Greve

1960 · réf. 23297 — 1960. Labor OrganizingIndustry General Electric strike photo archive documenting the 1960 IUE Local 201 strike at the GE River Works plant in Lynn Massachusetts press photographs of workers and labor organizers resisting GE's take-it-or-leave-it bargaining practice at the factory gate. These images record the early days of the national IUE walkout. In the Fall of 1960 contract demands over wages cost of living protection and job security stalled when General Electric refused to bargain on terms acceptable to the union a move later condemned in federal litigation over the company's duty to bargain in good faith. Formal negotiations ran through 45 meetings from July into October 1960. The strike lasted three weeks and the dispute resulted in charges over unfair labor practice that became part of the major legal and labor history of "Boulwarism" GE's long campaign to dictate contract terms while exploiting division among the unions organized in its plants. Photo archive of 20 large silver gelatin press photographs measuring between 7 x 8 and 8 x 10 inches Lynn Massachusetts September-October 1960. The images show dense exterior picket scenes outside the GE plant with men and women carrying tall placards reading "LOCAL 201 IUE AFL CIO ON STRIKE" police officers linking arms and shoving crowds back from arriving automobiles and knotting lines of workers pressed against car hoods and fenders as management and police attempt to force entry through the picket. Several photographs isolate the mechanics of the strike itself: a car with rooftop loudspeaker positioned near the line an indoor union meeting beneath a huge banner attacking company leadership women pickets pointing and shouting across a fence line and a man stooping to gather tacks scattered across pavement with the caption explaining that picketers left tacks and nails at plant entrances to puncture the tires of management and scabs. One typescript caption reads "POLICE PUSH STRIKERS BACK" and states that officers acted "to clear way for cars entering or leaving the plant" while another notes that "A nationwide strike was called by the union Saturday at midnight." Additional versos carry date stamps for October 4 and 5 1960 typed caption slips and handwritten identifications such as "Mass. Lynn strikes G.E. Co." fixing the archive firmly within the first phase of the strike. Lynn held an important place in GE labor history well before 1960. Plant workers had challenged company control since the 1930s; by the postwar period the city had become one of the clearest sites where GE tested union-busting methods. This strike did not defeat GE on its own and the settlement came largely on company terms but resulting litigation condemning GE unfair bargaining practices became central to American labor organizing. The 1960 conflict thus stands as a precursor to the broader interunion coordination that emerged later in the decade and culminated in the national GE strike of 1969 to 1970 when unions finally forced a real challenge to Boulwarism. Scattered staining creasing and minor chipping at margins; most prints captioned on verso; overall good to very good condition. Primary source documentation of one of the country's most consequential corporate labor battlegrounds preserving the ground level struggle through which workers tested the limits of industrial union power in mid-century America. unknown