The Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909 was an American labor dispute which ran from July to September in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The strike was triggered on July 10th, a payday on which many workers were shorted by the Pressed Steel Car Company.
The strike began on July 13th, and grew to include more than 8,000 workers, 3,000 of whom were also from the Standard Steel Car Company. By the next day, 500 cops began working to protect strikebreakers and evict strikers from company houses. The New York Times called the immigrant workforce "savages" and "illiterate foreigners".
Management refused to speak with the workers' representatives and James Rider, manager of the Pressed Steel Car Company, responded to their strike by hiring Pearl Bergoff, a notorious owner of a strike-breaking paramilitary force.
The workers were joined by members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), including founders William Trautmann and "Big Bill" Haywood, as well as "Smiling Joe" Ettor.
The walkout drew national attention when, on this day in 1909, a bloody battle took place between strikers, private security agents, and the Pennsylvania State Police. The violence began after strikers boarded a trolley to search for scabs and they were confronted by an armed deputy, who opened fire. In the fighting that followed, between 12 and 26 people were killed.
The strike was settled on September 8th when Pressed Steel Car agreed to a wage increase, the posting of wage rates, and ended abuses in company housing practices. This labor dispute would be a precursor to the Great Steel Strike of 1919.
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I have a very opinionated liberal friend. He's honestly kind of an ass usually. I don't really tell him my actual political beliefs. A few months ago he was lecturing me about how much he hates 'tankies' (he actually used the word unironically). He's the type that will just talk over people and not listen.
He never actually listens to me, but I kept telling him to just go watch some Parenti lectures. So after this whole rant, he tells me his solution for the United States: elect Jon Stewart as president. I asked if Jon Stewart even wants to run for president. He said we'd have to convince him.
I got in my car and laughed out loud the entire way home.
Anyways, now he just told me he's been getting into V*usch 🤢
Time to trade him in for a newer model
I often wonder why I still allow him in my life NGL.
Every now and then I feel like I'm out of touch with the world and then I see things long this and get a lot better about myself
Same here. I legitimately had no idea people still admired Jon Stewart.
Hasn't it been almost 10 years since he's been out of the public eye?
Like fine he's the libbest lib of all or whatever, but at least he's fucked off to enjoy he TV money since then for the most part. Even if I'm the libbest lib why would I bring him back out of retirement? Is there really nobody else?
He left the public eye at the perfect time right before Trump, but I guess he's trying to make a comeback. What a loser.