Strike of Lawrence

The Lawrence textile strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, led by the Industrial Workers of the World. The strike, which lasted over two months and challenging the assumptions of the conservative unions within the American Federation of Labor that immigrant workers, mostly women and ethnically divided can not be organized, was a success, a year later However, the union had largely collapsed and most of the achievements of the workers had disappeared.

The question of the impact this would have on the wage bill was not passed without debate by some of the operators. ...