Monroe city officials, with an eye to bringing jobs to this tiny town whose main employer was a small paper mill, were able in 1929 to coax a steel company from Newton Falls, Ohio to open a steel mill in their town. Not only did the plant bring over a thousand jobs to Monroe but hundreds of workers relocating with the company needed food, shelter and diversion providing the local economy with a big boost.
And for the first six years after arriving in Monroe, Newton Steel and its employees worked in relative harmony. But that wasn’t to last. By the end of 1936, acrimony between management and its workers was growing and tensions began to rise.
A string of circumstances, some company induced, some employee initiated, some the result of poor planning, came to a head in June 1937 engulfing the 18,000 citizens of Monroe in unwanted national attention.
The rift between labor and management really began when the plant was being built on the marshland of the River Raisin in 1929. The cost of bringing materials to the site by boat and expensive dredging forced structural costs skyward, many of the costs passed on to its newly-assembled work staff, therby forcing wages down.
Another institutional problem plaguing the new Newton Steel mill was its outdated design model which, unlike more modern plants, increased operational costs of the mill, again putting pressure on workers wages.
From the laborers point of view, however, the slide toward the picket line really began in 1935 when the plant was bought by Republic Steel, an employer with a reputation for being vigorously anti-union. In fact, the new owners maintained a practice of not signing labor contracts with his company's employees to the chagrin of its labor force.
Another grievance workers had with Republic was the inconsistency of steady work. The steel industry in those days was subject to erratic business cycles and during slow periods the company would temporarily lay off its workforce…without pay. In fact, it wasn’t unusual for idled workers to go months without a paycheck from the mill.
Adding to the mix was the perception that management did not have safely of its work force in mind. At the Newton plant, the process of creating sheet steel from raw steel, for instance, required workers to spend many hours in a stifling environment with little protective gear. But the tipping point that sparked the walkout was the decision by company brass to lay off assistants to the hot mill workers. Steelers were now asked to do more without an increase in compensation.
The year Republic took over the Newton plant, the CIO began recruiting workers in the mill under the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) wing for union membership. The SWOC presence in Monroe was part of a larger attempt nationally by the CIO to unionize the so-called “Little Steel” companies - Republic Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Inland Steel. The CIO was confident it would be able to galvanize steel workers under one organization, creating a stronger union in order to increase bargaining clout when negotiating with industry managers.
But if the workers who decided to strike the Newton Steel mill on June 17, 1937 thought they had the support of Monroe’s townspeople, they were mistaken. Most Monroe citizens appreciated a corporate partner bringing jobs to town and generally looked away when strikers voiced their grievances about the poor treatment they were being subject to at the mill. Many of Monroe’s citizenry were also indignant that, even though they acknowledged work at the mill was difficult, the men under contract to Republic were among the best paid in the county.
The people of Monroe were also concerned what a strike would do to the safety and well-being of the town. Reports of violence in towns like Chicago, where earlier that year a bloody confrontation between labor and management left 10 dead, was fresh on the minds of the inhabitants of Monroe. Worse was an unfounded rumor (allegedly started by Republic Steel) that the small band of strikers were affiliated with the communist party of the Soviet Union.
At the center of the turmoil was the mayor of Monroe - Daniel Knaggs – who came down on the side of Newton’s management in an effort to end the strike. His first directive was to organize a plant-wide vote to determine how many employees wanted to go on strike. The results of the election, not approved by National Labor Relations Board or any other third party organization, was reported by city hall showing 782 workers voted against the strike while only 30 who supported it.
To bust the strike, Knaggs took the unprecedented step of arming 200 “special” police with clubs and tear gas in an effort to protect workers trying get through the picket lines. On June 10, violence erupted at the entrance of the plant with striking workers attempting to block non-striking employees from entering the mill. In the melee that followed, combatants on both sides suffered minor injuries before tear gas, rocks and clubs routed the outnumbered strikers who were forced to flee. In all, 11 strikers were injured and many had their cars torched and pushed into the River Raisin.
A picket line at one of the entrances to Newton Steel.
Those who opposed the strike overturned striker's autos. The picketers gave way.
After the clash, Mayor Knaggs, concerned that 20,000 United Auto Workers (UAW) from Flint and Pontiac might mobilize in sympathy of the strikers and join the skirmish, created a “citizens battalion.” Nearly 600 people were deputized and given food and clubs by the city in addition to the shotguns, deer rifles and other weapons brought from home. The situation became so tense that Michigan governor Frank Murphy unsuccessfully attempted to mediate the strike by telephone, making calls to strike leaders, city officials, and the mayor’s office.
Finally, on June 13, the National Guard and the Michigan State Police were dispatched to Monroe whereupon cooler heads prevailed and peaceful picketing was allowed. A few days later, the strike ended as quickly as it began and protesters returned to work.
After the Michigan National Guard arrived at the site, there was peace.
With its tree-lined streets and quaint downtown, it would be hard to imagine a town less likely to be host to a violent labor struggle. Not only were the citizens of the day pulled into the fracas but out-of-towners streamed into Monroe to get a glimpse of the standoff.
According to James E. DeVries, professor of history at Monroe County Community College, at least 1,000 spectators came to Monroe to see the events unfolding. "Kids were perched in apple trees, people came on boats to get a view of the standoff, there was even a reporter sent by The New York Times to cover the story," DeVries said.
As for Mayor Daniel Knaggs, his role in the episode has been fodder for widespread debate in Monroe throughout the years. Some believe his motivation to side with Republic was simply the best course of action to avoid the bloodshed between labor and management. Others believe his actions were less benign as rumors have persisted to this day that he received recompense from Republic Steel to quash the strike.
Many industry experts agree the result of the fracas between Newton Steel and a small band of its disgruntled workers was a major setback for the growing union movement in Michigan and elsewhere.
According to DeVries, the Newton strike was a turning point in the American labor movement. “The CIO was on a roll," he said. "U.S. Steel had been organized and the UAW had recently orchestrated a successful sit-down strike at a GM plant in Flint thanks to the union. They probably figured this work stoppage in provincial Monroe would be easy. Instead what happened at the Newton Steel mill set back the labor movement the union was slow to recover from.”
For more information about the role of labor unions in the MotorCities and the nation, consider a visit to the Monroe County Labor History Museum. For information about the museum, go to http://www.monroelabor.org/. The Monroe County Labor History Museum website features a virtual tour of the Newton Strike. Go to www.monroelabor.org/newton_steel/index.htm.