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Commemorating the Cotton Mill Strikes Pittsburgh (Northside), Pennsylvania On September 26, 2007, the Pennsylvania Labor History Society dedicated a Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission marker to commemorate the cotton mill strikes of 1845 and 1848 on the Northside of Pittsburgh. The cotton mill strikes in what was knows as the City of Allegheny (now the Northside of Pittsburgh) were important events in the history of the struggle of workers for a legal limitation on the hours of work. The struggle in Pittsburgh was linked to similar battles in New England, especially Massachusetts. A movement to restrict the hours of work in textile factories gained momentum and spearheaded a broader movement to restrict and regulate the hours of work that eventually led to mass upheavals for the eight-hour day in the 1880's and culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. In September of 1845, a strike of five thousand operatives lasted nearly a month and led to a major confrontation when Blackstock's factory was forcibly entered and strikebreakers ejected by the striking women. The wages paid both men and boys exceeded that paid to "girls" of all ages, substantially. This event and mass agitation in New England helped propel the passage of ten-hour day reform legislation in New Hampshire in 1847 and in Pennsylvania and Maine in 1848. In Pennsylvania, this legislation was to come into effect on July 4th, Independence Day, but a clause in the Pennsylvania legislation allowed employers to draw up individual contracts with workers for more than ten hours, effectively waiving their rights under the law. When the female workers of Allegheny refused to sign these contracts, the mills closed. After a month, one of the factories attempted to reopen with women willing to sign an individual contract and with children whose parents were allowed to sign for them. The act also made the employment of children under twelve in the textile mills illegal, though poorly enforced.
Pictures from the
Cotton Miller Strikes Marker Dedication
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