The Ybor cigar makers' strike of 1931 took place in

Ybor City Ybor City ( ) is a historic neighborhood just northeast of downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mai ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, starting on November 26 and ended in December. Some strikers were jailed, "

Lector Lector is Latin for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages it takes various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as , , and . It has various specialized uses. Academic The title ''lector'' may be applied to lecturers ...

s" were banned and there was a lockout. Following legal intervention, some workers returned to work at previous wage levels but others were not re-employed. Lectors had by tradition been elected by the workers and, as well as reading aloud newspaper articles, often from

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

radical publications, they recited and acted more generally, including from classic works – effectively they provided a form of education for illiterate workers. The most significant effect of the strike in the longer term was that the lector culture was brought to an end.

Summary

The Tampa cigar makers' strike took place in Ybor City, Florida from November to December 1931. It was made up of a highly unionized, militant cigar maker workforce who had a long history of radical labor–management relations dating back to the 1880s when Cuban immigrants first began building the Florida cigar industry. Due to rising unemployment and falling wages in the wake of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, workers of the Tobacco Workers Industrial Union engaged in radical demonstrations, most notably, the celebration of the anniversary of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. In doing so, 17 workers were jailed. This sparked a preliminary

walkout In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace and withholding labor as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an ...

by workers but more importantly prompted factory owners to expel the widely renowned "

" in the cigar factories. This "Lector" was a fellow worker who would read aloud newspapers and literature to an illiterate Cuban workforce during production periods to keep workers' minds occupied. The readings were very often pro-union, leftist and anti-corporation. After the displays of radicalism from the Cuban workers, factory owners accused the Lector of proliferating Communist propaganda and banned him from the workplace. This was a bitter loss for the workers and led to a three-week strike in which vigilante squads, the police and the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

clashed with affiliates of the

Trade Union Unity League The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) was an industrial union umbrella organization under the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) between 1929 and 1935. The group was an American affiliate of the Red International of Labor Unions. The fo ...

of the Communist Party, a branch of the Tobacco Workers Industrial Union. The strike finally ended on December 15, 1931. The Lector, replaced by a radio, was never returned to the workplace. The significance of the 1931 Tampa Cigar Makers Strike is that despite a highly unionized workforce, and despite a constitutionally backed argument for the right to free speech, it spelled the end of an age-old, artisan privilege for the cigar workers who were falling prey to the new, industrial age setting in on the United States.

Background

During the 1860s, conflict in Cuba between the Spanish colonial government and Cuban nationalists encouraged widespread immigration into the US. In 1867 alone, 100,000 Cubans, mostly made up of highly skilled laborers coming from the cigar industry, immigrated into Florida thus providing the labor necessary to drive the cigar industry. Vicente Martinez Ybor was one of the first cigar manufacturers to immigrate. With the help of Tampa's Board of Trade, he bought a $9,000 tract of land just outside Tampa's city limit. He named his plot of land Ybor City and quickly built a factory and housing for Cuban and Spanish cigar makers who in 1886 began production of fine, handmade cigars that gave Tampa national recognition. From 1887 to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Ybor City was a

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

dominated by the cigar industry. By 1910, Tampa was producing one million cigars per day and its 10,000 cigar workers represented over half of the community's entire labor force. The influx of Cuban, Spanish and Italian workers made Ybor City and the encompassing Tampa region a vibrant, radical and ethnically diverse community interested in politics and ideology. Early in their history, the militant unionism of Cuban workers is evident. After the failed Cuban revolution in 1868, the Cuban Nationalist movement continued to grow in

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

, and, when Cuban independence began to dim in the 1870s, workers turned towards trade unionism with even more vigor. ''La Resistencia'' was formed in 1895 as a social group for Tampa cigar workers and transformed into a very powerful trade union. It fostered links between cigar industry workers in Tampa and workers in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cigar Makers International Union replaced it as the chief labor organization in Tampa. By 1910, the cigar industry's labor force was 41 percent Cuban, 23 percent Spanish and 19 percent Italian. These workers were radical and would form clubs and discussion groups devoted to a wide range of socialist and anarchist causes. Additionally, they supported numerous radical newspapers such as ''El Internacional'' and ''La Voce Dello Shiavo'' ("The Voice of the Slave") – an evocation of workers' feelings during those times. The ''Tampa Citizen'' was a newspaper published by local unions during and after WW II with the central ideology that it is "Published In The Interest Of The Working Class Of Tampa." As such, workers were deeply entrenched in the radical labor movement taking place in the United States. After 1900, large American corporations such as the American Cigar Company and the Duke Tobacco Trust bought many Tampa cigar factories bringing a corporate attitude that would not be able to peacefully co-exist with worker radicalism and militancy. Corporate culture introduced a drive for greater efficiency via production quotas. New rules, such as requiring a certain number of cigars to be rolled from an exact weight of tobacco distributed to rollers, prompted greater worker resistance and more strikes. Consequently, labor-management relations were characterized by frequent strikes, walkouts, lockouts and incidents of mob violence and vigilantism. In their struggles with manufacturers, cigar workers had more leverage than the average factory worker because they were highly skilled and had an enormous sense of solidarity. For this reason, they were hard to replace and were able to survive strikes by sticking together in the larger Cuban/Spanish communities across Key West and

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'' and '' Socialist Call'', or even classical works of literature such as

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the great ...

. The readers, elected by their peers, were actually marvelous actors and would not simply read the book but literally act out the scenes in a dramatic fashion upon a podium set up in the middle of the factory. Therefore, many illiterate cigar makers were well versed in subjects such as politics, labor, literature and international relations. According to Tampa's leading anarchist, Alfonso Coniglio, a cigar maker at the age of 14, "to them he lectorswe owe particularly our sense of the class struggle". This sense of class struggle drove the workers to resist poor working conditions and to fight for more rights. Strikes by Tampa's cigar workers were rarely focused on issues of wages and hours but instead on being able to control their working conditions. The Lector, in particular, was crucial to the workers' conditions and something that would spark an 8,000-person strike to keep in place.

Timeline

The

had taken its effect on the industry, creating rising unemployment and falling wage rates. Additionally, demand for luxury cigars fell and manufacturers around the country shifted to increased production of cheap cigars that could be made by machine and sold for as little as five cents each. Despite this, Tampa's cigar makers resisted change by defending wage scales and traditional work practices. By 1931 they rejected the conservative Cigar Makers' International Union, which was an affiliate of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

, and 5,000 of them poured into the Tobacco Workers Industrial Union, an affiliate of the Trade Union Unity League of the Communist Party.

Initial conflict

By November 1931 the workers were actively engaging in radical demonstrations, most notably the public celebration of the fourteenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. This provoked public officials and vigilante squads, many times working together, to come down on the radical workers. Vigilante squads were never once arrested, indicted or penalized for taking the law into their own hands to take action against striking cigar makers. Specifically, one party organizer was kidnapped and flogged by unknown assailants. But what angered the strikers most was that seventeen workers were sent to jail, where they sent this letter to their counterparts: As a result, cigar workers at several factories went on strike in support of the prisoners. This, among other public disturbances, threatened the owners of the factories and prompted them to accuse the Lectors of reading Communist propaganda. According to the ''Tampa Daily Times'': "Originally the practice was a beneficial and instructive one, the readers sitting all day in the factories and reading aloud newspapers, novels and instructive works. The result was that the Tampa cigar maker was probably better posted on current events than the average American workman in any other industry. But in recent months the readers have turned to the reading of red-hot radical publications and anarchistic propaganda, with the result that widespread unrest developed among the cigar workers".

Banning of the Lector

So, on November 26, 1931, the factory owners officially banned what they thought was their biggest enemy – The Lector – clearly dictated in this publication: "in the past, manufacturers had entered into an agreement with workers, allowing the reading of educational or instructional information, articles, or books, but the abuse of this privilege, and starting this morning, reading aloud is eliminated…the manufacturers will not allow readers to read anything in the factories, and no collection will be permitted in the factories". So the initiation of the strike was twofold – strikers were outraged at the treatment their fellow workers were receiving in jail and they were further propelled to strike when the next morning they found the platforms for the Lectors demolished. This created a brief, 3-day strike. A headline of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' on November 30, 1931, read ''Tampa Cigar Makers to End Strike'' where: Then, on December 4, 1931, the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' published an article titled "Cigar Strike Becomes Lockout" wherein: "A cigar makers' 72 hour strike precipitated by dismissal of 'readers' (men who read to the workers as they roll tobacco) developed into a 'lockout.' The workers completed their strike and reported for work Monday, but the manufacturers refused to take them back. In retaliation the strikers threatened to refuse to return when they are called back. Such a shortage of skilled labor might conceivably result in higher cigar prices". The reason that manufacturers performed this lockout is that the necessary orders for the Christmas shipment had been filled and they felt it necessary to push back against the radical labor movement they found themselves a part of. And so the strike continued, most readily characterized as a raid against supposed communist leaders who were thought to be the ones inciting the worker rebellions. Tampa citizens formed a "secret committee of 25 outstanding citizens" who, according to the ''

Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. P ...

'', "had the sole purpose of driving out the communists, whether they are communists freshly arrived or long here". On December 10, 1931, the ''New York Times'' published an article that addressed this ongoing public battle of citizen vigilante committees versus supposed communist leaders. In it, Harris G. Sims outlined the vices of the workers and how the city is trying to squash the movement. "While strike leaders denied that Red propagandists inspired them," the article says that when "police raided the headquarters of an industrial union a Soviet flag and a large quantity of Red literature were found and seized". The strike escalated to the point where more than "twenty automobiles manned by policemen with riot guns were ready to quell a disturbance hat failed to arise" Then, Federal Judge

Alexander Akerman Alexander Akerman (October 9, 1869 – August 21, 1948) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Education and career Akerman was born on October 9, 1869, in Elberton, Georg ...

: As such, the fight among workers for their Lectors was played off by local and federal government as a communist movement that aimed at undermining the integrity of the United States. And while the workers, for many years, had been a part of social groups that encouraged this sort of talk, their ideological differences were magnified, ridiculed and preyed upon by adversaries to misconstrue them as their main intent in the strike. It left them no legal leg to stand on and heavily contributed to them losing the strike. On December 10, 1931, Ybor Cigar workers voted to return to work during a mass meeting of 1500 workers at the Labor Temple. On December 15, 1931, the ''

'' published an article titled, ''Tampa's cigar makers' strike ended when most of the 8,000 who walked out nearly three weeks ago after their "readers" were discharged, returned to work''. The Lectors were never again reinstated in cigar makers' factories. Re-hiring was not automatic as "the strikers are no longer employees" but the original wage scales prevailed.

Historical significance

The Strike of 1931 is remembered as the final battle in which a tradition integral to cigar makers' craft had for once and for all been removed by the growing corporate power in the United States. Moreover, the rights of minorities to engage in free speech and express their political opinions were overwhelmingly disregarded by an establishment feeling threatened by radical ideologies. Despite a traditional "loss," the manner in which workers held together showed the power of people in the face of local, state and federal government. Two years later on December 28, 1933, cigar makers and manufacturers came to an agreement of sorts in which, according to the

, "A pact was signed by cigar manufacturers and workers banning lockout and strikes for three years. A wage scale agreement is awaiting adoption of a code for the industry".

References

{{Reflist Cigar makers strikes Manufacturing industry labor disputes in the United States Labor disputes in Florida 1931 in Florida 20th century in Tampa, Florida 1931 labor disputes and strikes 1930s strikes in the United States