The article below is reprinted by permission from Teamster magazine. It appeared in the July/August issue as part of a series entitled “Teamster Centennial: 1903-2003.”
 

Throughout the history of Minneapolis prior to 1934, truck drivers and other workers in the truck transportation industry suffered from miserable conditions. It was common for drivers and helpers to start work at 2:00 a.m. and continue until 6:00 p.m. They were low paid, often had to work seven days a week without any extra pay and if complaints were made, they were fired. When the economic crash came, their misery was intensified.

Workers in trucking and most other industries in the city were not unionized before 1934 and had to accept whatever conditions employers imposed. Many strikes were called between 1920 and 1934 and all suffered defeat. Business leaders were confident that the city would always be non-union. They were wrong.  
 
Fight for Justice
The three strikes in February, May and June through August proved that business leaders, the police and National Guard could not crush the forces of organized labor in what was previously considered the worst scab town in the country. Even when martial law was declared, not a truck could move without a strike exception—given only to unionized milk, ice, coal and hospital trucks. In sympathy strikes, all of the taxi drivers and 35,000 building trades workers walked out. Tens of thousands attended mass protests and rallies.

During the first days of the strike, workers were beaten in the most brutal manner. Sixteen women were beaten unconscious after being lured into an alley where newspapers were being delivered. But the workers fought back.  
 
The Battle of Deputy Run
Under the pressure of the strikers’ superior force, 2,000 uniformed police and deputies were forced to run for their lives from a hostile crowd in what was known throughout the country as “The Battle of Deputy Run.”

After a long summer that included “Bloody Friday” where 52 pickets were shot while trying to stop a wholesale grocery delivery, the workers won their settlement on August 22, 1934. The strike had far reaching effects, as they were a turning point for labor in the ’30s and marked the transition of Minneapolis to a union town.
 
 
Related article:
Lessons of Teamsters battles  
 
 
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