Why did Bloody Thursday happen?
4 min read
Asked by: Kelly Williams
Bloody Thursday (July 5th, 1934) street fighting The shipowners consistently refused each demand, determined to divide and destroy the unions in each port. The members of both longshore and seafaring unions voted to strike in May 1934.
What happened on Bloody Thursday?
As rumors flew that the National Guard were arriving in the evening, the workers made a last desperate push to seize the railway only to be repelled by police. On this Bloody Thursday (July 5, 1934) over a hundred people were wounded, and police bullets killed strikers Nicholas Bordoise and Howard Sperry.
What was the cause of the general strike in San Francisco in 1934?
What began as an isolated longshoremen’s dispute developed in the spring and summer of 1934 into one of the most sweeping and violent industrial conflicts of the Great Depression. Over the course of eighty-two days, San Francisco’s waterfront workers protested their mistreatment by ship owners.
What was the big strike what happened during some of the major events of the strike including bloody Thursday in San Francisco?
Organized by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the strike peaked with the death of two workers on “Bloody Thursday” and the San Francisco General Strike which stopped all work in the major port city for four days and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen’s Strike.
What was the big strike 1934?
On May 9, 1934, International Labor Association (ILA) leaders called a strike of all dockworkers on the West Coast who were joined a few days later by seamen and teamsters, effectively stopping all shipping from San Diego to Seattle.
What was the most violent strike?
The Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886
During the strike, violent clashes broke out between pro-labor crowds and company-hired security forces & police across the country from Texas to Illinois, leaving at least nine dead and dozens injured.
What happened July 5th 1934?
[This year also marks] the 80th anniversary of Bloody Thursday, July 5, 1934, when clashes between San Francisco police [and] picketers resulted in two strike supporters being killed and hundreds wounded. In the aftermath of Bloody Thursday, 127,000 workers representing 160 unions walked off their jobs in protest.
What was the outcome of the San Francisco general strike?
The four-day San Francisco General Strike ended with an agreement on arbitration in which most of the striking longshoremen’s demands were met. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union was born out of the labor struggles that shook the West Coast in the 1930s.
What happened in the dock workers strike in San Francisco in 1934?
[1] By the end of July 1934, the labor unrest in Western U.S. ports claimed eight lives and hundreds of injuries, engulfed the city of San Francisco in an “insurrection” and “revolt against government” with 130,000 workers out on strike, and almost set off subsequent general sympathy strikes in Portland and Seattle.
How many strikers were there in 1934?
The textile workers’ strike of 1934 was the largest strike in the labor history of the United States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S. Southern states, lasting twenty-two days.
What do longshoremen do?
A longshoreman is a person who loads and unloads cargo onto ships at a dock or port. Also called dockers or dock workers, longshoremen make up an integral part of the workforce in the shipping and receiving industry. The work is outdoors during all types of weather.
When was the Pacific Northwest lumber strike?
1935
The 1935 Pacific Northwest lumber strike was an industry-wide labor strike organized by the Northwest Council of Sawmill and Timber Workers Union (STWU). The strike lasted for more than three and a half months and paralyzed much of the lumber industry in Northern California, Oregon and Washington state.
What month did the SF General Strike start in?
Although the General Strike of San Francisco took place from July 16 to 19, 1934, it had been brewing for months.
When did the longshoremen go on strike?
On May 9, about 1200 longshoremen went on strike along the west coast.
