Photo courtesy of Mahoning Valley Historical Society The Little Steel Strike was an ongoing battle for union recognition that erupted May 26, 1937, but extended into June 1937, spread across seven states and impacted tens of thousands of workers, including many in the Mahoning Valley. Thousands of strikers were arrested, 300 injured and 18 died, including two during a June 19, 1937, confrontation near the Republic Steel gate on Poland Avenue in Youngstown, according to various news reports. The effects of the strike reached into the 1940s and beyond.

The brief glimpse of the petite woman 20 seconds into the newsreel makes Jim Valesky smile.

The scene was captured by The Associated Press 80 years ago during one of the many conflicts between laborers in the Midwest, including the Mahoning Valley, and the small steel companies for which they worked.

Audiences in theaters across the country watched the film that shows Jennie Vollhardt Sloan among a group of women, holding a brick as she joined her husband and Valesky’s grandfather, Sebern Sloan, on the picket line.

The conflict was part of an ongoing battle for union recognition that erupted May 26, 1937, spread across seven states and impacted tens of thousands of workers. Thousands of strikers were arrested, 300 injured and 18 died, according to various news reports.

Officially, the Little Steel Strike extended to June 1937, but its effects reached into the 1940s and beyond as laborers continued to fight for fair wages, safe work places and equal opportunities.

“Life definitely wasn’t easy for workers and their families in the 1930s,” said Bill Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. “People fought hard for the rights workers have today. A lot of people don’t know quite as much about the strike as they do other events like Black Monday because it’s beyond most people’s lifetime. But many of us are connected to it through our parents and grandparents, our heritage and our history with the steel industry.”

The Little Steel Strike of 1937 pitted thousands of steelworkers against smaller steel companies collectively known as “Little Steel” including Republic Steel Co. and Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.

In 1937, “Little Steel” workers went on strike over low wages and poor working conditions. Many belonged to the Congress of Industrial Organizations union established in 1935.

Members of the CIO were a new breed of workers who employed on-the-job, sit-down strikes rather than forming pickets lines outside a factory – a practice that made it more difficult for companies to hire replacement workers referred to as scabs.

Battles erupted in several cities including Chicago, Cleveland and Monroe, Mich., where Valesky’s grandfather worked at the Newton Steel Plant. The company was formed in 1919 in Youngstown and built its first sheet steel mill in Newton Falls. In the late 1920s, Newton Steel expanded its operations into Michigan, opening a door for the Sloans to relocate from the Mahoning Valley to Monroe.

In Youngstown, a June 19, 1937, confrontation near the Republic Steel gate on Poland Avenue between picketers and law enforcement resulted in the deaths of two strikers, several news outlets said. Several people, including women and children, were injured. Deaths at other steel facilities were also reported.

That summer, planes were used to drop food and supplies to workers inside various plants, including Republic Steel in Warren.

It is believed more than 20,000 workers stayed away from their jobs in the Mahoning Valley and an additional 90,000 struck steel plants across the Midwest, Lawson said.

Lawson’s grandfather was a member of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee that was affiliated with the CIO and eventually became the United Steelworkers union. He worked at Republic Steel in Youngstown and participated in the local strike. Lawson said his grandfather and other card-carrying union members who had joined the local strike were fired after the Ohio National Guard was called in to break it up.

“The union had to go to court to get their jobs back,” Lawson said. “Eventually, the union contracts were signed.”

But the 1930s were difficult for Lawson’s grandparents, his mother, and other families.

“My grandfather was out of work a lot because of the labor disputes. At one point he bought an old dump truck and delivered coal to make money. Life was hard,” Lawson said.

Valesky, founder of Warren History Center, said the bond among steelworking families is a strong one because of the commitments they have to their families and communities.

“I’d say that’s why I’m so involved in the community now,” he said.

“I’m proud of my grandmother. She was ready to fight for her husband, her family and for what she believed and knew was right,” Valesky said. “In 1937, striking was considered an illegal activity. It was only later on that it was recognized as freedom of speech under the First Amendment. Our families, those who were part of that class of workers, fought for that.”

Valesky’s mother, Jennie Sloan Valesky, who was born in 1929, carried the family’s tradition of solidarity as a founding member of International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 717 at Packard Electric.

“She was also one of the first women hired as a foreman, so she saw both sides,” Valesky said. “The unions did wonderful things for workers. I believe we’re greater people today because of our past, if we can learn from our mistakes.”

In Monroe, Valesky’s mother and other women joined the men on the picket lines in December 1937 as the strikers tried to keep some laborers from going back to work. The militia was sent in to break the strike.

“The women came out from the houses to stand with and do what they could to help the men,” Valesky said. “My grandmother wasn’t violent, but she wasn’t going to stand by and let her loved ones be harmed.

The Little Steel Strike was not considered a success at the time. The U.S. government had legalized unions under the Wagner-Connery Act in 1935, but many companies did not recognize them. In March 1937, U.S. Steel recognized unionization and made a collective bargaining agreement with its workers. Little Steel companies began recognizing the union in 1941.

“It’s part of our history a lot of people really know very little about,” said Jose Arroyo, a United Steelworkers union representative for the Youngstown / Warren area. “Those workers fought hard and sacrificed for what we have today. They made an impact that resulted in changes for the better for workers. That’s significant.”