1946 Oakland General Strike

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: The 1946 Oakland General Strike

Released on March 24, 2025 by iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In this episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson delve into the intricate history of the 1946 Oakland General Strike. They explore the socio-economic backdrop of post-World War II America, the dynamics between labor unions and management, the strike's progression, government intervention, and its lasting impact on American labor laws.

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Historical Context and Labor Landscape [02:24 - 09:48]

Tracy V. Wilson opens the discussion by situating the 1946 Oakland General Strike within a broader wave of labor unrest that swept the United States in 1945-1946. This period was marked by widespread strikes as workers sought better wages and working conditions following the end of World War II.

Key Points:

• Wagner Act of 1935: Established employees' rights to unionize and prohibited employer interference. It also created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to oversee union elections and address unfair labor practices.

  "The Wagner act gave employees the right to form unions and barred employers from interfering with that right." [04:35]

• World War II Impact: As industries ramped up for the war effort, workers introduced aggressive collective actions to secure higher wages and improved conditions. Post-war, the removal of wartime controls led to inflation and economic adjustments that fueled further labor disputes.

• Government Measures: The establishment of the War Labor Board and policies like union security aimed to stabilize labor relations during the war. However, the end of the war saw these measures dismantled, resulting in soaring inflation (18% in 1946) and heightened unemployment.

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Lead-Up to the Oakland Strike [09:48 - 22:08]

Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson discuss the economic struggles Americans faced post-war, including hyperinflation, housing shortages, and disrupted supply chains. These conditions bred frustration among workers who had sacrificed during the war years without seeing corresponding improvements in their livelihoods.

Key Points:

• Return of Soldiers: Veterans returning from the war found themselves facing stagnant wages and limited job opportunities, exacerbating economic tensions.

• Union Negotiations: Unions like the United Auto Workers sought significant wage increases without passing costs onto consumers, leading to tense negotiations and eventual strikes.

• Government and Business Resistance: Management and political figures, backed by anti-union sentiments, resisted union demands, creating a volatile environment ripe for large-scale labor actions.

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The Oakland General Strike Unfolds [22:08 - 35:31]

Tracy V. Wilson narrates the events leading to the strike in Oakland, California, focusing on the efforts of retail workers to unionize and the subsequent pushback from employers and city authorities.

Key Events:

• Unionization Efforts: Retail workers at Conn's Department Store and Hastings Clothing Company sought to unionize, motivated by higher wages and better working conditions experienced by workers in already unionized stores.

• Provocation by Management: The Retail Merchants Association (RMA), representing major department stores, demanded that all member stores agree to unionize, an untenable condition that escalated tensions.

  "Management at Conn's and Hastings did not want the same thing to happen to them. They would only recognize the union if all 28 stores agreed to unionize." [22:08]

• Initial Strikes: Hastings workers struck on October 23, 1946, followed by Conn's on October 31, leading to solidarity actions from other unions, including the Teamsters refusing to cross picket lines.

• Government and Police Intervention: On December 1, 1946, city authorities, influenced by the RMA and political connections, violently cleared picketing workers from store premises using tear gas and physical force. Notably, Joe Shode of the International Typographical Union remarked:

  "Beat us off our own streets was the first step toward fascism." [26:47]

• Escalation to General Strike: In response to the aggressive enforcement against strikers, the AFL called for a general strike on December 3, 1946, involving approximately 100,000 workers and effectively shutting down downtown Oakland.

  "The general strike officially started at 5am on Monday, December 3. About 100,000 AFL workers across the county didn't show up for work or walked off the job." [27:58]

• Atmosphere During the Strike: Despite the tensions, the downtown area transformed into a festive environment with bars serving beer, jukeboxes on sidewalks, and a general party-like atmosphere, contrasting the serious nature of the strike.

• Lack of Coordination and Leadership Challenges: The strike suffered from insufficient planning and clear leadership directives, leading to logistical issues like shortages of food and supplies as stores remained closed.

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Government Response and Strike Resolution [35:31 - 47:41]

Post-strike, Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson discuss the legislative repercussions of the strike, notably the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act.

Key Points:

• Shift in Political Power: The 1946 general election resulted in Republicans gaining majorities in both Congressional houses for the first time since 1933, signaling a shift in legislative priorities toward anti-union measures.

• Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act) of 1947: Introduced by Senator Robert A. Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley Jr., this act amended the Wagner Act, placing restrictions on unions to balance power between labor and management.

  "The Taft Hartley act outlined unfair labor practices for unions as well, such as outlawing secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes." [44:46]

• Provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act:

  • Ban on Secondary Boycotts: Prevented unions from targeting neutral third parties in labor disputes.
  • Outlawed Sympathy Strikes: Restricted the ability to support strikes in unrelated industries.
  • Non-Communist Affidavits: Mandated that union leaders swear they were not affiliated with the Communist Party, leading to purges within unions.
  • Rights to Work Laws: Allowed states to pass legislation permitting workers to opt out of union membership without losing their jobs.

  "Section 9H required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits, effectively forcing many unions to expel communist members." [45:55]

• Impact on the Oakland Strike: The Taft-Hartley Act effectively ended large-scale general strikes in the U.S., with the 1946 Oakland strike being the last major one for decades. Subsequent general strikes faced legal hurdles and lacked the union support necessary to sustain them.

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Legacy and Aftermath [47:41 - 56:41]

Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Fry explore the long-term effects of the Oakland General Strike and the Taft-Hartley Act on American labor movements.

Key Points:

• Decline of General Strikes: The Oakland strike remained the last significant general strike in the U.S. until recent years, with later attempts being constrained by Taft-Hartley provisions.

• Union Consolidation: The AFL and CIO merged in 1955, partly in response to the diminishing power of smaller unions due to restrictive labor laws.

• Political Influence: Despite initial momentum, the Oakland Voters League—formed by the AFL, CIO, and NAACP to bridge labor and civil rights—had limited success, highlighting the persistent racial and political challenges within union movements.

• Cultural Memory: The legacy of the strike is commemorated in Oakland's Central Plaza, which features placards dedicated to the event, serving as a historical reminder of labor struggles and their significance in shaping labor laws.

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Notable Quotes

• "Beat us off our own streets was the first step toward fascism."
  — Joe Shode, International Typographical Union [26:47]

• "The Taft Hartley act outlined unfair labor practices for unions as well, such as outlawing secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes."
  — Tracy V. Wilson [44:46]

• "The Wagner act gave employees the right to form unions and barred employers from interfering with that right."
  — Tracy V. Wilson [04:35]

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Conclusion

The 1946 Oakland General Strike stands as a pivotal moment in American labor history, emblematic of the post-war tensions between workers seeking equitable treatment and management entrenched in maintaining control. The subsequent Taft-Hartley Act significantly reshaped the landscape of labor relations, curbing the power of unions and setting the stage for future labor dynamics in the United States. This episode provides a comprehensive exploration of these events, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of the factors that led to the strike, the strike itself, and its enduring repercussions on labor laws and union activities in America.

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Listener Mail

Tracy V. Wilson shares listener feedback, highlighting the community's engagement with the podcast and its historical narratives. For example, Patty's email discusses her personal connection to hominy and homestyle cooking, illustrating how historical topics resonate with listeners' everyday lives.

"I grew up eating hominy and thought everyone ate it too. My mom would also make a dish with spinach and scrambled eggs that was so good." [49:12]

This segment underscores the podcast's ability to connect vast historical events to personal experiences, enriching the listener's appreciation of history's relevance.

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Thank you for tuning into Stuff You Missed in History Class. For more intriguing historical analyses, subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

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Iheartradio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Over the Past several years, when there's been some frustration and anger over the state of the world or maybe the state of where we live, I've seen kind of a tide of people calling for a general strike. And whenever that happens, I find myself wanting to do an episode on a general strike. We have talked about some general strikes before. Back in 2019, in two different episodes, we talked about the Winnipeg General strike and the Limerick Soviet. And both of those had happened in 1919. But a lot of those calls for general strikes here in the United States in the more recent past. Those have happened in the years since we did those episodes, especially in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic and the George Floyd protests in 2020. We have gotten a ton of requests for an episode on the Icelandic general strike, known in English as the Women's Day off, which happened in 1975. And while I would really love to do an episode on that, hampered by my inability to read Icelandic, just the language that the vast majority about of stuff about that is written in. So that has brought us to instead the 1946 Oakland General Strike, which is today's subject.

[Holly Fry]

The 1946 Oakland General Strike was part of a massive wave of strikes that took place in the U. S. In 1945 and 1946. For context, much of the federal law around unions at this point went back to the National Labor Relationships act of 1935, also called the Wagner Act. We talked more about this law and the context for its passage in our most recent Saturday classic on the Flint Sit Down Strike. The Wagner act gave employees the right to form unions and barred employers from interfering with that right. It also established the National Labor Relations Board, which supervised union elections and investigated allegations of unfair labor practices.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. Prior to the passage of this act, unionizing was seen as basically a criminal conspiracy. The Wagner act was framed as diminishing the causes of labor disputes that were, quote, burdening or obstructing interstate and foreign commerce. It had been passed as part of the New Deal, which was the collection of policies, programs and laws implemented during the Roosevelt administration to try to help the United States recover from the Great Depression. The Wagner act had also followed a huge wave of strikes and other labor unrest in 1933 and 1934. Overall, most business leaders and Republican politicians were not fans of the Wagner act. But for more than a decade after it was passed, Democrats held majorities in both houses of Congress, and the president was also a Democrat. So for the most part, opponents of the Wagner act were stuck with it.

[Holly Fry]

In 1941, as industries in the United States were gearing up for World War II, there was another wave of strikes. The US had not entered the war yet, but a range of industries suddenly became critical to the war effort. Workers in those industries and elsewhere saw this as an opportunity to secure higher wages and better working conditions and took aggressive collective action to try to get that done.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Then, In December of 1941, Japan bombed the U.S. naval Station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the United States entered the war. The federal government saw an obvious need to put an end to the strikes and to keep production going. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration started negotiating with union leaders on how to do that.

[Holly Fry]

The two major union organizations Roosevelt was working with were the American Federation of Labor, or afl, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or cio. There was some animosity between the AFL and the cio. The AFL worked with craft unions, which were considered to represent skilled labor, while the CIO was focused on industrial workers who were seen as unskilled. The CIO had started off as a committee of the AFL before splitting off into its own organization. In Late December of 1941, AFL and CIO leadership agreed to a voluntary no strike pledge for the duration of the war.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But striking, or at least the threat of striking, was really the most powerful tool that unions had to try to improve their pay and working conditions. After union leaders agreed to this no strike pledge, union workers started wondering how or even whether their unions would be able to fight for them. Support for the AFL and the CIO started to wane among union workers. And then that led to concerns about whether the AFL and the CIO would be able to enforce that no strike pledge. Like were people just going to go striking anyway without their approval?

[Holly Fry]

So the government took additional steps to try to reduce labor disputes, including establishing a national War Labor Board. Among other things, this board established a policy for union security which meant that newly hired workers could automatically become union members after 15 days of work and their dues would automatically be deducted from their pay. Many workplaces were essentially closed shops in which union membership was required in order to work there. And as a result, union membership soared.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

These steps did not put a complete stop to striking or to labor unrest. In June of 1943, Congress passed the Smith Connolly act. And that act allowed the President to take control of privately owned businesses that were seen as critical to the war effort if there was a strike or other labor unrest going on. This was passed over Roosevelt's veto on June 25, 1943.

[Holly Fry]

Meanwhile, the US was also trying to keep Inflation from spiraling out of control as it previously had during World War I. An Office of Price Administration was established in 1941 to control the prices on a variety of goods. Food rationing was implemented both to make sure food was available for the war effort and to help offset the fact that food prices couldn't be used to to influence consumer demand.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Then in 1945, the war ended. The Office of Price Administration, the National War Labor Board and the Smith Connolly act were all supposed to be temporary wartime measures, and they were all dismantled and dissolved. Businesses also saw an opportunity to start rolling back wartime labor protections, including the National War Labor Board's union security policies, and maybe even to roll back some of those protections from the Wagner Act.

[Holly Fry]

At the same time, with an end to price controls, prices surged. In 1946, inflation surged to 18%. Prices doubled for bread and meat. And when Roosevelt reestablished price controls, increased demand for these products led to shortages. As soldiers returned from the war and wartime industries shut down, Unemployment increased, and there was also a huge housing shortage.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There was also a lot of pent up demand for goods and services. People had lived through the Great depression in the 1930s and then they had continued to make sacrifices during the Second World War. So people had gone from not being able to afford things to not being able to get them because of wartime rationing and shortages. This all became part of that cycle of inflation and scarcity as well.

[Holly Fry]

And in light of all of this, people were frustrated. Everyone had lived through years of sacrifice and this we're all in this together ideology. And people had lost friends and their loved ones to the war. Young people felt like they had spent years of their lives serving in a war when they should have been in school or starting a family or establishing themselves in a trade. And now that they were home again, wages were stagnant, prices were skyrocketing, and goods were hard to find. Women who had been able to get good paying union jobs in wartime industries were forced out of those jobs when men returned from service, mainly into industries that were lower paying and not unionized, like retail and domestic work.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So with all of this going on, and with those wartime no strike pledges starting to expire, workers once again started going on strike. President Harry S. Truman had come into office when Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April of 1945. And that November he convened a Labor Management conference with the hope of heading off a crisis. This conference did not really reach any kind of resolution.

[Holly Fry]

As unions started negotiating new contracts, many were focused on better pay and working conditions. But some Unions tried to take things a step further and influence society as a whole. For example, when United Auto Workers started negotiating with GM in 1945, they didn't want the cost for employee raises to be passed on to consumers through higher prices because that would just continue to fuel inflation. The union wanted a 30% wage increase to make up for the years workers had gone without raises and the rapidly rising cost of living and thought that GM could afford this increase without increasing the price of its vehicles. GM's perspective was that no, it could not afford that kind of wage increase without also having a price increase. But even if it could, the price of the product was up to the business and not the union. These talks broke down and a strike started on November 21, 1945, which lasted for 113 days.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This was not at all the only strike, and this wave of strikes continued into 1946. That year, roughly a quarter of union workers in the United States went on strike at some point. That included 200,000 electrical workers, 260,000 meat packers, 400,000 coal miners and 750,000 steel workers. In some cases, the federal government stepped in to seize control of industries that were seen as critical. This happened in the case of striking railroad workers who were threatened with military conscription and with the meatpacking plants.

[Holly Fry]

In addition to strikes across specific industries, there were multiple general strikes in 1945 and 1946. These often started with a specific union going on strike and then other unions and non union workers joined them in solidarity. For example, in Stamford, Connecticut, the International association of Machinists was negotiating a contract with Yale and Town Company. They could not reach an agreement and a strike was called on November 7, 1945. When local police refused to intervene, the governor sent in the state police and people were outraged. Stanford had a population of 65,000 people and an estimated 20,000 participated in a one day general strike that shut the city down. Eventually, federal negotiators stepped in and the IAM and Yale and Town Company reached an agreement in April of 1946.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Another general strike was in Rochester, New York in May of 1946. City Manager Louis V. Cartwright fired almost 500 municipal workers who were trying to unionize and then fired more than 60 truck drivers who walked off the job. To protest those firings. There was a mass demonstration in support of the fired workers who were rehired, but the city manager refused to recognize the union. Still, this led to a general strike on May 28 that involved all 35000 members of AFL and CIO unions. In the city.

[Holly Fry]

There were general strikes in Hartford, Connecticut, Camden, New Jersey and Lancaster, Pennsylvania as well. And in Oakland, Cal, California, which we will get into after a sponsor break.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1946, retail workers in Oakland, California were trying to unionize. Retail unions in the area included the Department and Specialty Store Employees Union, Local 1265, and the Retail Clerks International Protective Association. The department and specialty store employees union had already organized the SH Kress store in Oakland, as well as some of the city's shoe stores.

[Holly Fry]

Workers were also trying to organize at Conn's department store and at Hastings Clothing Company, which were both in Latham Square across the street from one another. Workers at Conn's and Hastings had learned that workers at the unionized stores were making about $10 a week more than they were. Retail workers also wanted to move away from a ready room system of getting shifts. Workers who didn't have an assigned shift for the day were expected to wait in a room in the store's basement, arriving in the morning and then waiting to see if they were needed. They often waited until lunchtime or later before being either called up to work or sent home. And they were not paid for their time. While they waited in the ready room.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

About three quarters of the 850 employees at Conn's had voted to unionize. Hastings was a smaller store than Cons, but almost all of its 100 employees were on board. Most of the workers who were trying to organize were white women and a lot of them were middle aged or older. Many of them had worked at the stores for years. Many had also had high paying union jobs in Oakland's shipyards during the war. And so they already had experience in being in a union and they wanted a union at their retail job.

[Holly Fry]

But the stores refused to negotiate. The Retail Merchants association, or rma united all the big department stores in Oakland and Berkeley. It was deeply anti union. Kress and the unionized shoe stores had both been forced to leave the RMA after recognizing their employees unions. Management at Cons and Hastings did not want the same thing to happen to them. Management said they would only recognize the union if all 28 stores that were part of the RMA agreed to unionize.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That was just not feasible. Workers at Hastings went on strike on October 23, 1946. About a week later, on October 31, workers at Cons went on strike as well. Although the leadership of the Teamsters union seems to have been kind of ambivalent about the retail workers strike, Teamsters refused to cross the picket lines to deliver goods to the stores. Other unions in Oakland also encouraged their members not to cross the picket lines to go shopping.

[Holly Fry]

At this point, Oakland City Council, the police and the Oakland Tribune were all tightly connected. Joseph Noland, who had previously served in the California State Senate and in the US House of Representatives, owned the newspaper. And a lot of other powerful people in California had personal or political connections to him. Noland had also supported Earl Warren in his bid to become governor of California. So he had a very wide network of very powerful political connections that stretched well beyond Oakland. In other words, while the retail workers had a lot of support from unionized workers in the city, the city itself and its Republican political machine were both entrenched and both very anti union.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As December and the Christmas shopping season started to approach, workers at both stores were still on strike. Even though a lot of shoppers were refusing to cross the workers picket lines. The stores had gone without deliveries for weeks, so their stock was getting low. Teamsters were not delivering merchandise, but the striking workers knew that it was possible that strike breakers would be brought in to deliver things in their place. So the workers were keeping an eye on the stores, and they were also parking their cars in the loading areas so that trucks could not get in if they did arrive. According to the strikers, they had a verbal okay from the police to park their cars at the loading docks and assurances that their cars would be safe there.

[Holly Fry]

On December 1, the city and the RMA had police forcibly clear roughly 500 picketing workers from around the stores. Some of the nearly 250 police officers who were dispatched to the downtown area were armed with tear gas and gas masks, but they mostly did this by shoving people out of the way with their clubs, battering and bruising some of the strikers in the process. Some of the striking workers and their supporters were injured during all of this, mostly after being struck with officers clubs. But one man, Newton Selvage, had to be hospitalized after being knocked down by a police officer on a motorcycle.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Police also towed the workers cars out of the loading areas, and according to some reports, they left those cars in gear while towing them to intentionally damage their transmissions. After clearing people out of the downtown area, police established a cordon and escorted six trucks through it. Each of those trucks made two trips from a warehouse in Berkeley where the merchandise had been staged for delivery. It was clear to the strikers and their supporters that this had all been planned out and coordinated, and that the city government, the police, and store management had all been involved.

[Holly Fry]

The trucks were from veterans trucking company, which employed combat veterans and had been established by the merchants and manufacturers association to deliver merchandise during strikes. This led to some altercations between the veterans who were breaking the strike and the ones who were on the picket lines.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Newton Selvage, who we mentioned a moment ago, was a streetcar operator, and when the streetcars and buses started arriving on scene just as part of their daily routes, a lot of their operators refused to cross. The police cordon operators stopped their streetcars and removed the control mechanisms, which rendered them inoperable and immovable. And bus drivers also left their buses and just walked away. Al Brown, president of the Carmen's and drivers union, was part of this action with the streetcars and described the police cordon as a picket line he refused to cross. If I'm understanding his statement correctly, this sounds like some malicious compliance on his part. This action by the streetcar drivers and the bus drivers really snarled traffic all over Oakland for hours.

[Holly Fry]

Over the course of the day, People in Oakland became really angry about what was happening. It wasn't just that truck drivers had been hired to break the strike. It was that the police, which people had paid for with their taxes, were protecting the strike breakers, shoving around the strikers, many of whom were women, and keeping people out of the downtown area. In later interviews, Joe Shode of the International Typographical Union described this use of taxpayer funded police to, quote, beat us off our own streets was quote, the first step toward fascism.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The only workers actually on strike on December 1 were the workers at Cons and Hastings. And then there were Teamsters who were refusing to cross their picket lines in solidarity. On December 2, union officials from the AFL and the CIO met to decide what to do. Ultimately, the AFL told its members in Oakland to, quote, take a holiday the next day to protest the use of police force to try to break the strike. A mass meeting had already been scheduled to take place that night in support of the striking retail workers.

[Holly Fry]

The general strike officially started at 5am on Monday, December 3. About 100,000 AFL workers across the county didn't show up for work or walked off the job. Between the retail workers and their supporters from other unions, there were more than 5,000 people picketing in front of the stores, with reports of much greater numbers in the surrounding area. Streetcars and buses didn't leave their yards after 5am so there were massive traffic jams all around Oakland. Union typesetters and press operators joined the strike. So this also stopped the presses. At the Oakland Tribune, the Sailors Union of the Pacific walked off of three ships that were docked at the port of Oakland, which were all loaded up and ready to depart.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This general strike basically took over the whole downtown area. Teamsters patrolled to make sure things stayed peaceful. And since the city was decorated for Christmas, this turned into kind of a festival atmosphere. Bars were allowed to stay open if they only served beer, but not liquor. And if they moved their jukeboxes onto the sidewalks and let people play them for free, especially into the afternoon and the evening. This really felt kind of like a party.

[Holly Fry]

But while there was immense support for the general strike among union members, there wasn't a lot of coordination or planning from union leaders. For example, a well planned general strike can keep basic critical services running, both to try to maintain goodwill with local residents who aren't striking, and to make sure the strikers have access to the supplies and support they need. In Oakland, virtually all the stores were shut down except for food stores and pharmacies, unionized restaurants shut down and picketers forced the non union restaurants to shut down as well. The milk wagon driver's union had objected to the general strike and they were allowed to continue delivering milk. But before long, with all the restaurants closed, people were starting to get hungry. Strikers also realized that single men living in boarding houses in Oakland had no kitchens and relied on those restaurants for all their food. So as the day wore on, some of the restaurants were allowed to reopen.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That night, about 10,000 AFL union members gathered at Oakland auditorium for a mass meeting with at least 5,000 people listening to the address over speakers outside. This was especially a lot considering that it was raining really hard that night. Speakers included James Galliano, who was attorney for the clerks and the labor council, and Harry Lindeberg, who was secretary treasurer of the Sailors Union of the Pacific. This meeting was more like a rally than a planning meeting, with Lindeberg giving the most radical speech, which described the police department's actions as fascism in America.

[Holly Fry]

As the general strike stretched into December 4, concerns were growing among the leadership of the AFL. Most of the unions that were participating were AFL unions, But there wasn't really anyone in charge on site at the strike or a clear set of demands. Demonstrators had started calling for the mayor and the entire city council to resign, which went well beyond the demands of a simple labor negotiation. International Teamster president Dave Beck also called the general strike, quote, a lot of foolishness and described it as more like a revolution than an industry dispute.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There were some discussions of starting another general strike. Across the bay in San Francisco, the CIO also started discussing whether its unions should join the general strike. Since the CIO's unions included workers at pretty much all of the city's basic utilities, this could have given the strikers an incredible amount of bargaining power. Most of the city's unionized black workers were also in CIO unions. So CIO involvement would have brought more of these workers into the strike as well.

[Holly Fry]

But on December 5, the AFL Central Labor Council of Oakland called for an end to the general strike after a vote by business agents. Those are typically the people who act as liaisons between the union and the management. Beck also ordered the Teamsters to resume their deliveries to the stores. City Manager J.F. hassler had given verbal assurances that the Oakland police would no longer protect non striking trucks that were trying to deliver to the stores. The labor council decided that the use of police to protect the trucks was what had prompted the general strike. And now that that was resolved, there was no reason to continue. Also at this point, the mayor had been given emergency powers, although those had not been put into use. And there were rumors that federal troops were going to be deployed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, so there were concerns that Things in Oakland were going to get a lot worse than the kind of peaceful party atmosphere that they had had. The general strike ended on December 5, 1946 at 11am having lasted for 54 hours. A lot of the actual strikers were furious at the decision to call it off, and many of the striking retail workers felt betrayed and angry. None of those workers actual issues had been addressed and store management was still refusing to negotiate with them or to recognize their union. In spite of the order for Teamsters to return to work at the stores, a lot of them continued to refuse to cross the picket line. These picket lines also got a lot smaller after the RMA got an injunction to allow only five pickets at each store entrance. The city managers also did not keep their promise not to use police to protect deliveries to the store.

[Holly Fry]

After the general strike, the afl, CIO and NAACP united to form the Oakland Voters League. The league tried to build connections between organized labor in the city, which was predominantly white, and the city's black voters and civil rights activists. The league also backed candidates for the five city council seats that were up for election in 1947. Four of those candidates won the fifth. Glenn Goldfarb lost very narrowly. There is some speculation that this may have been due to the design of the ballot which made his opponent look like part of the labor ticket, or it could have been because of anti Semitism. This council had nine members, so the ticket didn't have a majority. So this wound up being more of a symbolic win than an ushering in of change in the city. The Oakland Voters League was also short lived. It dissolved after not seeing similar successes in 1949.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The retail workers strike ended the day before the city election and a week later the Retail Merchants association recognized Local 1265 as the union for all of its stores. It took years for the workers at Cons and Hastings to actually get a collective bargaining agreement in place though this.

[Holly Fry]

General strike, along with the other strikes in 1945 and 1946 led to changes in federal law. And we'll get into all of that after a sponsor break.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

Is this a good time? It's me, Dylan Mulvaney and my dear friend Joe Locke from Heartstopper. And Agatha all along is my very first guest on my brand new podcast, the Dylan Hour. It's musical mayhem and it is going to be so much fun.

[Taylor Gray]

I like a man, you like a man.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

What do I like? Joe?

[Taylor Gray]

You like a man too.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

We often. There's quite similar. There's some cross pollination happening in here. Not like no.

[Taylor Gray]

Have We?

[Dylan Mulvaney]

No, no, not yet. Never say never. I cannot wait for all you girls, gays, and they's to join me on this extremely special pink confection of a podcast. There is so much darkness in this world. And what I think we could all use more of is a little joy. Listen to the Dylan hour on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Love ya.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Welcome to Pod of Rebellion, our new Star Wars Rebels Rewatch podcast. I'm Vanessa Marshall. Hi, I'm Tia Sircar.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I'm Taylor Gray.

[Tia Sircar]

And I'm John Lee Brody.

[Vanessa Marshall]

But you may also know us as Harrison Dula, Spectre II, Tabine Wren, Specter.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

5, and Ezra Bridger, Specter 6 from Star Wars Rebels.

[Tia Sircar]

Wait, I wasn't on Star Wars Rebels. Am I in the right place?

[Vanessa Marshall]

Absolutely. Each week we're going to rewatch and discuss an episode from the series and.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

Share some fun behind the scenes stories.

[Tia Sircar]

Sometimes we'll be visited by special guests like Steve bloom voices Zaborillio's Spectre 4, or Dante Bosco voices Jai Kel and many others.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Sometimes we'll even have a lively debate.

[Tia Sircar]

And we'll have plenty of other fun.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

Surprises and trivia, too.

[Tia Sircar]

Oh, and me. Well, I'm the lucky ghost crew Stowaway, who gets to help moderate and guide the discussion each week. Kinda like how Kanan guided Ezra in the ways of the Force. You see what I did there?

[Vanessa Marshall]

Nicely done, John.

[Tia Sircar]

Thanks, Tia.

[Vanessa Marshall]

So hang on, because it's going to be a fun ride.

[Taylor Gray]

Cue the music.

[Tia Sircar]

Listen to Potter Rebellion on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[John Lee Brody]

Hey, y'all, it's your girl, Cheekies. And I'm back with a brand new season of your favorite podcast, Cheekies and Chill. I'll be sharing even more personal stories with you guys. And I know a lot of people are gonna attack me. Why are you gonna go visit your dad? Your mom wouldn't be okay with it. I'm gonna tell you guys right now. I know my mother and I know my mom had a very forgiving heart. That is my story on plastic surgery. This is my truth. I think the last time I cried like that was when I lost my mom like that. Like, yelling. I was like, no. I was like, oh. And I thought, what did I do wrong? And as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties, and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Cheekies.

[Holly Fry]

So my fiance and I have been together for 10 years. In the first two years of being together, I find out he is cheating on me, not only with women, but also with men. What should I do?

[John Lee Brody]

Okay, where do I start? That's not love. He doesn't love you enough. Because if he loved you, he'd be faithful. It's going to be an exciting year and I hope that you can join me, listen to Cheekies and Chill Season four as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Taylor Gray]

I started to live a double life when I was a teenager, responsible and driven and wild and out of control. My head is pounding. I'm confused. I don't know why I'm in jail. It's hard to understand what hope is when you're trapped in a cycle of addiction. Addiction took me to the darkest places. I had an AK47 pointed at my head. But one night a new door opened and I made it into the rooms of recovery. The path would have roadblocks and detours, stalls and relapses. But when I was feeling the most lost, I found hope with community and I made my way back. This season, join me on my journey through addiction and recovery. A story told in 12 steps. Listen to Crumbs as part of the Mike Lura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The 1946 Oakland General Strike took place after that year's general election. In the face of rampant inflation and massive labor unrest, Republicans had taken the majority in both houses of Congress. Although Democrat Harry Truman had been reelected as president, this was the first time since 1933 that Democrats had not controlled both houses of Congress, and for almost all of that time, the president had also been Franklin D. Roosevelt.

[Holly Fry]

When the new Congress was sworn in in 1947, legislators immediately got to work introducing bills related to labor, specifically bills that would put new limits on the Wagner Act. It wasn't just about the immense wave of strikes that had happened in 1945 and 1946. This was at the start of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and legislators had deep concerns about communism within the nation's organized labor. And communism had been a big part of the labor movement starting in the early 20th century, with many unions most effective organizers also being Communist Party members. This wasn't the first time there had been heightened concerns about communism in the U.S. we've done several previous episodes related to the first Red Scare of the nineteen teens, including our two parter on the Palmer Raids. The nineteen teens, like the mid-1940s, had also been a time of widespread labor activism and strikes.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As we said, a lot of the bills that were introduced were related to all of this in some way, but two really came to the forefront. One introduced in the Senate by Robert A. Taft of Ohio, chair of the Senate Labor Committee, and the other in the House by Representative Fred A. Hartley Jr. Of New Jersey, the Republican chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. Broadly speaking, Hartley's bill was more restrictive than Taft's was. And the version that ultimately passed both houses of Congress included elements of both of their bills. The resulting law is the Labor Management Relations act, but it's more commonly known as Taft Hartley.

[Holly Fry]

The AFL Central Labor Council had teamed up with the CIO to create a joint committee to combat anti labor legislation. And unions demonstrated against this bill. This included a Detroit rally planned by United Auto Workers, which had about 200,000 people in attendance. Workers, union organizers and their supporters called on Truman to veto this bill. Truman did, calling it completely contrary to that national policy of economic freedom. He said that it would encourage distrust, suspicion and arbitrary attitudes. And he also used words like drastic and unworkable in reference to it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Overriding the President's Veto requires a 2/3 majority of Congress, and the Republican Party had only a narrow majority in both houses. But the Taft Hartley bill had bipartisan support, and Truman was not able to rally enough Democrats to stop Congress from overriding his veto. One thing working against him here was racism. Shortly after the end of World War II, the CIO had launched Operation Dixie to try to unionize industries in the south, including black and white workers. And Southern Democrats were deeply opposed to this effort.

[Holly Fry]

The Taft Hartley act became law on June 23, 1947, amending the Wagner act of 1935. Legislators framed it as restoring the balance between labor and management, or unions and employers. While unions described it as a slave.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Labor law, the Wagner act had outlined a series of unfair labor practices that were outlawed for employers. Taft Hartley outlined unfair labor practices for unions as well. It outlawed secondary boycott, meaning that unions cannot take action against neutral third parties in disputes with an employer. So as an example, a retail workers union could not plan a boycott of a clothing manufacturer whose goods are being sold at their store. Sympathy strikes were outlawed as well. Like the Teamsters striking in support of Oakland's retail workers, this essentially outlawed the type of general strike that had been carried out in Oakland and several other cities in the United States in 1940 and 1946. And it also outlawed wildcat strikes or strikes undertaken by union members without the union leadership's authorization.

[Holly Fry]

Some of the other Taft Hartley provisions included a ban on feather bedding. That's forcing an employer to pay for work that wasn't actually done. So an example of that would be if a factory moved from a manually operated machine to an automatic one, the union could not force the employer to keep that person's job even though there was no longer work to do. It also outlawed closed shops that required workers to already be a member of a union before being hired, although it allowed union contracts that required workers to join the union after being hired. It also allowed states to pass open shop legislation, or what is known as right to work laws, which allow people to work at unionized workplaces without being compelled to become a member of the union. These kinds of laws are currently on the books in 26 US states as well as Guam. The law also gave the US Attorney General the authority to use injunctions to prevent a strike if it would, quote, imperil the national health or safety, and required unions to give employees and managers advanced notice of strike.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There were a lot of other Taft Hartley provisions as well, and we're not going to try to talk about every single one of them. But a major one that we have not talked about is that section 9H required union officers to sign non communist affidavits. If union leaders did not, their union would not be allowed to have an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. And the NLRB also would not investigate any claims that the union filed about alleged unfair labor practices. This meant that unions had to purge communists from their leadership if they wanted the protections and recognitions that exist under federal law. This caused a lot of unions, especially industrial unions, to lose some of their most dedicated and experienced leaders who either refused to sign these affidavits or were ousted because of their ties to communism.

[Holly Fry]

The Taft Hartley act had an obvious effect on things like sympathy strikes and secondary boycotts. The Oakland General Strike was the last major general strike in the United States for decades. There have been some more recent general strikes in the U.S. including the 2011 Oakland General Strike, the Essential Workers General Strike in the early months of the COVID 19 pandemic, and the Strike for Black Lives on July 20, 2020. In some of these, labor unions have expressed support for the strike, but without explicitly instructing their members to participate, which would be illegal under the Taft Hartley Act. Several unions were involved with the strike for black lives, but this was framed as a one day walkout rather than an ongoing general strike.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Beyond that, it's impossible to hit every detail of the Taft Hartley act and its its impact and legacy in like the wrap up of a single podcast episode. There is an argument that a lot of its provisions legally codified decisions that the NLRB was already making rather than trying to set a whole new precedent. Its weakening of union rights and protections was a factor in the AFL and CIO ultimately merging into one organization in 1955. This made the AFL CIO1 enormous umbrella with 16 million members which could at least theoretically have a lot of power. But at the same time, Taft Hartley provisions meant that smaller unions had a lot less bargaining power, especially with the end of closed shops and the rise of right to work states. Taft Hartley also definitely had a chilling effect on the CIO's efforts to unionize the South. Those efforts were already being hampered by racism and discriminatory laws. There have also been other federal laws that have been passed since 1947 that have modified Taft Hartley in one way or another.

[Holly Fry]

To return to the Oakland strike, Latham Square went through a three year renovation that was finished in 2016. The Central Plaza area has six placards about the area's history and one of them is dedicated to the general strike. Do you also have listener mail?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I do have listener mail first. Very quickly we heard from Colin who had requested the episode on the great epizootic of 1872 and Colin said no, it was not because of the current avian flu situation that we are all living through. Colin had just encountered the word epizootic somewhere and looked it up and stumbled across this 1872 episodic thought. That would be a great show topic. I agree that is a perfectly acceptable reason to come up with a show suggestion. Just randomly stumbling across a word one day.

[Holly Fry]

That's how shows get selected half the time.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. I also have an email that I am going to read from Patty. Patty's email is titled Hominy. Love Patty wrote Tracy and Holly. Thank you for this week's episodes on Pellagra. I had heard parts of the story before but y'all talked about so much more that I did not know with last month's Epizootic episode. I am loving all the medical history info. I grew up eating Hominy and thought everyone ate it too. My mom would also make a dish with spinach and scrambled eggs that was so good. Just canned spinach drained and cooked into scrambled eggs. She said she Grew up eating it with poke greens instead of spinach, what she called poke salad. Now I just need a pork chop to go on the side with my hominy and spinach ultimate comfort food. I've been listening to your podcast since the beginning. I love the Halloween and holiday episodes, the unearthed and eponymous foods. Please see the pet tacks of my two cats, Rocco and Penny. Rocco, half Maine coon, half grumpy old man. And Penny, a classic orange. I have seen her lick soap and eat plants that should be toxic to her. She is fine. Wishing you both the best. You're both so amazing, Patty. Thank you so much, Patty. Let's look at these kitty cats.

[Holly Fry]

Penny.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Penny. Hello, Penny. Penny is a very, very loungy looking orange cat with a face that's just sort of like, yes, hello. I'm hanging out here in my lounging space.

[Holly Fry]

I'm looking for some soap to eat.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Wow. Rocco is so fluffy and is stretched out on a hardwood floor. Just. I cannot adequately describe how fluffy this cat is. I used to have a cat named Sestina who I thought was very fluffy. This cat is fluffier than Sestina. I can see where the half Maine coon is coming in with the size of this kitty cat and the fluff. And the fluff. Yeah. So thank you so much, Patty. I am glad to hear about this. The hominy and just this recipe of spinach and scrambled eggs. I think that sounds really good. Poke salad, its own cultural food.

[Holly Fry]

Also, I'm gonna need you to explain that one to me.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Which part?

[Holly Fry]

I don't know what poke salad is.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So pokeweed is a plant. It is a plant that people can forage. There is a specific way that it needs to be prepared in order to be eaten safely. So don't just go Google a picture of pokeweed and go chomp on some. But it is a staple food in a lot of the places that it grows. I've always associated it with like life in the South. I would. There would be pokeweed growing all over the area around where my parents lived when I grew up. The berries that it grows look very recognizably distinctive to me. And there's a whole process of like preparing it and washing it that that has to be done to make it safe to eat because of the. The toxic compounds that it just contains as it grows. So yeah, I like the idea of someone in. In place of that just using canned spinach. Frozen spinach can also be a great addition to stuff. I have some bagged spinach in my fridge right now that's gonna be cooked down tonight because it is no longer crisp and green. We've reached the time that the spinach must, must be eaten and so it is gonna go into something I'm making for dinner tonight. So thank you again, Patty for these pictures and an email about hominy and Coke salad and all of that. If you'd like to send us a note about this or any other podcast where it hit history [e-mail] and you can subscribe to our show on the iheartradio app or wherever else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Welcome to Pod of Rebellion, our new Star Wars Rebels Rewatch podcast. I'm Vanessa Marshall, voice of Harrison Duella Specter 2 I'm Tia Sirkar. Sabine Wren, Spectre 5 I'm Taylor Gray.

[Tia Sircar]

Ezra Bridger, Specter 6 and I'm Jon Librody, the Ghost Crew Stowaway moderator.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Each week we're gonna rewatch and discuss an episode from the series and share some fun behind the scenes stories.

[Tia Sircar]

Sometimes we'll be visited by special guests like like Steve bloom voices Zabarellio Spectre 4 or Dante Bosco voices Jake Hell and many others.

[Vanessa Marshall]

So hang on because it's gonna be a fun ride.

[Taylor Gray]

Cue the music.

[Tia Sircar]

Listen to Potter Rebellion on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

Hey y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz.

[Vanessa Marshall]

When youn're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped me. Season 2 shares stories about community and being underestimated.

[Taylor Gray]

All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

Let's do something about it.

[Vanessa Marshall]

We get paid to serve you, but.

[Holly Fry]

We'Re made out of the same things.

[Taylor Gray]

It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the Testament.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Listen to when youn're invisible on the.

[Holly Fry]

Iheartradio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 45 years ago, a Virginia soul band called the Edge of Daybreak recorded their debut album, Behind Bars.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Record collectors consider it a masterpiece.

[Holly Fry]

The band's surviving members are long out of prison, but they say they have some unfinished business. The Edge of Daybreak, Eyes of Love.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Was supposed to have been followed up.

[Holly Fry]

By another album, Listen to Soul incarcerated.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Mel Reid, LPGA Tour winner and six time Ladies European Tour winner.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And Kyra K. Dixon, NBC Sports reporter.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

And and we've got a new podcast, Quiet Please with Mel and Kira.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We are bringing you spicy takes on sports and pop culture, some interviews with.

[Holly Fry]

Incredible people who have figured out how to make golf their superpower and iheart.

[Dylan Mulvaney]

Wins Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.