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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
Several times the Bayonne water front has blazed with spectacular oil fires, one of which (1900) lasted for three-days. The last big fire was in 1930, when 18 tanks and dockage facilities of the Gulf Refining Company were destroyed by fire and a series of explosions with a $3,000,000 loss. Blazing barges drifted into New York Harbor, pursued by fireboats and tugs.
Twice the Standard Oil plant was the scene of strikes that left a heavy toll of dead and wounded among the employees. In 1915 one hundred still cleaners, striking for overtime pay, were joined by 5,000 other workers. At an expense of $250,000, the company called in a strikebreaking organization led by Pearl Bergoff. Five men were killed by police or imported strike guards. Sheriff Eugene F. Kinkead arrested the strike leader, J. J. Baly, and, when the strike was almost ended, he jailed 99 special company guards. The company finally yielded a small increase, but wages still remained below the prevailing level.
A year later the workers struck for a 30 percent wage increase for men earning less than $3 a day and a 20 percent rise for all others. The result was another series of battles that left eight workers dead and twenty-five seriously hurt. Strikers complained that their leaders were hampered in entering the city and that some of their local sympathizers were forced to leave their homes. The strike ended with nothing gained. Afterward Standard Oil became one of the pioneers in establishing a company union, or employees' representation system.
Although seven refining companies pay an estimated 41 percent to the city's property tax income, Bayonne residents bear a tax rate of $51.87 (1938). The bonded indebtedness is close to the statutory limit.
One of the strangest strikes in the history of the city began in the fall of 1937 when eight members of the American Newspaper Guild walked out of the Bayonne Times office after the publisher failed to put a wage and hour agreement into effect. Most of the leading Bayonne merchants and thousands of citizens gave their support to the small band of strikers, who finally won a sweeping victory despite a Chancery Court injunction that practically prohibited any strike activities.
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