laborunion

this is on main street new york mills, ny

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called American Polonia History and Culture, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

cheers to all the strikers !

The company owned the worker housing, so when the workers struck in 1912 and/or 1916, the company simply evicted them. Old company rent records show page after page, "Evicted." Strikers sold real-photo postcards to raise money and gain sympathy. See the book, "United We Stand" by James Pula and the late Eugene Dziedzic for the whole story. New York Mills is a separate incorporated village, immediately west of Utica.

Thanks so much for this information smithtelfer. Seems that Pula and Dziedzic wrote another book called "New York Mills" about the Polish workers and their efforts to unionize. We'll add some of this information to the record the next time we update.

Probably summer of 1912. The streetcars and elevated railway were on strike from mid June through August.

See the Burlington weekly free press., August 01, 1912, Page 6, col. 4: "MEN WIN STRIKE ON THE BOSTON L" chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072143/1912-08-01/ed-...

Big Bill Haywood, the labor leader, is tagged in another LoC/Flickr photo, see tags above. "The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), under the leadership of William D. "Big Bill" Haywood, advocated a confrontational strategy that embraced violent tactics if necessary to win strikes, mobilize public opinion, or exact revenge for capitalist crimes. The "Wobblies," as they were known, were a small percentage of the Socialist movement, but they had an influence out of proportion to their numbers." (from Lewis I Gould: Four Hats in the Ring, the 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics, pg 108).

Big Bill in action, in another Bain Collection photo: