Episode Details

On this day, 7 May 1912, the first general strike for waiters and hotel workers in New York City began when 150 workers at the Belmont Hotel walked out on strike. Organised by the Industrial Workers of the World union, at its peak over 6,000 workers were out, demanding one day off per week, higher wages and no discrimination against union members. The employers tried to stoke racial hatred by hiring African-American strikebreakers, so the workers allied with the Coloured Waiters' Association and called on Black workers to join the strike. Various individual hotels agreed to some of the strikers' demands. Combined with police violence, media harassment, and an increasing number of scabs who included local college students, the strike ended by late June, and some key organisers were blacklisted. However hotel workers continued to strike in the coming years, and today hotel workers in New York City remain among the best paid in the world. This is our podcast episode about the IWW at that time: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/05/23/wch-e6-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-the-us-1905-1918/

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