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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 2002
Improved conditions after 1882 swelled the membership of the Knights
of Labor, which more and more showed itself a forerunner of industrial
unionism. It made rapid strides in railroads, textiles, hats, cigars, leather,
machinery, and pottery. The organization reached its peak in the State in
1887 with an enrollment of 30,000 out of a total of 50,000 organized
workers; 11,000 of these were in Newark alone.
A combination of causes brought about the sudden and swift downfall
of the Knights. The looseness and latitude of the organization made strike
operations difficult, and its leaders tended toward conciliation rather than
militancy. More serious, however, were the external obstacles and internal
wrangles arising from the invasion of mass production industries employing unskilled labor. In these fields the Knights lacked the strength to cope
with the employers, who could easily dissuade immigrant labor from
unionism and could use the new arrivals as strikebreakers. Finally, the
advocates of the old craft union system bitterly and constantly fought the
national policy.
These dissenting factions gradually made their way into the new American Federation of Labor which completed the local disintegration of the
Knights by a vigorous push into the State shortly after 1890. The organization, set up on a craft union basis, was successful in unionizing the theatrical, printing, metal and building trades, although brewing and textile
operatives were organized industrially. The federation concentrated on
skilled workers and, although it became the official voice of labor in New
Jersey, it generally neglected the mass production industries which dominated the State after 1900.
The most important struggles in New Jersey labor history have been the
Paterson silk strike in 1912-13, under the leadership of the Industrial
Workers of the World; the Passaic woolen and worsted strike of 1926,.
the first strike in the country in which acknowledged communists played a
vital part in organization; and the Paterson silk and dye strikes of 1933,
and 1934. Only the 1933 strike was notably successful. Both the silk
workers' and dyers' unions won recognition, with pay increased from $12
and $13 weekly to $18 and $22 in the silk mills, and wages as low as 20
cents an hour in the dye houses raised to 66 cents.
Perhaps the most ruthless labor massacre in New Jersey occurred early
in 1915 when "deputy sheriffs" hired from a Newark detective agency
fired on an unarmed group of pickets standing outside of the Williams and
Clark fertilizer factory at Carteret. A member of the local police force
testified later to the peacefulness of the strikers, whose losses were 6 dead
and 28 wounded. Twenty-two deputies were arrested on charges of manslaughter but were later released. The following year guards of the Standard Oil Company at Bayonne killed 8 and severely wounded 17 men. As
with the Carteret killings, this assault outraged even the conservative press.
For about half a century the efforts of workers in New Jersey, as else-
where in the United States, to form unions have been handicapped or
crippled by the activities of industrial spies. The La Follette committee's
report (1938) on violations of the rights of labor showed that 11 New
Jersey corporations alone spent 12 percent of a $9,440,132 national total for
espionage, strikebreaking, munitioning, and similar activities in 1933-37.
At least 31 other New Jersey concerns were listed as clients of detective
agencies that provided spy service. All of the widely known detective
agencies had contracted with one or more New Jersey corporations to provide lists of union members or workers interested in unionization; reports on union meetings; or armed guards for strikebreaking -- or all of
these services. In every important manufacturing city spies worked side by
side with the employees, often taking a prominent part in union activities,
and turning in daily reports that resulted in the sudden dismissal and
blacklisting of an unestimated number of workers.
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