on this week's labor history. Today we remember legendary union leader Tony Zaki, his fight for workers safety, his role in founding the Labor Party and his lasting impact on labor arts, plus the untold story of the multiracial cowboy strike of 1883 and a look back at the 1937 minor solidarity strike. I got to know and work with Tony Masaki after he returned from a Rochester Labor Film Festival screening of Silkwood. In the fall of 2000.
He came to the Metro Washington Labor Council and asked Josh Williams and me to help launch a DC labor film festival. We did just that in 2001, and it's been going strong ever since. Our annual award is named in his honor, the Tony Zaki Labor Arts Award. Tony was a deeply dedicated activist and a completely inspiring human being. Here's more on the life and legacy of this extraordinary trade unionist. I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History.
In Two on this day in labor history, the year was 1926. That was the day union leader Tony Zaki was born. He's remembered as a longtime leader and international official with the oil, chemical and Atomic Workers Union. Zaki was a prime force behind the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. He was also centrally involved in the grievances. Karen Silkwood brought against the Kerr McGee Company during the 1990s.
He worked tirelessly to establish a labor party as an independent political force that could truly represent working people. Zaki was born in Brooklyn, New York to a union family. After fighting in World War ii, he hired on at a cosmetics factory organized by the Gas Workers Union. He quickly emerged as a leader, fought for the rights of women workers, and soon became the president of his local.
He would go on to aid in the merging of his union with the oil workers International that created OCAW. Within 10 years, he had become the international's citizenship legislative director. Many have noted that Masaki was one of the first labor leaders to build ties with the environmental movement. He linked the hazards in the workplace with hazards in the environment. He showed how workers and the public shared similar concerns about health and safety.
He pioneered the Blue Green Alliance that continues to advocate for green, blue collar jobs, build union reading clubs, and pushed his members toward social justice unionism. Masaki was a coalition builder and worked with allies for clean water and air, single-payer healthcare, free education, and just trade policy. The United Steelworkers named their health safety and the Environment Center in his honor. He died in 2002 of pancreatic cancer. He was 76 years old.
Labor History in Two, brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show. For more information, go to labor history in two.com like Cass on Facebook and follow us on the Twitters at labor history in two. Here's singer songwriter and union organizer Seth Newton Patel. a few years back, I came across a reference to the great, cowboy Strike of 1883, and it, really piqued my interest. I was fascinated by it for a bunch of reasons.
But, um, you know, just given the myth of the rugged individual that's, that the Cowboys use to explain, the idea that there would be a great strike of cowboys, in our history, to me cuts through that myth, by showing that, cowboys were actually working class people, that cowboys, took collective action, including, striking, in this country's history that cowboys were actually not some.
Rugged individuals and only white, but a multiracial group of, of black, brown, indigenous, working class people. And so when I came across that reference, I decided to do some more research so that I could use it for this song. It was a strike in 1883 of a few hundred cowboys, across a half dozen ranches, large ranches at the time. We of course, are up against billionaires. They were up against barons and in this case, beef barons.
And, the story starts out actually not just, placing it in the year of the great cowboy strike, but also, being sure to clear up and, yeah, make clear that this wasn't on, empty or vacant. Frontier. This was actually indigenous land that had been stolen. And. Being really sure. To, frame it with the land, whose land that was, and specifically the Kiaa. And Comanche was for me, a really important kind of setting the stage of the strike.
And then also in the first verse, wanted to be sure to point out that not only were there barons, these, huge, rich business people that were driving this, industry. But the cowboys themselves. Had knew exactly the choke point at which they should take collective action. And that's at roundup time in the spring when they're preparing for the cattle drives to, I believe the railways, um, for Mark sale to the market.
And so, um, you know, in the first verse, it covers a number of those kind of key pieces of the setting of the song. The Cowboys decided, in 1883 that it was time to make some demands and then, threatened to quit, I believe is the term they used collectively. We of course know that as a, a strike, the withholding of labor collectively. But that was the kind of setting for that, the decision and the demands, that led to the strike.
Wanted to be sure to, cover the basic demand, as part of a, a good strike song. In this case, the Cowboys were earning about $30 a month. Working over a hundred hours a week. And they were demanding both a significant raise as well as to be paid, not at the end of the season, but during, during the roundup while they were doing their work. Those are a couple of the major demands. And there was also an effort by the beef barons to take away these cowboys' ability to, create their own small hertz.
When there were cows, cattle that were not branded or not. You know, owned by a particular ranch, Cowboys could slowly assemble these mavericks, uh, so-called mavericks to create their own little herd. And the beef barons were taking away their ability, to actually create their own herd. Taking away additional economic self-sufficiency. So that's in the second verse. And. I also mentioned that, much of what they earned was donated to the Jenkins Saloon. That's an actual saloon at the time.
That was both a play on the fact that Cowboys spend a lot in the bar. But also the Jenkins Saloon, in this case, operated as in some ways, it informal strike fund. In that, Jenkins was, was, sympathizing with the Cowboys struggle and clearly relied on cowboys to run that business. And so, um, Cowboys would donate a portion of what they had, to help support them during the strike. So that, that, that's in the second verse.
Right when the cowboys say, we're actually quitting because you won't meet these demands. Cow folks of all colors riding the line, Stetsons in the air, four picket signs. Pat Garrett himself trying to break our strike. Parents say we lost, you know, they. Y Strike Strike. Th third verse, um, you know, it is time for the strike. It's time. We, we need the action. We need to know what it feels like and sounds like on that line.
It's wanted to be sure to make it clear it was a multiracial group that, that was on strike these cowboys, that you might not perceive it as a common strike line or picket line like we know them today. Because these are cowboys. They didn't have picket signs, as far as I've read, but they were waving their stetsons, their cowboy hats in the air. And to me that, that seemed as good of a picket sign as any, given kind of the culture, of that community of workers.
And I think there was some also other interesting characters that we con that, that we traditionally, understand to be protagonists perhaps in the myths of the Wild West, like Pat Garrett. Pat Garrett actually was a strike breaker in the Great cowboy strike, and a smaller strike wave that, that, took place after and was inspired by the great cowboy strike of 1883.
So it was important for me to call him out in particular, because, hi, his story's been probably, sanitized when it comes to his role, at, trying to quash working class. Struggle in this particular instance. Also, in organizing for strikes, inoculation is a really crucial thing that we as organizers do to prepare people for what the boss is gonna do to attack their, their campaign and their strike. And, I wanted to be sure to, tell people that the barons.
The cattle bosses claimed that the strike lost, that the Cowboys lost. And that certainly was a lie. Parents say we lost, you know, they. Y Strike Strike. The end is, after, cowboys spent weeks, on the picket line, refusing, to work, withholding their labor from the, the cattle bosses. Quite a few of them were not rehired. Quite a few of them did not get to continue in their same jobs. Given what the, bosses decided to do to attack their efforts, they did.
In fact, there were raises given to cowboys on a number of these ranches. I saw one, one. Ranch, for example, gave a 40% raise. It certainly had some, there were some victories to celebrate. As I mentioned at the outset, a number of the cowboys who were participated in the strike started their own cooperative, cattle ranches. One called the Get even Cattle company. Another one. They call it the system, which is another interesting, uh, name.
But it, yeah, at the end of this song, the Cowboy singing says, go ahead and fire me. I've got all, I need a branding, iron, Winchester, and whiskey. So you know, the idea of there's a few basic tools, for these working class heroes to start their own, cooperative. And it's a few of those things. And a horse, my horse who gets, I gotta get free. So trying to capture some of the like, aspiration for not just a raise, but for for real freedom that, we really.
Struggle for in so many of our strikes in so many industries. Um, and then the chorus, YPI, Kai Strike Strike Yay is, um, you know, based off an old cowboy exclamation of, excitement or in some cases pr preparing to overcome a challenge. And it's a call and response. So certainly intended to be like a chant on a, on a picket line. Go ahead fire me. I've got all I need. Branding, iron, Winchester, and whiskey. My horses. Who gets, I gotta get free.
I'm the get even cattle company, the get even cattle company. Y. I'm Rick Smith, and this is labor History. In two on this day in labor history, the year was 1937. That was the day John L. Lewis called Miners who worked for little steel coal subsidiaries out on strike. It was an act of solidarity as conditions worsened on steel strike picket lines. The walkout was designed to force the closure of steel mills.
By stopping the flow of coal, 10,000 workers in as many as 19 mines owned by Republic Steel, Bethlehem Steel, and Youngstown Sheet and Tube dropped their tools. Bethlehem had not been one of the independent steel companies initially included in the little steel strike, but workers at its Cambria works in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Walked out in sympathy with railroad workers at Bethlehem owned Black Lick and Kano Mall Railroad. They had been refused a contract.
Striking miners in Johnstown March to Cambra works to join the seven mile stretch of picket lines in Ohio. The Canton Federation of Labor voted unanimously for a general strike. If the newly formed Citizens League attempted to force reopening of the steel mill. Swac leader Van Bitner threatened to call out another 600,000 miners by week's end. If the strike was not settled, John L. Lewis remarked quote, labor is menaced by the force of arms of Republic Steel Corporation.
Labor is calling attention to this situation so the law, government, or public opinion can begin functioning before another massacre takes place. UAW, president, Homer Martin added quote, it is our purpose to spread the light of democracy to every part of this land until autocracy and industrial slavery have been driven from the country. But Johnstown civic leaders and town officials had formed a citizens committee and prepared for battle.
As the miners approached, it seemed there was no end to the anti strike violence. For more information, go to labor history in two.com. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter at labor history in two. That's it for this week's labor history today. Thanks to Rick Smith for the labor history in two segments, and to Seth Newton Patel for sharing the story and spirit of the 1883 Cowboy strike. And of course, we remember Tony Zaki. Union leader, visionary, and tireless advocate for working people.
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