Documenting Labor Inside and Out
Collective Bargaining
When Negotiations Fail
There are times, however, when negotiations fail to achieve what a union
hopes to accomplish on behalf of its members. In such cases, one of the most effective
tools labor can use to try and persuade management to meet its demands (and to make its
dispute widely known and perhaps garner public sympathy and support for its demands) is to
refuse to work--to go on strike.
Strikes have been part of the history of labor in the Capital Region since at least
1835 when cordwainers and hatters in Schenectady, and carpenters and masons in Troy, struck
to demand higher wages. Whether or not a strike is successful (and a number of factors
can determine which side ultimately prevails), the records of these work actions are
a valuable part of documenting the history of a labor organization and of the labor
movement as a whole.
The records of strikes may be very different from those that document
negotiations and all other aspect of a union's history. Picketing is a fluid event;
changing each day as different union members take up their picket signs, as picketing
is held at different locations, and as changing weather conditions leave picketers
drenched in rain or buried in snow. Strike photographs can capture the pickets in time,
preserving permanently a moment in the ever-changing activities of a union on strike.
Picket signs are another interesting strike record. While their
messages may be brief, they are useful historical artifacts.
Strike bulletins are another unique kind of strike record. These
bulletins, used by the union to keep its members informed about the status of negotiations
and picketing activities, record events of the strike and document the union's concerns in
conducting the strike. One of the "picket bulletins" issued by the Schenectady Federation of
Teachers when it went on strike in 1975 (along with members of several other local teacher
unions), generally updated members about strike activities, warned them about
substitute workers crossing the picket lines, and urged them to make sure that all
questions about the dispute were properly directed to the union's designated spokesmen.
Unfortunately, in the heat of the battle, keeping strike bulletins
and picket signs for posterity may be the last thing on the minds of striking union members.
However, when such materials do survive, they provide a useful record for studying the
strike and learning more about the issues involved in the dispute.
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