200th anniversary of the first U.S. industrial labor strike just passed

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As reminded by a local newspaper, just passed is the 200th anniversary of the first industrial worker strike know in the U.S., in my hometown Pawtucket (also the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in in the U.S.).
https://www.nps.gov/blrv/learn/historyculture/1824-strike.htm?et_rid=1877271834&s_campaign=rhodemap:newsletter



Mills created conflicts over established water rights, and significantly changed the daily lives of workers. This led to growing tensions within the community. Workers in mills were subject to the authority of their employers, who asserted control through strict work and behavioral standards. One benefit of working in factories, in theory, was the change to earn wages for work.

Throughout the early 1820s, the cotton industry was experiencing economic fluctuations, triggered by the Panic of 1819 and the Tariff of 1824. In response, mill owners looked for ways to keep production high, costs low, and profits going up.

[…]

In late May 1824, a group of Pawtucket mill owners decided to make some drastic changes. Citing a “general depression,” they announced a plan to extend the workday by an hour, reduce the worker’s mealtime, and cut wages by 25%.

Workers in town did not accept these new conditions. About one hundred women walked out of the mills, causing them to shut down. From May 26th to June 3rd, 1824, a large number of additional textiles workers joined them in going on strike.

Fellow laborers in the village of Pawtucket embraced the strike. Some people event went to the homes of the mill owners to shout at them, and demand restored wages.

The strike escalated on June 1, 1824, when an “incendiary device” was thrown into Walcott’s Mill, causing a small fire. After the fire, the mill owners and the strikers reached a settlement. No record of this settlement exists, but the mills reopened (with workers at their machines) on June 3rd.

[…]

In these early years of industrial development, workers enjoyed more autonomy and individual power to assert their rights as laborers. As the decades passed, this became more difficult. Most women were excluded from joining unions as they formed.


[link includes a photo of some young women who worked at Slater Mill, and an original copy of the newspaper article on it, “this looks rebellion”]