How Labor Disputes Led to Violence: Personalities, Paternalism, and Power at Republic Steel in Youngstown, Ohio: 1937
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Date
2017-12
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Contentiousness has long been a staple of the relationship between labor and management, and both factions have tried to marshal the power of the state to their side. Situations rooted in strife between labor and management have the potential to escalate into incidences of violence. In the spring of 1937, in Youngstown Ohio, these opposing forces allowed their differences to explode into violence during a strike against the Republic Steel Corporation. Labor disputes in present times owe their structure to the unending friction between labor and management that is exemplified by the workers and leaders of Republic Steel’s Youngstown operation in 1937.
Tom Girdler, the Chairman of the Board of Republic Steel at the time of the strike, suggests in his autobiography Boot Straps that labor organization is an integral part of business in a steel mill. However, Girdler preferred to work with a group he trusted. When the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) began to organize Republic workers his trust broke down. The tension between the CIO and Republic Steel was not unique during the early 20th century. Labor unions clashed with other companies in the steel industry, United States Steel and Bethlehem Steel to name two. These confrontations are all decedents of one of the most notorious labor/management battles waged at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead mill in Pennsylvania. The incident at Homestead, fought by workers and the Pinkerton Detective Agency, left 3 workers and 7 Pinkertons dead.
My research examines the political and business environments during the decades immediately prior to the violence in Youngstown. I also spend a significant amount of time considering the formation of Mr. Girdler’s attitudes regarding labor. I hope to uncover a relationship between the changing labor climate from the 1890’s to the 1930’s and the philosophies used by Mr. Girdler and other leaders of the steel industry. This relationship should be the key to understanding both the need for and resistance to powerful labor unions like the CIO.
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Power Between Labor and Management