1938 New York City truckers strike

The immediate beginnings of the strike originate from the expiration of the Teamsters Locals 807, 282, 816's previous contract on September 1, 1938. One motivation behind this was to spread work to the 4,000 unemployed members of the drivers unions. During this meeting around 1,000 workers also stood up and cheered for a strike. However, no strike vote was held. == Course of the labor dispute==

The 'Outlaw Strike' 15th On September 15, unions members, principally from Local 807,) and ballots for New York's primary election. At the time accusations were made by the union that non-relief workers had been used to load supplies at the Bronx Terminal Market. The same day, the Merchant Truckmen's Bureau of NY and Highway Transport Association jointly announced they had accepted an invitation to a City Hall settlement negotiations arranged by Mayor La Guardia from San Francisco the day before. One of the leaders of the 'outlaw' strike Abe Klein, commented in interview at City Hall: that was put against 67 officers and members of the union, among other people, under the Sherman Antitrust Act and the then new federal anti-racketeering laws. An editorial in the Socialist Appeal disagreed with the assessment of other newspapers of it as an 'outlaw' strike. Arguing mass support among the workers and on the basis that while leadership hadn't explicitly supported it, they specifically avoided punishing it. 21st On September 21, acting mayor Newbold Morris (with the wired telegraph approval from mayor La Guardia in LA), gave an ultimatum to drivers to end the strike within 24 hours. That day Walter B. Holt, the vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association when asked, said they would support the strike if it occurred again, given it was an official vote. Food, medicine and newsprint were exempted from the strike through this vote. Around 30,000 truck drivers in total were striking within Greater New York and New Jersey area. Connecticut governor, Wilbur L. Cross urged a truce that day, in a telegram to the Associated Press, representing other governors as the chairman of a New England governors conference held in Boston. The truckmen unions within Philadelphia (Atlantic City Trucker Union, Philadelphia Joint Council 53 of the Brotherhood of Teamsters) were also going to meet with the Camden, New Jersey Teamster local the next day to decide on joining the strike. It comprised seven different Philadelphia locals, with Local 107 alone having 8,000 members. That night Mayor La Guardia proposed a contract between the workers and corporate associations. The conditions were as follows: The striking workers voted to accept these terms. While the Highway Transport Association & Merchant Associations of NY representing the trucking corporations, voted to reject it early the next morning on September 27 at 1:40 am. The Merchant Associations of NY represented 500 members/businesses within NY. Reportedly according to one source, during this meeting a shoe was hurled from a balcony at Michael Cashal, Teamster Vice President, hitting him in the thigh. After which Cashal reportedly stepped away from a microphone with anger and shouted. By September 30, most metropolitan transportation was back to normal. That same day, on September 29, Newark Teamster Local 863, a union of moving firm drivers, called a one-day sympathy strike in support of the striking New Jersey Teamster truck drivers. The strike is mostly regarded as a partial union victory, by the workers at the time and in retrospect by the Teamsters union. In December, the smaller Checker Platform & Office Workers Union, who joined the strike on September 26, == Aftermath ==

Regulations Before the strike, on December 29, 1937, the Interstate Commerce Commission announced its finalized hours of service trucking regulations effective July 1, 1938 under the Motor Carrier Act (1935). These original Motor Carrier Safety rules would have limited on-duty trucking hours to 60 hours a week, 15 hours max on-duty in a day, and 12 hours of working in a day. With this it also required that a daily log be kept. Lastly, it approved sleeper cabs, in spite of organized labor's criticisms of it being unsafe. Since at the time, the eight hour day was the generally recognized standard for workers. Then in July, following pressure from organized labor, who called for an 8-hour daily limit & 48 hour weekly limit. They lowered the limit from 12 to 10 hours of working a day. While the 60 hour weekly limit remained unchanged and the effective date delayed again until October 1. 1946 strike Later on in 1946, the NYC Teamsters would win the reduction to a 40-hour maximum week, with a $7.40 () weekly pay raise, following a 31,000 person trucker strike in the city. == See also ==