Shot Down Like Dogs - Labor history of South River, NJ

The Strike

Two 2 days after the hemstitchers' strike ended, the Stitchers' Union struck the Herrmann, Aukam Company. The cause of the strike, claimed later newspaper accounts, was that the Stitchers' Union demanded the firing of an ex-member who had refused to pay a fine of $1 levied on him for failing to march in a parade celebrating the one year anniversary of the union. The Sunday Times of 2/25/17 states that the company had declared it's intention of stopping the Stitchers' Union from dictating the policy of the factory and that if it was higher wages they were striking for, they would receive due consideration if "...it could be proven that the local operators were not receiving as much for their labor as is paid for similar work in outside factories." No mention is made of the recent automation. Jesse Selover wrote that the strike was over higher wages in his history of South River written 30 years after the strike. More money and shorter hours are noted as the reasons for the strike in other accounts which seem more likely the cause of a strike that would last as long as four months than an unpaid $1 fine. A July 7 Home News article about the company's attempt to get an injunction against picketing says the strike began when the stitchers "...presented demands for higher wages and shorter hours..." which the company refused.

It is common, on the other hand, for a small incident to incite a strike when numerous complaints (long hours, poor pay, automation replacing skilled workers) against a company have been building up over the course of time.

Only several weeks after the beginning of the strike, the company announced plans to close the plant and ship the equipment to another manufacturing site it owned on Staten Island or to their Pennsylvania facilities. A February 15th Daily Home News story claimed that machinists were already in the plant dismantling embroidering machines. The article mentioned "so much trouble with their employees" the company has had in the previous two years and then quoted an unnamed official of the company, :

“We shall not do it and we shall fight this strike to the bitter end. We shall close up the entire plant before we shall allow the workers to again dictate to us a to how our factory shall be operated.”

The article notes that the strikers numbered 100 (out of the then-600-650 total employees). 20 Sherman Detectives were already on the scene “… on duty night and day to suppress any rioting…” but "...their services have not been needed so far through any attempt bade by the strikers to damage the buildings".

The South River mill was to be rented to the East Coast Cold storage firm which would use it for a warehouse and employ only 6 to 15 people (i.e., a net loss of approximately 600 jobs in a town of only 7,000) [Sunday Times 2/25/17]. No mention was made as to the effectiveness of the strike or if the majority of mostly women workers were honoring the picket lines. The severity of the sale, though, suggests that the strike was having a great effect on Herrmann, Aukam's production.

"No violence has been committed by the strikers," says the account, "who do not congregate about the factory during the day but remain at their homes or wander widely about the borough." It also notes that "expert detectives" guard the factory.

On March 3, 1917, all persons occupying Herrmann, Aukam company houses (and not just strikers as might be expected) were served notice to vacate in one month. On April 30th it was reported that several families of strikers were "dispossessed" by an officer of the District Court. In the fall, the company would advertise a number of the houses for sale.

In early May, Herrmann, Aukam announced the sale of nine of the houses on Levinson Ave. to Alexander Schak, owner the Riverside Hotel several blocks away on Whitehead Avenue. At that time the company stated they were selling the houses because they "...do not want the trouble of looking after (them) ... The present strike has nothing to do either with the sale or the purchase of the houses."

The Home News [3/4/17] stated that it was “..not the desire of the company to move to Pennsylvania and that the owners realize it will mean a business depression in South River”. It further noted that the company would rent the mill in late May unless the “...stitchers return to work and stop meddling with the business policy of the company”. The paper claimed that many of the strikers were willing to return to work but were not “...allowed to by their leaders”.

On March 10, the Home News states, somewhat cryptically, that “a number of workers would visit South River next week to visit the strikers for the purpose of talking the question over with each one to get his view of the situation as it now exists”. The article fails to explain who these “workers” were (Strikebreakers? Industrial detectives? Russian speaking workers from other Herrmann, Aukam locations?).

Just as confusing was the claim of the paper “on good authority” that the majority of striking stitchers are:

“...perfectly willing to return to work but are prevented from doing so owing to the fact that by returning to work they would violate rules of the Stitchers Union and this would deprive them of membership and make the situation more complicated than it is at the present time”.

HELP WANTED ADS DURING STRIKE.NOTE THAT WHILE SAYREVILLE WAS A SHORT TRAIN RIDE ACROSS THE SOUTH RIVER ON THE RARITAN RIVER RAILROAD AND PROBABLY ACCOUNTED FOR A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THEIR EMPLOYEES , BECAUSE JAMESBURG WAS 9 MILES SOUTH OF TOWN AND HAD NO EASY ACCESS VIA MASS TRANSIT, HERRMANN, AUKAM WAS OFFERING PROSPECTIVE WORKERS LIVING THERE WHO WILLING TO CROSS THE PICKET LINE "FREE TRANSPORTATION"

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