Workers in Paterson hope to achieve similar…
July 1835 CE
Workers in Paterson hope to achieve similar success to those in Philadelphia.
Just before Independence Day, they begin a strike demanding shorter hours.
They also demand an end to the use of fines to enforce discipline in the mills, wage withholding, and the company store system in the town.
In support of the strikers, an organization called the Paterson Association for the Protection of the Working Class is established.
They also receive monetary support from workers in Newark and New York City.
The strikers are mainly children, mainly female and many of them are of Irish descent.
Due to this last fact, debate around the strike quickly becomes infused with nativist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, especially from the Lowell Intelligencer, a pro-management newspaper.
Just before Independence Day, they begin a strike demanding shorter hours.
They also demand an end to the use of fines to enforce discipline in the mills, wage withholding, and the company store system in the town.
In support of the strikers, an organization called the Paterson Association for the Protection of the Working Class is established.
They also receive monetary support from workers in Newark and New York City.
The strikers are mainly children, mainly female and many of them are of Irish descent.
Due to this last fact, debate around the strike quickly becomes infused with nativist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, especially from the Lowell Intelligencer, a pro-management newspaper.
Management refuses to meet with the strikers, and as a result workers at other mills begin to walk out and join in.
At its peak, two thousand workers from twenty mills are participating in the strike.
In response, employers reduce hours, not to eleven as the strikers want, but to twelve on weekdays and nine on Saturday.
This reduction breaks the strike, and most of the workers return to the mills.
A few strikers continue to hold out for an eleven-hour day, but unsuccessfully.
Strike leaders and their families are permanently barred from employment in Paterson, having been blacklisted by the mill owners.
Although the strike is broken, it achieves a significant reduction in work hours.
At its peak, two thousand workers from twenty mills are participating in the strike.
In response, employers reduce hours, not to eleven as the strikers want, but to twelve on weekdays and nine on Saturday.
This reduction breaks the strike, and most of the workers return to the mills.
A few strikers continue to hold out for an eleven-hour day, but unsuccessfully.
Strike leaders and their families are permanently barred from employment in Paterson, having been blacklisted by the mill owners.
Although the strike is broken, it achieves a significant reduction in work hours.
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