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Streetcar operators' strike

1,081 bytes added, 00:25, 3 October 2008
The strike is broken: add full text of statement
Despite much support from the community, the strike was eventually broken. While initially no strikebreaker-run cars were operated after 6:00 PM, by [[April 25]] the Pensacola Electric Company was able to operate all lines on the regular full schedule. As a show of solidarity with the union men, employees at the Pensacola Navy Yard had begun using chartered boats for their commute, refusing to patronize the streetcar lines run by strikebreakers. However, this practice was stopped when the Yard’s commandant issued an order prohibiting the vessels from landing, forcing the Yard workers to use the strikebreaker-run Bayshore line to get to and from work.<ref>“Strikers Call Off Street Car Strike,” Pensacola Journal, May 17, 1908.</ref> This, combined with the turning public opinion, and the adamant refusal of the company to negotiate or submit to arbitration, did much to hasten the end of the strike.
Their spirits broken by a month of unemployment, on May 11, sixteen of the striking workers begged Manager Leadley for their jobs back, although they had won no concessions from the company.<ref>Flynt, 325.</ref> As a condition of their reemployment, the men had to sign a the following statement affirming that , which was thereafter published in the ''Pensacola Journal'':{{cquote|''We, the strike had undersigned, who have been unjustifiedheretofore employees of the Pensacola Electric Company, and among those who went out on a strike on April 5, 1908, have again accepted employment with that they had left their unionCompany, have ceased to belong to Division 234 of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, and sign have signed a contract stating with the Electric Company, that their employment should we Join a union hereafter, our connection as employees with that Company shall cease, and we desire to state to the public, through you, our reason for our action. We are satisfied that the strike into which we entered was not justified by the circumstances existing at the time, and that it was unauthorized by the company constitution of the Association itself. We believe that a further continuance of the strike would cease if they ever again joined not only be a unionwrong to the public, but would deprive many of us and our families of the means of subsistence, and we cannot think that it is right for us to continue the wrong which we have begun. The statement appeared in For these reasons, we have taken the course which we have stated, and believe that the public will appreciate that our position this time is right.''|20px|20px|“Sixteen Conductors and Motormen Return to Work,” ''Pensacola Journal the following day'', May 12, 1908.<ref>“Sixteen Conductors and Motormen Return to Work,” Pensacola Journal, [[May 12]], [[1908]].</ref> }} On [[May 13]], after another streetcar was nearly but unsuccessfully dynamited, the remaining unionized strikers officially ended the strike, but were not offered back their jobs.<ref>Scott Satterwhite, “The Great Pensacola Streetcar Strike of 1908,” Boogie Pensacola, February 23, 2000.</ref>
==Impact of the strike==