Description: This photograph shows police clashing with strikers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber strike in Akron, Ohio, in late May 1938. Two police officers are holding raised batons as they and other police advance toward a group of workers. The activity is taking place along a brick and iron fence. A car with a driver at the wheel is visible to the right of the workers and police. One hundred people were injured during this strike. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, factory workers faced poor working conditions, low wages, and almost no benefits. This was true for the workers employed by rubber manufacturers in Akron, Ohio, such the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, B.F. Goodrich, and Firestone. In an attempt to alleviate their conditions, workers went on strike and left the factory to join picket lines. Company owners often hired “scab” laborers to cross the picket lines and continue production. This practice made it difficult for striking workers to obtain their demands. In 1935, rubber workers in Akron, Ohio, tried a new approach to strikes, the sit-down strike, in which workers stopped working but still occupied their places within the factory. This process meant that the factory owners could not send in additional workers to continue the job. In addition, factory management was more reluctant to use private security forces or other strike breakers to intimidate the striking workers, as that approach threatened destruction to plant property. In 1935, the rubber workers organized a union, the United Rubber Workers (URW). In its first year the URW created thirty-nine local chapters. This union’s goals were to improve wages and working conditions for its members, and it soon had its first opportunity. The URW organized its first strike against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company the following year. This sit-down strike began as a protest against a plan created by Goodyear to reduce wages and increase the pace of production. In addition to the sit-down strike, the rubber workers also organized long picket lines in protest. Akron’s mayor, Lee D. Schroy, attempted to send in the police to put down the strike, but the police officers refused to do so when they faced the thousands of organized workers. After the violent strike in May 1938, three more years of cooperation between the new URW and Goodyear elapsed before the first formal contract was signed in 1941. In the long term, Goodyear was forced to recognize URW and negotiate better contracts with workers. Legislation passed during the New Deal required industries to recognize unions and legitimized collective bargaining, increasing the URW's popularity and success even further. By the end of World War II, membership had grown to almost 200,000. After World War II, the URW continued to work to improve laborers conditions. The union began negotiating industry-wide agreements rather than focusing on one factory. The union also became more inclusive, working to reduce gender and racial discrimination both within the union itself and in the workplace. The URW also negotiated pension plans and insurance plans with employers. In the 1990s, the URW merged with the United Steelworkers to form an even stronger union. This union still strives to improve its members' working conditions, wages, and benefits. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06154
Subjects: Strikes; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; United Rubber Workers of America; Labor unions--Ohio; Labor movement--United States--History--20th century; Strikes and lockouts--Rubber industry; Business and Labor; Akron (Ohio)
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: These photographs, taken between July 31 and August 2, 1939, were compiled in a scrapbook as a report to the Ohio adjutant general by two National Guard officers, Brigadier General L. S. Conelly and Captain L. J. Abele. The officers were sent to the Fisher Body Plant in Cleveland as observers for the Ohio National Guard during the 1939 strike at the plant. The back of each photograph is labeled with a number and a brief caption. Images 2 and 57 include Eliot Ness, who was Cleveland's director of public safety at the time of the strike. Before coming to Cleveland, Ness successfully battled mobster Al Capone in Chicago. His book, The Untouchables, was published in 1957. Other images in this collection include confrontations between police and strikers, non-striking workers inside the plant and police and fire officials at the scene. The photographs measure 6" x 8" (15.24 x 20.32 cm). Fisher Body Plant opened in 1921 to build car bodies for the Cleveland Automobile Company and the Chandler Motor Car Company. It became a division of General Motors (GM) in 1926. Several major strikes occurred in the automobile industry in the 1930s, as workers were asked to work for less and less due to the effects of the Great Depression. In 1937, workers at the Fisher Body Plant began a sit-down strike that spread to the GM factory in Michigan. The strike ended when GM agreed to recognize the United Auto Workers. During World War II the Fisher Body plant made parts for tanks, guns and airplanes. The plant closed in 1982. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1526_4400787_003
Subjects: Ohio Government; Military Ohio; Business and Labor; Strikes; Factories; Automobile industry workers; International Union, United Automobile Workers of America (CIO); Ohio. National Guard
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This 12"" by 40"" (30.48 by 101.6 cm) photograph was taken at the first constitutional convention of the United Steelworkers of America. It was during this convention that the name of the organization was officially changed from the Steel Workers Organizing Committee to the United Steelworkers of America. This signified that the committee had successfully organized a steelworkers' union and the emphasis shifted from organizing a union to running a union. It was also during this convention that the United Steelworkers adopted their first constitution. Among the significant changes between the United Steelworkers constitution and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee constitution was that under the United Steelworkers' constitution district directors were elected rather than being appointed by the chairman of the union. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1644_1911250_001
Subjects: Business and Labor; United Steelworkers of America; Steel Workers Organizing Committee (U.S.); Labor unions; Steel industry
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph depicts workers from a coke plant. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F69_007
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry; Coke plants; Steel workers
 

Description: This photograph depicts three workers in a carpenter shop. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F56_004
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry; Steel workers
 

Description: This photograph depicts transportation department workers voting for representatives. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B05F89_002
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry; Steel workers
 

Description: This photograph depicts steel workers operating a sulphate dryer in a coke plant. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F69_005
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry; Coke plants; Steel workers
 

Description: This photograph depicts transportation department workers voting for representatives. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B05F89_005
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry; Steel workers
 

Description: This photograph depicts workers on a pedestrian bridge at Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company's Campbell works. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B03F52_010
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Campbell works; Steel industry; Steel workers
Places: Campbell (Ohio); Mahoning Country (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads "Elyria mill?" This interior photograph shows a mill most likely located in Elyria, Ohio. Two workers are pictured in the foreground of the image. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B07F09_009_1
Subjects: Factories; Manufacturing industries--Ohio; Labor--Ohio; Factory workers
Places: Elyria (Ohio); Lorain County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph depicts workers putting couplings on conduit. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B05F79_007
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry; Steel workers
 

Description: A sign alerts drivers to keep to the left while road construction workers repair a section of North High Street near Gatto's Pizza and a used car company in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1952, Gatto's Pizza is a family-owned business specializing in homemade Italian food. The High Street Photograph Collection is comprised of over 400 photographs of High Street in Columbus, Ohio, taken in the early 1970s. These photographs were taken primarily at street level and document people and the built environment from the Pontifical College Josephinum on North High Street in Worthington through Clintonville, the University District and Short North, Downtown and South Columbus. The photographs were used in a television photo documentary that aired on WOSU called "High Street." Photographers that were involved in this project were Alfred Clarke, Carol Hibbs Kight, Darrell Muething, Clayton K. Lowe, and Julius Foris, Jr. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV254_B13F356_01
Subjects: Columbus (Ohio)--History--20th century; Street photography; Clintonville (Ohio); Roads--Maintenance and repair; Construction workers;
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)