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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    • Saizaku@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      ·
      1 year ago

      Highly recommend reading the actual article from which I assume the previous commenter got fear info from: https://www.hackingbutlegal.com/p/naomi-wu-and-the-silence-that-speaks-volumes?

      The article contains an interview with Naomi aswell.

      Also as a slight correction the third strike could lead to years in prison according to the article, not a single year.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I'd take that article with some salt. If they're still engaging with the bullshit "Uighur Genocide" narrative their credibility and/or goals are open to question. Regardless, I hope Naomi's okay this shit sucks. : (

        • Saizaku@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          ·
          1 year ago

          Oh I always take any reporting on China by western media with a grain of salt (the amount varying by the outlet in question). I haven't quite made up my mind on Uighur thing as I haven't had the time to properly research it myself (a lot of irl stuff going on) but I'm approaching the topic with scepticism.

          I mainly linked the article for the interview and it's description of the state of things for the lgbtq+ community in China which seems to be pretty similar to what an onilne friend from China described. Althoguh the language used around the topic and some of the conclusions (interpretations) in the article are pretty weird.

          In retrospect I probably should've put a disclaimer that I don't endorse the entirety of the article.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            I would strongly reccomend reading the UN report on Xinjiang. It goes in to some detail on what the UN investigators think was happening. The very short version is that China's counter terrorism program did involve human rights abuses, but it was arbitrary arrests, arbitrary detentions for periods of several months, things of that nature and severity. Still not nice, still abuses, but a far, far, far cry from the strident claims of genocide. I think it's an important read because the western propaganda narrative has been so uncritically accepted, and because the un report discusses the kernel of truth, or as close as you can get to truth, from which the propaganda was built up.

            • daisy
              ·
              1 year ago

              The very short version is that China's counter terrorism program did involve human rights abuses, but it was arbitrary arrests, arbitrary detentions for periods of several months, things of that nature and severity.

              Sounds like US department of homeland security stuff.