Thread by @Show_Me15

Let's start off #BlackHistoryMonth with some St Louis Labor history.

STL has a long labor history, but have you heard about the 1933 Funsten Nut Strike led by revolutionary Black women: Carrie Smith & Cora Lewis.

#UnionsForAll

Here’s what workers in St. Louis lived under.

In the '30s, the nut industry was BOOMING in St Louis. Pecans would come into the city from the Mississippi river valley. Processing those nuts was considered women’s work.

At the time, women’s work was primarily domestic labor; processing nuts was the one industrial job women had access to. White and Black women alike could be hired on to be nut pickers.

But, as you might guess, white women were paid considerably more for the nuts they picked. Black women brought home $1.80/week while white women made $2.75. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $40.78 a week for Black workers and 62.30 a week for white workers.

Work in the nut factories was monotonous, difficult, and dangerous. Women working at the Funsten Nut Factory, which had several locations throughout the city, were searching for avenues to organize and make their lives better.

Two women, Carrie Smith and Cora Lewis, emerged as leaders to organize their coworkers and go on strike. Smith & Lewis were both middle-aged Black women with families to provide for. The long hours and low wages made that nearly impossible.

The workers’ demands were simple: higher pay and better working conditions. They wanted 10 cents per pound for nut halves and 4 cents per pound for pieces of nuts. 10 and 4 became the rallying cry for the workers.

They marched on the boss and issued their demands to Funsten, but when there was no response to their demands, they went on strike!

Lewis & Smith rallied Funsten workers on the steps of city hall downtown. Smith, held up a bible in one hand and a brick in the other; she told her fellow workers, "Girls, we can't lose."

Spoiler alert: the workers did not lose.

On March 15th, 1933 at 7:30 AM 500 workers followed Smith on strike.

The strike spread across the city to all 5 nut factories. At first, it was just Black women, but the movement spread.

The nut factories employed white and Black women, but they were segregated by the bosses. The white workers didn’t even realize their coworkers went on strike until they were able to see through a crack in the floor that no one was working!

The workers showed incredible strength and militancy. They fought the police in the streets, stopped scabs from entering the building, and, most importantly, they stuck together.

Funsten, their boss, was too stubborn and frustrated to deal with his own workers, so he called in then-Mayor Bernard Dickman to negotiate with the workers. Workers organized marches to sway the mayor to their demands, which worked! The Mayor announced he was on their side.

With the Mayor brokering the deal, the workers won a raise and pay-equity with their white coworkers and improved conditions.

Solidarity works. Strikes works. Movements win!

St. Louis’ labor history is marked by many historic strikes, but the Funsten Nut Strike shows us how Black women led the way in building worker power in our city!

But, This isn’t just history. Black women are still leading the fight against low wages in our city!

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