Esther Lowell on the struggle of thousands of New York City drivers in Teamsters Locals 282 and 807, bucking the 1920s trend in what would be a winning strike.

‘The Truckmen Show How’ by Esther Lowell from Labor Age. Vol. 16 No. 10. October, 1927.

WHEN truckmen walk out, there’s a quick tangle of freight on the wharves and in the terminals of a great city like New York. With 7,000 members of Locals 807 and 282, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Chauffeurs, striking, railroads had to declare an embargo on freight. Irate buyers and sellers in the metropolis had to wire those with whom they dealt not to send ordered goods through or that orders could not be sent out.

Within three days the truckmen won $5 a week more pay, making their scale $45. A group in the union wanted to continue the fight to gain an eight instead of nine-hour day, and $1.20 instead of $1 per hour overtime. But those who brought the settlement proposal urged its acceptance rather than a drawn-out battle against professional strike-breakers recruited by the notorious scab-herder, James Waddell.

Whatever went on behind the scenes of strike settlement negotiations, the truckmen’s walkout proved again the strategic importance of transport workers. In our highly industrialized city life merchants must get their goods quickly, manufacturers their raw materials without delay, and all of us our daily bread and whatnot. Everything must be carried hither and yon, and in a hurry, or the routes and depots become congested into fearful tangles. A stoppage at any point becomes acute immediately.

Strikebreakers

The two big employing groups, the United State Trucking Corporation and the Merchant Truckmen’s Bureau of 600 employers, were all set to send out strikebreakers with heavy police guard, so they said. Many independent truckers, who had never before signed with the union, accepted the organization of their workers, however, and began to get the business. Truckmen from these independents struck and joined the union in surprising numbers, says Joseph McCrann, business agent—of Local 807.

On the second day of the strike there were a good many trucks speeding up and down Wall Street, along the North River docks, bearing the signs SETTLED WITH Loca 807, or 282. Watchful groups of union men waited on street corners in the wholesale districts and near truckers’ stables and warehouses. The few scab-driven trucks which ventured out with police guards traveled with difficulty. Heavy rolls of newsprint paper rolled in the streets when strikers cut the ropes of scab-driven trucks trying to supply the great presses which give us our daily dope.

Several hands went into the settling of the strike. Joseph P. Ryan, president, International Longshoremen’s Association, helped. Michael Cashel, vice-president of the Teamsters’ International Union, and Business Agents McCrann of Local 807 and Edward McCaffrey of Local 282 were in it. William J. McCormack, vice-president of the United States Trucking Corporation, helped on the employers’ side.

It might be said “our gang” did it. “Mike and Joe and Ed and Bill and I are all personal friends,” says Ryan. “Bill McCormack is a director with me in the Federation Bank and Trust Company. And I know most of the truckmen by name: we all grew up together.”

Longshoremen Aid

Besides his personal friendship for the men involved in the strike, Ryan found other reasons for intervening for settlement. He said he went into the situation “because we had our own negotiations for a new wage agreement pending, [Longshoremen have since demanded 10 cents an hour raise, making the scale 90 cents, for a 44-hour week; and $1.35 instead of $1.20 per hour for overtime.] because there is a close relationship between longshoremen and the truckers” and because as president of the Transportation Trades Council of New York as well as of the city’s Central Trades and Labor Council it was appropriate for him to act.

The Transportation Trades Council has all New York transport union groups affiliated with the American Federation of Labor represented. As in the more numerous building trades councils throughout the country, the New York Transportation Trades Council was organized to act in aid of any of its members. In 1919, says Ryan, the council helped organize truckmen of Reardon and other big employers who were not dealing with the teamsters’ union. Then in 1920, when the longshoremen had a coastwise strike, union teamsters and organized railroad lightermen refused to move goods handled by scab dock workers.

Union cargo checkers and longshoremen were actively assisting the truckmen in their present strike. They would not take loads from trucks driven by scabs. Pier superintendents sometimes checked the goods, but the longshoremen would not handle them. There was again a fine demonstration of workers’ solidarity, of effective labor tactics. A vital industry was tied up quickly and comparatively completely. Merchants were pinched for ordered goods and factories lacked raw materials. A howl went up.

Jim Waddell Fails

United States Trucking Corporation announced its intention to give battle, with Jim Waddell in command of professional strike-breaking forces. Cots were being set up in the Erie warehouse and the police were prepared to ride with the roughneck scabs. Some of the Merchant Truckmen’s Bureau members were trying to operate “with strike-breakers and police protection,” Secretary Thomas Barry stated to me.

“But strike-breakers never do the work,” observes Ryan. “They only nurse the job along and provoke trouble all around.” He and the other negotiators got around the table at Cavanaugh’s restaurant on Twenty-third Street and at 1 a.m. of the strike’s fourth day announced a verbal agreement, which was later put into writing and ratified.

Within a few days another teamsters’ local, 202, had 2100 drivers of produce trucks strike for $7 a week more than the old $40 scale. Negotiations had been going on since May. Immediately half a million dollars a day worth of perishable food products—fruits and vegetables chiefly—was held up. At this writing the strike is still on.

Labor Age was a left-labor monthly magazine with origins in Socialist Review, journal of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Published by the Labor Publication Society from 1921-1933 aligned with the League for Industrial Democracy of left-wing trade unionists across industries. During 1929-33 the magazine was affiliated with the Conference for Progressive Labor Action (CPLA) led by A. J. Muste. James Maurer, Harry W. Laidler, and Louis Budenz were also writers. The orientation of the magazine was industrial unionism, planning, nationalization, and was illustrated with photos and cartoons. With its stress on worker education, social unionism and rank and file activism, it is one of the essential journals of the radical US labor socialist movement of its time.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/laborage/v16n10-oct-1927-LA.pdf