ABSTRACT: IMMIGRATION & UNION BUILDING: A NEW ENGLAND COMPARISON Lawrence History Center symposium, April 4, 2014

The union organizer walked to the boss's office with a local Catholic priest and a newspaper reporter in tow. Futuramik owner _______ knew the dangers of the plastic molding process in his factory, but he didn't think anyone else knew. And he didn't expect the three men at his door. Danny Perez, a union organizer for the ILGWU, handed _____ a first aid kit. "This is for your employees, he said. There are too many workers being burned by molten plastic.Too many injured by slipping on wet floors." "Keep the first aid kit, I don't want it ________ replied. The Puerto Ricans will just steal it." ********** Beginning in the 1850s with the influx of Irish laborers, the rise of immigrant populations into the city of Hartford has provided a workforce that was cheap, plentiful-- and non-union. Each group worked its way up the economic ladder, and they did it, in large measure, by building their own labor organizations. In this presentation I demonstrate the parallel between the immigrant groups that moved to Hartford and how they won economic (and political) power to benefit their communities. While pointing to the earliest movements, specifically Irish, Italian and African American, I mostly focus on the "new immigration" of Puerto Rican*, West Indian, and Eastern European populations. I also use Lawrence history and demographics to compare how ethnic and racial groups engaged each other as they have attempted to fight their way out of poverty. I highlight the progress of these groups with a visual presentation, using stories to illuminate immigrant experiences. For example, My presentation explores --The number and type of Hartford unions that developed as the immigrant populations changed; --How Hartford's Irish population responded to having their neighborhood described as "Pigville" for five decades by the dominant daily newspaper of the time; --How one ethnic group built The Economic League, a "third party" that captured the mayoral seat and won working class political dominance; --Why the 1912 Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies), had such a great impact on textile organizng and fierce repression in and around Hartford;

--The Hartford civil rights groups that pushed for labor reform and racial inclusion, and the skilled Black workers who broke the union color barrier; -- How Puerto Rican tobacco workers challenged Connecticut's "Jim Crow" law that barred their right to vote; -- And finally, how union organizer Danny Perez succeeded in establishing a union at Futuramik.

********** *Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth. It can be argued, therefore, that Puerto Ricans who have moved to the U.S. mainland are not strictly immigrants. As the largest ethnic population in the city (and in part because part of the Puerto Rican population claims sovereignty) I include them because their struggles parallel those of groups from other countries.

Steve Thornton The Shoeleather History Project 120 Beacon Street, Hartford, C5 06105 (860) 525-6510 stephen.thornton1199@gmail.com