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They Won Big: The 1937 Woolworth Strike, Part II

© Melissa Corn

The corporation still had not budged in the way of negotiations. So on Monday, March 1, two days after the strike had begun, the unions added more pressure by raising the stakes. They had threatened on Saturday afternoon to close all forty Woolworth stores located in Detroit, but now they had begun to put that threat into action. A meeting of union members was held Monday morning, resulting in Mira Komaroff and others moving to a second Woolworth's store at 6565 Grand Boulevard. Mira gave the signal, and the corporation found itself with a second Woolworth's store occupied by striking women. Now that the threat appeared more serious, Koenig made his own ultimatum: "Unless the strike here is settled within a week of the time it started [i.e., by Saturday, March 6], I will ask the executive council of our association to call a national sit-down." This would cause all of the Woolworth's stores in the country to close.¹

Support for the Woolworth strikers spread throughout the country. Picketing began, money and telegrams were sent- and the unions did everything they possibly could to publicize this support, to prove that they were invincible. Woolworth's elaborate chain of command, along with long-distance calls, however, severely slowed the negotiation process. A lawyer for the company insisted that, "Our attitude is still the same - we will not bargain, as long as strikers remain in the stores." Management was afraid that even the smallest of settlements would spread to their numerous stores throughout the country, (or even in Cuba, Great Britain, Germany, or Canada) causing a great number of sit-down strikes. Woolworth's was left with three options: 1.) settle; 2.) hold out for the strikers to capitulate; or 3.), send in the police. Clearly Woolworth's was feeling the pressure, as the strikers proved their enormous power when lined up in solidarity.²

At this point, service workers all over downtown Detroit had been following the Woolworth story for days, and a domino effect began to occur. Waitresses and kitchen workers occupied Stouffer's in the middle of lunchtime rush, and workers at Huyler's Cafeteria sat down at the same time. "For every actual sit-down, hundreds of employers fearful of potential strikes raised their worker's wages... Again the mere threat of a strike produced swift results." Other strikes began making the headlines, but on Wednesday, Woolworth's granted a wage increase to thirty-five women who worked in one of its Boston stores, and some full-time workers got free meals "for the first time in the store's history," as managers begged for no sit-down strikes. The Detroit counter girls were close to their victory.³

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