1921 Boston Manufacturing Association Locks Out Amalgamated Clothing Workers

The 1920’s brought great prosperity to some in the labor world. The Boston Building Trades were doing quite well and even received support from the notoriously anti-union Republican Governor Calvin Coolidge. The story was not quite the same for the numerous workers in textile, clothing and shoe mills which dotted industrial cities and towns in the state. In 1914 the Amalgamated Clothing Workers was founded to represent those workers in the textile, shoe, and clothing industries.

In 1921 the Amalgamated Clothing Workers were locked out by the Boston Clothing Manufacturers Association, causing the workers to set up picket lines outside their factories. The Boston Police at the time were made up of scabs because Governor Coolidge had fired all unionized police officers in Boston following the Police Strike of 1919. The scab police officers beat up the locked out workers who were peacefully picketing outside their factories. The Boston Clothing Manufacturers Association even went so far as to hire gangsters to assault the protesting workers. Even in the face of such brutal resistance, the Union was able to survive the lockout because of their solidarity and commitment to one another.