146 members of Retail Clerks International Protective Association Local 667 heroically stand up for over four months to what was then, as it is today, one of the largest companies in the country.

‘St. Louis Kroger Clerks Ask Aid in Strike’ from New Militant. Vol. 4 No. 10. March 14, 1936.

ST. LOUIS, Mo., March 1. Fighting one of the most important battles in the history of the labor movement here, one hundred and forty-six men–members of the Warehouse Workers Union 667, Retail Clerks International Protective Ass’n, affiliated with the A.F. of L.–have been on strike against the Kroger Grocery and Baking Co. for the last sixteen weeks.

The trouble started when weeks before, the agreement, under which the union men were working with the Kroger Company at the St. Louis Warehouse, expired. The Kroger Company instituted what known as the Dyer system which enabled them, under the guise of efficiency, to discriminate against union men. Then, on November 6th the Company offered the men a contract which would have practically denied them all gains they had made in the two years previous through their union, and when the men rejected this they were locked out. The demands of the union at that time were (and still are):

1. The forty-hour week;
2. Full seniority right;
3. Elimination of the Dyer system;
4. A closed shop working agreement and;
5. A wage increase of 7 and one half cents an hour.

Fink Agencies Used

Since the beginning of the strike, the Kroger company has resorted to the most vicious tactics imaginable; they have employed the A.A. Ahner and Pinkerton strike-breaking detective agencies; they have used the radio and the daily news- papers to spread their malicious propaganda of lies, slander and hate. Besides this, they are now conspiring with the police force to frame several members of the union on false charges of bombing and vandalism.

On the other side of the picture, the union has gotten and is getting the support of many unions in this vicinity and the strike has been endorsed by the central labor bodies of St. Louis, East St. Louis, Belleville. Jefferson City, Staunton and many other cities in Missouri and Illinois. One of the union’s chief sources of support financially, morally and in spreading the boycott of Kroger stores since very early in the strike have been the Progressive Miners of America and the United Mine Workers of America (District 12). Both of these organizations have placed Kroger on their “we don’t patronize” lists and all of their locals in the state of Illinois have posted notices to this effect. In some cases locals of these unions have placed a fine of $25.00 on any member of their organization caught dealing with Kroger. Many other unions here are helping financially and by having their members refuse to buy Kroger goods.

Issue Strike Bulletin

To answer the lies and slander that the Kroger company is putting on over the radio, in the newspapers and through their other paid mouthpieces, the union has gotten out a strike bulletin in which they tell their side of the story. In the February 28th issue of this strike bulletin we read that after almost four months of hunger, hardships, and privation the union is standing pat on its original demands, and furthermore that their ranks are holding firm and not a man has deserted.

The union with only 146 men is fighting a gigantic chain grocery store which has thousands of stores all over the country. In order to make this fight effective they must hit Kroger in the heart. i.e., the pocketbook. This can be done only by acquainting the people and particularly the union men and women who normally trade with this labor hating corporation that Kroger is unfair to organized labor so that they can buy their groceries elsewhere. Any individual or organization desiring to help the progress of this strike can do so by placing a picket in front of the Kroger store in their community, by having their organization put Kroger on the “we don’t patronize list,” or by sending a donation to Oscar T. Wiles, Secretary, Warehouse Workers Union. No. 667, 4046 Folsom Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. (Note: if you can picket a Kroger store in your community write to this organization and picket signs will be sent by return mail.)

The New Militant was the weekly paper of the Workers Party of the United States and replaced The Militant in 1934, The Militant was a weekly newspaper begun by supporters of the International Left Opposition recently expelled from the Communist Party in 1928 and published in New York City. Led by James P Cannon, Max Schacthman, Martin Abern, and others, the new organization called itself the Communist League of America (Opposition) and saw itself as an outside faction of both the Communist Party and the Comintern. After 1933, the group dropped ‘Opposition’ and advocated a new party and International. When the CLA fused with AJ Muste’s American Workers Party in late 1934, the paper became the New Militant as the organ of the newly formed Workers Party of the United States.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1936/mar-14-1936.pdf