The Eyes of the Nation Were On Monroe
Home The strike For Students Information Labor Museum

[ Back to Online Exhibit ]
The Strike > Photo Gallery


Steel Comes to Monroe


Newton Steel Plant Map of Newton Steel grounds

Newton Steel from the air

Newton Steel worker badge

   
Republic Steel
Skilled Workers' Manual		 Cautionary Poem found in
Republic Steel book

 

  


 


SWOC Calls Strike

 
Looking east from the SWOC
picket line on the corner of
Detroit and Elm		 Mayor Knaggs of Monroe

Governor Murphy speaking with
the non-striking SWA union.

  



Picket Line Broken - June 10, 1937

CIO Support Pickers on the strike line
"just before the storm"

Pickets move to clash
with Special police

Special Police and spectators
gather around pickets

Picketer with improvised helmet A "picket wife"
prepares to throw a brick

"Come and get us"
Just before the tear gas barrage

 Special Police
with gas masks

The first canisters of tear gas? A view of the strike from the air

Another view of the strike
from the air

Special Police escort
non-striking workers

Striking workers suffering
tear gas sickness 		Confusion after
tear gas is released

The picketers' kitchen tent burns

 Striking workers'
cars are overturned

   
Striking workers' cars are rolled
into the River Raisin 		American Legion stopping a car

 

  


State Park Rally - June 13, 1937

United Auto Workers support
Newton Steel strikers 		CIO rally in State Park

SWOC's Van A. Bittner

 National Guard
at Monroe Armory

     
State Police directing traffic
in the state park		  

 

  


Monroe Protects Itself

Monroe Mayor Knaggs with his
special citizen patrol 		Armed citizens guarding Monroe

Monroe women assisting
the citizen deputies

 Ctizen deputies guard a road block

     
Citizens man road block  

 

  

Back to Work

An agreement reached
at the site of the strike 		Workers waiting to punch in for work

Punching In

Back at work!

     
Mayor Knaggs and his family  

 

  


Leaders

CIO president John L. Lewis Governor
Frank Murphy
of Michigan

Leondies McDonald
union organizeor at the
Newton Steel strike

Tom Girdler, President of the
Republic Steel Corporation


LaFollette Senate Hearings

 
Monroe Mayor
Daniel A. Knaggs
at the LaFollette Hearings		 Monroe Police Chief
Jess Fisher testifies

U.S. Senator
Robert M. LaFollette, Jr.

  



Labor in America A Recipe For Disaster Strike The Eyes of a Nation Were on Monroe Changing Hands Not in Our Town

Our Sponsors: Michigan Humanities Council, Monroe County Labor Museum, Monroe County Council CIO Social and Welfare Assoc., Monroe County Community College, Wayne State University © 2007