1933 Massachusetts Workers Strike for Better Conditions After Depression

After the stock market crash of 1929 the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. The Depression resulted in millions being laid off nationwide and forced to look for work. Unfortunately, business was not doing much better and there was not enough work to go around. The Labor Movement lost a lot of momentum during Depression because workers were so desperate for work that they could not afford to strike or complain or else they would risk losing their jobs. Businesses took advantage of the workers’ unwillingness to strike by lowering wages and instituting harsh working conditions.

By 1933 workers had taken enough of employers’ mistreatment. President Franklin Roosevelt passed the National Industrial Recovery Act which created the National Recovery Administration. The Administration set minimum wages and limited working hours. The Act also provided, “for the first time in the United States, the legal right for workers to organize into unions.” (Commonwealth, 108) As a result of the National Industrial Recovery Act, workers flocked to AFL affiliated unions.

In 1933, leather workers on the North Shore, including Peabody and Lynn, walked off the job in order to gain recognition for their union from tannery owners. The owners hired scabs to replace the 5,000 striking leather workers, but public support was on the side of the strikers. As a result of the strike the leather workers were able to form a union, which eventually led to the creation of a national union of leather workers.

Around the same time, cranberry workers went on strike in Wareham. The 1,500 cranberry workers were mostly Cape Verdeans who were striking for union recognition in response to poor wages and harsh field bosses. The strike was eventually broken, but it was the first agricultural strike in the state and was influential to many other strikers later on in the Commonwealth’s history.