Hellraisers Journal: Strikebreakers Return to New York City from McKees Rocks with Tales of Imprisonment and Abuse

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 2, 1909
Strikebreakers Return to New York City from McKees Rocks with Tales of Abuse

From The New York Times of August 28, 1909:

RETURN FROM McKEES ROCKS.
—–
Strikebreakers Who Enlisted Here
Come Back with Tales of Abuse.
—–

McKees Rocks Strike, Stockade, Loco Fmen Mag p715, Nov 1919 —–

Five white-faced, sunken-cheeked men got off a train at Jersey City yesterday and disperse, wearily and in silence, to their east side tenement homes.

They were James Gottfried, Alexander Friedman, Joseph Diamond, James Graden, and Joseph Bredes. They had been taken to Schoenville, near Pittsburg, with more than a hundred other machinists from this city two weeks ago to break the Pressed Steel Car Company’s strike [at McKees Rocks]. They had been hired for the job through the activity of Leo Bergoff’s “Service Bureau” ” of this city.

According to the story told by the five men yesterday, they spelled out an advertisement for “machinists” in the “help wanted” columns of a Manhattan newspaper about two weeks ago. All five had recently come to this country and wanted work. They went over to the basement at 205 West Thirty-third Street, as the advertisement directed. They were met there by Bergoff, “Sam” Cohen, and their lieutenants. Cohen told them that he wanted ” 1,000 railroad car truck builders,” and that he was willing to pay $3 a day. He said the “job” was in Pittsburg, and that it was a “good one.” To impress the men with its excellence he had them sign their names to a piece of paper, on which there was some writing which they could not see, because, the men said yesterday, his hand was in the way.

The men agreed to go, and on July 16 they were taken to Jersey City by Cohen and put on a train. Getting off at Pittsburg, they were herded on a big transport and taken up the river to the Pressed Steel Car Company’s works. Here they were set to work immediately without being given even a chance to rest after their journey. For the next nine days and nights the five men worked, ate and slept in big, barn-like structures inside the stockade with 2,000 machinists and other laborers who, they say, were kept at work inside the stockade against their will.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Strikebreakers Return to New York City from McKees Rocks with Tales of Imprisonment and Abuse”

Hellraisers Journal: McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Plant Called a Prison; Imported Strikebreakers Held in Stockade

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 1, 1909
Sensational Testimony Given Concerning McKees Rocks Steel Car Company

From The New York Times of August 28, 1909:

STEEL CAR PLANT CALLED A PRISON
—–
Strikebreakers Testify They Were Held
in Stockade Against Their Will.
—–

FOOD, UNFIT AND SCARCE
—–
Threats of Violence and Confinement
In Box Car Kept Men in State of
Terror, Witnesses Say.

From a Staff Correspondent of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

McKees Rocks Strike, Stockade, Loco Fmen Mag p715, Nov 1919 —–

PITTSBURG, Aug. 27.-The testimony presented before the Government investigation to-day in continuance of the conditions existing at the Pressed Steel Car Company’s works at McKees Rocks was the most sensational that has ever been heard so far.

Nathaniel Shaw, a strikebreaker from New York, was the star witness. He testified that he wanted to leave the plant the day after he arrived, but was intimidated and prevented from doing so.

His accusations were brought chiefly against Sam Cohen, the man who is immediately under Leo C. Bergoff, in charge of the strikebreakers. He said that Sam Cohen has surrounded himself with about thirty-five men, whom he has installed in the positions of company guardsmen, and that these men back Cohen in all his acts of tyrannical control. He told about gambling within the work and of winning $50 from a Deputy Sheriff.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Plant Called a Prison; Imported Strikebreakers Held in Stockade”