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The Little Steel strike was a 1937 labor strike by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) and its branch the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), against a number of smaller steel producing companies, principally Republic Steel, Inland Steel, and Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. The strike affected a total of thirty different mills belonging to the three companies, which employed 80,000 workers. The strike, which was one of the most violent labor disputes of the 1930s, ended without the strikers achieving their principal goal, which was that the companies recognize the union as the bargaining agent for the workers. On May 2, 1937 the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the larger American steel companies led by U.S. Steel, agreed on a contract providing a standard pay scale, an 8-hour work day, and time and a half for overtime. Although the "Big Steel" (The larger companies) signed the deal, there were smaller companies that refused to sign and that is why the strike is known as the "Little Steel" strike. The "Little Steel" strike started on May 26, 1937 when the United States economy was just starting to recover from the Great Depression. The issue that sparked this conflict was over the recognition of unions by steel companies. The term "Little Steel ", refers collectively to many of the smaller steel companies, primarily Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, and Inland Steel. The strike was started over unionization of the steel workers working in these companies. Steel workers, represented by the C.I.O. as well as the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) participated in protests ranging from sit-ins to picket lines. The workers wanted better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The strike is characterized as one of the most violent strikes of the 1930s, with thousands of strikers arrested, three hundred injured and eighteen dead. The Little Steel companies eventually defeated the strike, which lasted just over five months time. However groundwork for the unionization of the Little Steel industry was set and the goal to unionize Little Steel occurred five years later in 1942 as World War II began to ramp up. ==Background for the strike== Early in 1937 the Big Steel industry was facing union pressure. Success of several sit down strikes in the automobile industry and the rising strength of unions had U.S. Steel chairman Myron C. Taylor very hesitant to raise any sort of union confrontation within his organization.〔Blake, Benjamin. "Steelpage2content." Steelpage2content. Western Reserve Historical Society, Web〕 It was due not only to this outside pressure from other union successes throughout the industry, but also due the persistent work of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) that Taylor eventually decided to sit down with CIO president John L. Lewis and agreed to recognize the newly created branch of the CIO, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) as the sole agent for his company on March 2, 1937. By signing the union contract, Taylor started a domino effect, and other steel companies began signing union contracts in succession with very little fight, many just at the slightest rumor of a strike. Several steel companies who held a very strong anti-union, anti-labor stances, such as Jones & Laughlin,〔White, Ahmed A. "THE DRIVE TO ORGANIZE STEEL." The "Little Steel" Strike of 1937: Class Violence, Law, and the End of the New Deal. Page 15. Selected Works. Web.〕 signed union contracts following U.S. Steel, sending a message through the industry, and giving the SWOC legitimacy. These contracts had greater benefits than simply turning these mills from free-for-all hiring’s to closed shops. Workers also received pay raises, forty-hour workweeks, and one-week vacations along with three guaranteed holidays.〔"Pay Rises in Steel Go to 38,900 More." New York Times 13 Mar. 1937: 1. Print.〕 These achievements gave SWOC and the CIO the confidence to expand into the smaller-market Little Steel Industry. After Jones & Laughlin signed union contracts, signing with the Little Steel Industry became the next goal of the CIO. The three main targets were decided to be Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, and Inland Steel Corporation, which owned mills across the Midwest and Northeast United States, with close to thirty mills between the three of them. These three companies became the focus of the ICO due to status that they held within the Little Steel industry, similar to that of U.S. Steel in the Big Steel industry, powerhouses of their industry. After Big Steel unionized, John L. Lewis immediately tried to convince these Little Steel companies to sign SWOC union contracts similar to those signed by U.S. Steel just weeks earlier. The hope was to hit the powerhouses early in the movement in order to send a message throughout the industry, for negotiations with smaller companies. However, the three companies refused the contracts without hesitation, having withstood unionization before, and refused to sign with the SWOC. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Little Steel strike」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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