The Chicago Teamsters Strike of 1905
What became the deadly Chicago Teamsters strike began as a strike by a small group of fabric cutters as a protest against their employer, Montgomery Ward & Company, hiring subcontractors who were not union members. The company responded by locking out the remaining union workers, and several other unions struck in protest. By April 1905, four months into the strike, over 5,000 workers had walked off their jobs. That month the Teamsters joined in as a sympathy strike, targeting Ward’s and their rival Sears Roebuck and Company, adding another 10,000 workers to the picket lines.
Ward’s attempted to use strikebreakers across the picket lines, and violent clashes between strikers, strikebreakers, and local police and hired security personnel became frequent. By May, both sides and the authorities were exchanging gunfire and beatings when they collided. The Employers Association of Chicago (EA), which had long resisted attempts at unionization of companies in the region, was determined to use the strike as the means of breaking the Teamsters Union. Pressure was exerted on the railroads to use workers other than Teamsters to drive the wagons which transported goods to the train stations.
An effort negotiated by the Teamsters to end the strike by hiring back the striking garment workers was blocked by the EA and the Teamsters called a general strike, which shut down groceries, coal distribution, shipping, and other critical industries. Court injunctions ordering the strikers to return to work were widely ignored. Violence spread across Chicago and other communities. President Theodore Roosevelt refused to intervene to end the strike. Faced with jail for contempt of court, many of the smaller supporting unions began to return to work, crossing picket lines of Teamsters and increasing the violence.
Investigations by labor organizations and grand juries revealed extensive graft and corruption by both sides, including the EA and the Teamsters. Accusations of bribery of and by Teamster and other union officials, government officers, members of the EA, and others were found to be accurate. While both sides were revealed to be led by largely corrupt officials, public opinion shifted against the strikers. By August the strike, which had been steadily weakening through the summer, was largely over. More than half of the Teamsters who had struck were never rehired in Chicago.
At least 21 deaths and more than 400 people injured were caused by the strike, and support of the public for labor unions was dealt a severe blow. The spectacle of hundreds, if not thousands, of striking workers and strikebreakers clashing with police and militia left the general public with a distaste for unionization which reduced Teamster membership in the region by more than half in the ensuing five years. The EA, an anti-union entity, gained strength which it would not relinquish for decades.