- Labor - Janesville Sesquicentennial
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- [Photograph; caption reads: Early assembly of automobiles
required far different tasks of laborers than those employed
on the line today.]
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- Workers played key role in building city
- Early laborers in Janesville worked in mills that processed
raw materials produced in the surrounding
- area, but the farm implement and transportation industry
quickly became the dominant employer.
- Labor union history began here early in the 20th century,
and the United Auto Workers was
- recognized in the late 1930s, when General Motors employees
staged a sitdown strike.
- Major development in the history of labor include:
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- In 1845, Charles STEPHENS, one of the first settlers
in the Rock River Valley, built a saw mill on the race near the
dam. Most of old Janesville was built with lumber from the mill,
so for a time it ran around the clock.
- The STEPHENS mill was purchased by J. M. MORTON
and O. B. FORD in 1856 and converted into a huge flouring
mill with an eventual capacity of 1,200 bushels per day until
it was destroyed by fire in 1872. A small but more modern mill
was built on the site and flouring continued as an important
local industry.
- Thomas SHAW and John M. MAY built the first
agricultural implement factory in 1845 on Main Street and then
expanded to shops on North First Street between Bluff and Main.
- The Janesville Iron Works was established in 1852 on River
Street by Joseph BUDD. He employed from 75 to 100 men in the
manufacture of farm implements.
- A large farm machine factory was begun by James HARRIS,
Zebediah GUILD, D. R. ANGELL and Leonard TAYLOR
in 1859 on the west side near the lower bridge. By the '70s the
firm employed 125 hands and was known as HARRIS Manufacturing
Co. It merged in 1882 with the newly formed Janesville Machine
Co.
- The Jerry BATES broom shop employed 15 men in 1855.
It closed for the Civil War and reopened afterward, employing
four hand to manufacture 4,000 to 5,000 brooms.
- The Janesville Cotton Manufacturing Co. was established in
1874 and by 1877 employed 250 hands and had a payroll of $70,000
per year. Two-thirds of the hands were women. The non-union workers
were said to be paid more than those in the east.
- The BLODGETT Mills moved here in 1898 from Beloit.
By the 1920s General Mills, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker sent
most of their buckwheat milling business to BLODGETT Mills
and by 1948 the mills covered 2.5 acres along the millrace on
North River Street and was the biggest buckwheat milling operation
in the United States. The city acquired the property and demolished
the buildings for a parking lot in 1961.
- The PARKER Pen Co. was organized by George S. PARKER
and William PALMER in 1891 for the manufacture of writing
instruments. The firm was to become one of the largest in Janesville.
- The Caloric Co., at the south end of South Jackson Street,
then known as McKay Boulevard, opened in 1905 and employed as
many as 150 men before closing in 1923. Caloric manufactured
fireless cook stoves.
- The Janesville Machine Co. was acquired by General Motors
in 1919 for the Samson Sieve Grip Tractor operation.
- Samson failed in 1922 and GM converted it to a Fisher Body
Division and production of Chevrolet cars.
- The Chevrolet plant and Fisher Body closed from 1931-36 due
to the Depression and more than half the city work force was
laid off.
- Chevrolet and Fisher Body reopened in mid-1934.
- On March 9, 1934, the United Auto Workers Federal Labor Union
No. 19324, which was to become UAW Local 95, held its first meeting.
- Local 19660 of UAW FLU, which became Local 121 of the UAW,
held its first meeting June 8, 1934.
- In July 1936 the autoworkers locals in Janesville affiliated
with the CIO, Committee for Industrial Organization. The American
Federation of Labor, or AFL, had sought to organize separate
unions for each craft in the plant. The CIO was for a single
union per plant.
- In 1937 workers at GM had a historic sitdown strike that
resulted in the recognition of the United Auto Workers by the
company. The strike idled 2,700 at the Janesville plants.
- At the time of the strike, an "Alliance Movement"
of GM workers who were opposed to the union arose, with the support
of management. Buttons showing which group the wearer supported
became common, and caused some strife.
- In January 1942 General Motors closed for conversion to defense
projection. It was taken over the the Oldsmobile Division for
the output of more than 16 million 105-mm howitzer shells.
- In June 1944 a prisoner of war camp opened here. It housed
240 German prisoners who worked in the canning industry during
the summer. The canning industry functioned for two years.
- The UAW struck nationally against GM for 118 days beginning
Nov. 21, 1945. The strike here was the longest in Janesville
industrial history. The strike was for elimination of piecework
and other incentive systems and the establishment of shift preference,
seniority agreements, grievance procedures and a 30 percent wage
increase.
- PARKER Pen's Arrow Park was open in July 1953. The
plant was considered a modern marvel and articles referred to
the conditions for workers as "utopian."
- PARKER Pen was struck for the first time in its 80-year
history March 28, 1968, by the International Association of Machinists
Local 1266 over a wage issue and length of contract issue. The
strike lasted nine days.
- In August 1968 the first issue of the Local UAW 95 Union
News was published.
- In November 1968, Local 95 and Local 121 merged as GM started
the General Motors Assembly Division concept.
- Local 95 workers struck along with GM workers across the
nation in 1970.
- The Machinists and the United Rubber Workers Union Local
663 both struck PARKER Pen in March 1970. The Rubber Workers
settled after 39 days, on April 27, but the machinists stayed
on strike until a week later, causing some friction.
- The Rubber Workers struck in March 1976 and stayed out two
months. The Machinists struck at the same time and stayed out
for 13 weeks, the longest strike in the history of PARKER
Pen. Early in the strike, the local sand the administration stipulated
in court on responsibilities of the picketers and the company.
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