Labor Day Special: The Most Bizarre Facts About Union History

6. A Communist-Led Labor Fight Gave Rise To The Teamsters

During the summer of 1934, tensions between trucker drivers and the trucking companies in Minneapolis, Minn. eventually broke out into fighting and brutality. Led by the Trotskyist Communist League of America, truckers and police clashed on the streets wounding 67 and leaving two dead. The strike and violence helped set the stage for the Teamsters becoming the powerful political force it is today.

“The first major instance of violence was on May 19 when police attacked a group of strikers who were attempting to stop scabs unloading a truck in the city’s market area,” the Teamsters detailed. “About 35,000 building workers had walked out in protest of the police violence and many more struck for union recognition.”

The local Teamsters chapter remained under socialist leadership until 1941. By then, leaders of the union and the Socialist Workers Party were sentenced to federal prison. The sentencing marked the first convictions under the anti-radical Smith Act. The law would eventually be found unconstitutional.