Three articles from organizer Frank H. Goldenberg covering the dogged strike of 2000 wobbly cigar-makers, many women and children, against a number Pittsburgh-area companies which led to a partial victory after four months on the picket line.

‘The Pittsburg Stogie Strikers’ by Frank H. Goldenberg from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 36. September 13, 1913.

Story of Their Struggle Against Unbearable Shop Conditions. Immediate Financial Assistance Needed

It is almost ten weeks that the tobacco workers of the I.W.W., numbering 2,000, have held out on strike in the Pittsburg district.

Never in the history of strikes in the tobacco industry have strikers shown such remarkable spirit of industrial solidarity as in this one.

To give full details as to the happenings of this strike we must go back to the first week of the strike. The strike began in the Industrial Cigar Company when the employes, who are members of Local 101, I.W.W., were refused an increase in wages. As all the stogie shops in the Hill District are organized into the I.W.W., the bosses, fearing that the Industrial Cigar Company would grant their employes their demands strikes would be called in their shops.

The bosses in order to conserve their own economic interests formed into an association to crush the union, and on July 3, declared a lock out against all the shops that are organized under the banner of the I.W.W.

The members of the bosses’ association were signed to a contract for sixty days and also were to put a forfeit of a certain amount of money or other valuable chattels as a guarantee to stick together as a solid front against the strikers. They elected one of the Goldsmits, of the Standard Cigar Company, who manufactures the “Dry Slitz” stogies, president of the association.

The Goldsmits own and control three of the largest shops in Pittsburg. Their Enoch street shop is the only one of his shops that is completely organized into the I.W.W. As president of the association he tricked the other bosses by getting a clause put into the contract allowing him to have his two scab shops remain open while the other bosses were to have their shops remain closed. The aim of the Goldsmits in doing this was to get control of the tobacco industry and to put the smaller manufacturers out of business. Dissension then grew among the members of the bosses’ association. A number of the smaller bosses tried to break away but were kept back by that sacred contract which they signed. Others tried to get members of the union to go back to work at the old conditions the first week so that they could break the contract but the strikers refused to be tricked. The months of July and August are the slowest two months in the tobacco trade; the bosses thought that if they could keep the strikers out a few months they could crush the union but they are now realizing that they are up against a strong militant organization of workers.

The bosses have threatened the strikers with all methods of abuses known to capitalism, but they are meeting their Waterloo.

The Goldsmits who own the Standard Cigar Company are Jews. They employ Gentile managers in their shops to prejudice the workers in their Liberty avenue and McKees Rocks shops against the Jews of the hill so that they may reap more profits out of their hides. At their McKees Rocks and Liberty avenue shops they employ children from the age of twelve years up. They are not allowed to talk to one another, the foremen fearing that they might become imbued with the spirit of revolt.

The conditions in their Enoch street shop are horrible. The walls of the building are cracked. There is only one flight of fire escapes that leads from the third floor. This fire escape is so old that if it were to be used in case of necessity, it apparently would break down. Tobacco block the entrances to the working rooms. There are no dressing rooms for the girls and they are forced to change skirts and other clothing in sight of male workers. The toilets are such as I have been authoritatively informed by a former employe, that girls enter the boys’ toilets freely whout the interference of the foreman or one of the company responsible for the action. The floors on which the workers work are so rotten that it is not known where a worker is going to fall through. The ceilings are low and the air in the rooms is foul and in many cases workers are compelled to go home. During this last year between seven and ten employes in this shop contracted tuberculosis. It is against these inhuman conditions that the strikers are battling. One of the chief brands of stogies made by this concern is known throughout this section of the country as the “Dry Slitz.” An active boycott on this brand of stogies is being waged through the columns of JUSTICE, that revolutionary paper of Pittsburg, which is aiding the cause of the strikers.

A large parade was held by the strikers on Labor Day. Revolutionary banners of all kinds were carried along the route of the parade. On the banners were inscribed the following mottoes: “The Bosses Organize to Starve Us, We Organize to Free Us,” “Attention, Mr. Dry Slits Smoker,” “We Are Out on Strike, Are You Wise?,” “We Won’t Work in Consumption Breeding Hells,” “Labor is Entitled to all it Produces,” “You can Jail Men and Women, but You can’t Jail Ideas.” “The Emancipation of the Working Class Must be Accomplished by the Workers Themselves.” A float representing the breeding of consumption and the working of children in Goldsmits’ “Dry Slits” shop made a great hit in the parade. Large open air meetings are held twice a week by the strikers. They are addressed by speakers who are well versed on industrial unionism and the tactics of the I.W.W.

In order to win this strike and keep the wolf from entering the door funds are needed to carry on the battle against the organized boss association. It is your duty as working- men to remember the motto of the I.W.W., “An injury to one is an injury to all.” Send all contributions to G. Burnstein, 11 Davenport Street, Pittsburg, Pa., Financial Secretary of the Strike Committee of Local 101, Tobacco Workers, I.W.W.

‘The Tobacco Strike in Pittsburgh’ by Frank H. Goldenberg from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 38. September 27, 1913.

It is already three long, weary months that those militant tobacco workers of the I.W.W. in Pittsburg have been carrying on their bitter struggle for better conditions and a living wage against that organized bunch of blood suckers known as the Bosses’ Association.

The fighting spirit of industrial solidarity still remains as fresh and vigorous in the minds of the strikers as it was the first day they were locked out by these human vultures.

The bosses have resorted to dirty tactics by trying to get the employers in the settled shops who are not members of the bosses’ association to harass their employes so that they could force them out on strike. In a number of the shops these blood suckers were caught in the act of trying to pull off the stunt but were threatened with bodily harm by the workers if they did not leave immediately.

The Goldsmits, who are the heaviest stockholders in the Russells stores and owners of the Standard Cigar Company, are now realizing the effect of the boycott that is being carried on weekly in the columns of Justice against their brands of stogies, when one of the members of the firm stated as long as Justice goes after them they will not settle the strike.

They are trying to pull a bluff over on the strikers by taking out tobacco and other goods from their Enoch street shop and placing it in storage, saying that they will never reopen this shop again. The strikers are laughing at this stunt and are claiming that it is almost victory for them, as it is the last thing that the bosses can frame up.

Straus Manger, of the Industrial Cigar Company, in whose shop the strike started, stated before the bosses’ association that the strikers in his shop use six pounds of wrappers to a thousand stogies. The strikers repudiate his statement, saying that no matter how bad the stock is they can use only four pounds to a thousand stogies.

Strauss is sore because the slaves in his shop refused to work out that rotten tobacco that he brought down from New York in which they were making from forty to fifty cents per day before the strike started.

Some of the bosses who are getting stogies made out of town are getting their scab-made stogies back from their trade. Their customers are complaining that these stogies don’t smoke (Sabotage). The bosses are paying high prices for getting this scab stuff made, more than the strikers are asking for.

The strike committee recommended to the organization at a meeting last week to open up a co-operative factory. The question was discussed openly and a committee was elected to suggest and bring in plans to further the proposition.

The strikers are picketing the shops every morning till late in the day and they are succeeding in keeping away some scabs who are unaware that a strike is on.

Fellow workers and sympathizers, if you believe in industrial solidarity, show your class interests by donating to the strike fund. Don’t you know that bread must be needed to keep the strikers and their families from starving. Show that the I.W.W. is still alive, and always on the top in their fight against the master class.

All contributions should be sent to G. Burnstein, 11 Davenport Street, Pittsburg, Pa., Financial Secretary of the Strike Committee of Tobacco Workers, Local 101.

‘Victory In Pittsburg’ by Frank H. Goldenberg from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 42. October 25, 1913.

After a bitter struggle of over four months, the tobacco workers of Pittsburg, who are organized under the I.W.W, have succeeded in gaining their victory over the organized Bosses Association.

All of the bosses with the exception of the Goldsmits, who broke away with the association, settled with their employes. One of the greatest fights over the settlement was the recognition of the union. This the bosses refused at first to consider, but after a three hours wrangling they were forced to give in. Increases were given in all grades of stogies. The bosses told the settlement committee that if the union would change its name they would pay all expenses necessary to get an independent charter. This the committee flatly refused, by telling them, “As long as the tobacco workers remain in a union they will always fight under the banner of the I.W.W.” The boycott on the “Dry Slitz” stogies made by the Goldsmits will still be carried on by the union until they are forced to come to a settlement.

The tobacco workers thank the working class of this country for the moral and financial aid that was extended to them while they were out on strike. Five dollars was immediately sent to Bill Haywood’s fund and more will soon come.

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1913/v04n36-w192-sep-13-1913-solidarity.pdf

PDF of issue 2: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1913/v04n38-w194-sep-27-1913-solidarity.pdf

PDF of issue 3: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1913/v04n42-w198-oct-25-1913-solidarity.pdf