On this day in labor history, the year was 1900.
That was the day the newly formed Building Contractors Council locked out 40,000 building tradesmen in Chicago.
The Contractors Council was founded in opposition to the power of the Building Trades Council.
Solidarity among the trades galvanized their ability to determine wages and working conditions throughout the city.
Hard-won gains included use of sympathy strikes, restriction of laborsaving machinery and apprentices, and work pace and production limits.
In 1899, citywide building trades contracts expired.
Backed by financiers, manufacturers and engineers, the new council demanded the unions abandon these gains and cut all ties with the Building Trades Council.
The contractors cited the more than 20 walkouts at the Montgomery Ward construction site as but one example.
The bosses’ were driven to destroy what historian Andrew Wender Cohen refers to as ‘craft governance’ in the city.
Incredulous, the crafts refused to recognize the contractors council or its demands.
The contractors locked them out.
They brought in 6000 scabs to continue construction work throughout the city.
Pitched battles continued daily in the streets between locked out tradesmen and scabs.
Many contractors brought in cots and food to non-union workers, keeping them on job sites until completion.
Labor-friendly Mayor Carter Harrison II offered to mediate, but refused police protection of scabs.
The contractors built up their own private force.
Then they injected an added racial dimension to the conflict.
Among the non-union workers, some were black tradesmen, briefly hired as construction workers and job site guards.
The lockout ended in a 1901 defeat for the Building Trades, whose ranks were decimated by 90%.
The building trades bounced back and were soon a formidable force in Chicago.
October 23 - John Sweeney is Elected
October 22 - Pretty Boy Floyd Is Gunned Down
October 21 - Through Rain, Sleet, Snow & Anthrax
October 20 - Remembering Debs
October 19 - Tragedy on the Tracks
October 18 - Voice of an Era
October 17 - Fighting to End Poverty
October 16 - Thank A Farmer
October 15 - Too Little, Too Late for Radiation Sickness
October 14 - Marching for Equality
October 13 - We Whipped the Ivy League and You Can Too!
October 12 - Workers Begin to Come Together
October 11 - Remembering Mary Heaton Vorse
October 10 - With a Push of a Button, Oceans Are Joined
October 9 - The End of the Boom Boom RoOm
October 8 - The Great Chicago Fire
October 7 - Housing Now!
October 6 - Clinton Signs the Hatch Act
October 5 - Hollywood’s Black Friday
October 4 - A Chain Reaction of Human Misery
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