-412: The strike, i.e., can force the postponement, cancellation or duration reduction of a national-wide strike. The prime minister has to justify the decision of applying the precettazione in front of the parliament . For local strikes, precettazione can also be applied by a decision of the prefect . The employees refusing to work after the precettazione takes effect may be subject of a sanction or even
8148-476: The strikers was armed. I was shot in the right arm and as I started to run I was shot in the right leg, the ball entering from the back and coming out in front. Further medical evidence showed that nearly all the strikers had been shot in the back. Nonetheless, the sheriff and his deputies were acquitted. The Lattimer massacre was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers (UMW). After having struggled to establish itself in Pennsylvania's coal mines,
8245-525: The strikers. United States labor law also draws a distinction, in the case of private sector employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act , between "economic" and "unfair labor practice" strikes. An employer may not fire, but may permanently replace, workers who engage in a strike over economic issues. On the other hand, employers who commit unfair labor practices (ULPs) may not replace employees who strike over them, and must fire any strikebreakers they have hired as replacements in order to reinstate
8342-427: The striking workers. Strikes may be specific to a particular workplace, employer, or unit within a workplace, or they may encompass an entire industry, or every worker within a city or country. Strikes that involve all workers, or a number of large and important groups of workers, in a particular community or region are known as general strikes. Under some circumstances, strikes may take place in order to put pressure on
8439-612: The strong support of the coal and steel operators, as a political gesture to the rising labor movement of the 1930s, out of personal disgust with the excesses of the Coal and Iron Police, or some combination thereof. His official statement indicates the latter, in reference to an assault perpetrated by a couple of Iron Policemen. The brutality of the Coal and Iron Police forms the background to some sections in Dos Passos 's U.S.A. trilogy , focusing on miners' struggles and strikes in Pennsylvania. The Coal and Iron Police also feature in
8536-576: The supervision of the Pinkerton Detective Agency . Beginning in 1873, the Coal and Iron Police worked with the Pinkertons, particularly with a labor spy by the name of James McParland , to infiltrate and suppress the Molly Maguires . During McParland's undercover investigation, Allan Pinkerton pursued a dual-track strategy, appointing R.J. Linden as head of the local Coal and Iron Police. McParland's undercover work led to
8633-431: The theory of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon criminalizing strike action in his work The Poverty of Philosophy . A recognition strike is an industrial strike implemented in order to force a particular employer or industry to recognize a trade union as the legitimate collective bargaining agent for a company's workers. In 1949, their use in the United States was described as "a weapon used with varying results by labor for
8730-608: The time, wrote: by its numbers, this class has become the most powerful in England, and woe betide the wealthy Englishmen when it becomes conscious of this fact … The English proletarian is only just becoming aware of his power, and the fruits of this awareness were the disturbances of last summer. As the 19th century progressed, strikes became a fixture of industrial relations across the industrialized world, as workers organized themselves to collectively bargain for better wages and standards with their employers. Karl Marx condemned
8827-531: The workplace, but refuse to work. This is known as a sit-down strike . A similar tactic is the work-in , where employees occupy the workplace but still continue work, often without pay, which attempts to show they are still useful, or that worker self-management can be successful. For instance, this occurred with factory occupations in the Biennio Rosso strikes – the "two red years" of Italy from 1919 to 1920. Another unconventional tactic
8924-435: Was adapted into the 1935 film Black Fury . Decades later Musmanno released a novel of the same name. In 1931, Governor Gifford Pinchot refused to renew or issue new private police commissions, thereby effectively ending the industrial police system in Pennsylvania. The reasons for his act are not clear and may have included political payback for his defeat in a 1926 campaign by a candidate from Indiana County who had
9021-579: Was adopted on 12 August 2007, and it took effect on 1 January 2008. In Italy, the right to strike is guaranteed by the Constitution ( article 40 ). The law number 146 of 1990 and law number 83 of 2000 regulate the strike actions. In particular, they impose limitations for the strikes of workers in public essential services, i.e., the ones that "guarantee the personality rights of life, health, freedom and security, movements, assistance and welfare, education, and communications". These limitations provide
9118-439: Was displayed a person could be arrested and fined ten dollars. This was seen as a direct assault on picketing . The Coal and Iron Police continued to exist even after the establishment of the state police. The state police often collaborated with Coal and Iron Police to the benefit of industrial interests and the detriment of labor. The Coal and Iron Police, most of the time, are on the scene, and when they start something it
9215-540: Was elected president of the national union because of his efforts during the Lattimer strikes. The crossroads where the Lattimer massacre occurred did not have any commemoration for 80 years. In 1972, the United Labor Council of Lower Luzerne and Carbon counties and the UMW erected a small memorial on the site. According to a contemporary report in the New York Herald , 21 men were killed in
9312-477: Was shot and killed by Zachariah Walker ; Walker was lynched by a mob a few days later. In 1919, labor organizer Fannie Sellins was beaten and shot by Coal and Iron Police when she intervened to stop the beating of Joseph Starzleski, a mineworker. Both Sellins and Starzleski were killed. A July 25, 1922, article in the Johnstown Tribune noted that additional Coal and Iron Police were hired during
9409-510: Was the primary law enforcement officer (for each county). With the construction of the railroad, the Pennsylvania hinterlands were opened up to development. As mining and coal-powered industries like iron and steel manufacturing expanded, Coal, railroad and iron operators made the case that they required additional protection of their property. Thus the Pennsylvania State Legislature passed State Act 228. This empowered
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