Oakland General Strike (1946)

Tue Dec 03, 1946

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Image: The first official day of the Oakland general strike, crowds gathered in the streets, blocking traffic in downtown Oakland decorated for the Christmas season.

On this day in 1946, a spontaneous general strike broke out in Oakland, California after workers caught police escorting strikebreaking goods into the city.

The general strike, more than 100,000 strong, took place in the context of both a national, post World War II strikewave and a prominent local strike in which workers from two department stores had walked out in protest of their employers’ resistance to unionization efforts.

Around 5 am on Monday, December 3rd, 1946, hundreds of workers passing through downtown Oakland on their way to work discovered police herding a fleet of scab trucks through the downtown area. The trucks contained commodities to fill the shelves of the department stores whose workers were striking.

Drivers abandoned their vehicles and a spontaneous work stoppage quickly spread throughout the city. As the strike grew, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in Alameda County decided to join forces with the clerks, issuing a “Work Holiday”, leading 100,000 workers to walk off the job.

By the first night of the strike, workers commanded all stores except pharmacies and food markets to shut down. Bars were also allowed to stay open on the condition that they only serve beer and put their juke boxes out on the sidewalk. Thousands of workers danced in the street. Stan Weir, an eyewitness, described the atmosphere as “like a carnival”.

World War II veterans engaging in the strike marched around the Tribune Tower, performing close-order drills and demanding that the mayor along with the city council step down from office.

The strike lasted for a total of 54 hours before being called off by the AFL Central Labor Council, infuriating many of the department store workers and other strikers. Despite most participants returning to work, some workers, particularly truckers, stayed picketing with the female clerks.