Labor in America

By the 1930s America was experiencing drastic changes. Industry was growing at a fast pace. More jobs became available in factories and cities grew as rural areas became less populated. With this shift towards industrial jobs, workers voiced their concerns about the conditions they were required to work under, including pay for their labor and their safety while working in factory and industrial conditions. Also automation, or the replacement of human laborers with automatic machinery, became more common.

Leondies McDonald- Outsider.

As a member and recruiter for the CIO union, Leondies McDonald was given the duty of organizing workers at the Newton Steel plant (owned by Republic Steel) into CIO union members. Because the CIO spent most of its' efforts gaining influence with national and state politicians, they were less able to effectively recruit new members.

Most of the time Leondies spent recruiting Newton Steel workers from Monroe was spent outside of the city limits. Overall he had little contact with workers so he was seen as an outsider even with them. Monroe residents' fear and distrust of outsiders.

During the events of the strike in 1937 Mr. McDonald was severely beaten by angry townspeople and special deputies.

"The Talk of the Town"

Workers at the Newton Steel plant in Monroe were "the talk of the town." They received the highest wages of any workers in the town. Why did these well-paid workers believe they were justified in picketing and striking?

The workers at Newton Steel had a harsher work day than in other manufacturing facilities in Monroe. Creating sheet steel from raw steel was a process that required workers to spend many hours in a hot environment. In addition to this, workers at the Newton Steel plant were underemployed. Orders for steel were erratic, meaning there were periods where the employees would be busy with work for a period, and there were often long periods where there was no work available for them to do, and no wages to earn from their jobs.

The workforce at Newton Steel became upset when assistants to the hot mill workers were fired for cost saving reasons. This placed a greater burden on the workers who regularly worked in the hot mill. This treatment prompted the strike.

Broken Promises

To help make the Newton Steel plant more competitive with newer more efficient plants, the workers voted in favor of pay cuts. The workers decided that it was better for them to receive a lower wage than for their jobs to disappear completely.

At that time it was common for pay rates to be reduced when a factory is not performing well. With this practice traditionally came higher wages when the factory began performing better. On at least one occasion, when the factory was performing better wages did not again increase. Many of the workers became upset about this.

On another occasion the Newton Steel plant in Monroe was employing a small percentage of its' workforce after business slowed. When business began to pick up again workers from another Newton Steel factory were transferred to Monroe before local workers were placed on the payroll. This further upset the Monroe workers.

Will we work?

Workers at the Newton Steel plant were paid higher wages for their work than other employers in Monroe. However, these workers could not rely on their work to be a reliable source of income. The plant ran into so many problems finding buyers for their product and keeping their expenses down that the plant was often shut down. In fact the mill was operational only 4 months before it shut for an 8 month period in 1930.

On many occasions the factory would employ a small percentage of its total capacity of workers. In one case the amount of workers on the payroll would fluctuate from 60 to 700 in the course of several weeks! In the most extreme case, just several months after it opened, Newton Steel closed its' doors for 8 months. It would prove difficult if not impossible for workers to pay the bills that consistently came when they did not know if or when they would work again.

Which union do you belong to?

If you asked an employee of the Newton Steel plant if they belonged to the labor union, he would say "yes". If you asked him which union he worked for he might be surprised that there were more than one union that Newton Steel workers belonged to. A majority of the union's workers belonged to the union known as the SWA. Unbeknownst to them this union was a company union that was influenced and funded by Newton Steel.

Newton Steel workers that were SWOC members were in the minority but were part of a legitimate union that was lead independently of Newton Steel or any other company.

Because a majority of union members at Newton Steel belonged to the SWA, their decisions regarding strike votes and voting to join the SWOC were likely influenced by Newton Steel officials.

Communism

Russia and the Soviet Union
By the early 20th century the country of Russia and its' citizens were poor. Desperate for a way to save their country and livelihood, workers organized and revolted against their government. A new system of government was set up with the goal of ending the terrible poverty that gripped their nation. In their belief collecting all wealth and distributing it equally amongst the people would accomplish this. Another goal of Communism was to let all citizens make decisions in how to run their country.

In practice, Russian Communism elevated individuals as leaders. These leaders insisted that their positions of power would fall away as the people began to govern themselves. These same leaders abused their power terribly, and used it to stay in power by killing political rivals and personal enemies alike. Other civil liberties including religious freedom were not allowed. By law the official religion of Russia was atheism, or the belief that no God exists. Those who disagreed publicly were persecuted and often imprisoned.

Red Scare
After learning about Russian Communism and the intentions of Russian leaders to spread Communism worldwide, fear and panic surfaced in America. It was feared that people loyal to the Communist cause would gain influence in the United States government. It was also feared that Communist Russia would send spies in an attempt to learn America's weaknesses, and Russia would eventually attack the United States.

This fear made some leaders and other Americans suspicious of the labor movement. It made them notice that labor unions, like the Communist movement, claimed to have the interests of the average worker at heart. Some drew the conclusion that labor unions supported Communism, and many people in America were accused of being Communists or supporting Communism, weather or not it was true of them.

Strike!