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Streetcar operators' strike

179 bytes added, 00:17, 3 October 2008
The strike is broken
==The strike is broken==
[[Image:Carbarn-accomodations.PNG|thumb|right|Strikebreakers were lodged inside the streetcar barn]]
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 statement affirming that the strike had been unjustified, and that they had left their union, and sign a contract stating that their employment with the company would cease if they ever again joined a union. The statement appeared in the Pensacola Journal the following day.<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>