Throughout the ten books of my Maggie Sullivan mystery series I’ve tried to sprinkle droplets of history which show the thoughts and changes faced by ordinary Americans as the country, and the city of Dayton, Ohio, where the stories take place, move into and through World War II. Sometimes they serve to enrich the historical atmosphere or deepen insight into a character. Other times they contribute in some small way to the plot.
A Dame Worth Killing, the latest book in the series, incorporates one element of the social unrest that accompanied the end of the war. There was no shortage of that unrest. It emerged in communities large and small across the country, beginning in late 1945 as American servicemen began arriving home.
By spring of 1946 when A Dame Worth Killing takes place, the joy of having family and loved ones home was tempered by everyday problems. Housing shortages persisted, if anything becoming more acute as returning GI’s started families. Jobs were in short supply too, even though many women happily traded their wartime coveralls for frilly aprons. And goods that had been in short supply failed to suddenly fill shelves.
Contributing to the situation was a wave of “labor disruptions” a.k.a strikes, many of which turned violent. They swept the country from the end of 1945 through 1946. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic, more than five million workers went out on strike in the first year following the end of World War II.
Even though rationing ended on many things (sugar was the last, in 1947) eager consumers couldn’t find the flour, nylons, automobiles and other goods they’d been awaiting. Production couldn’t keep pace. When price controls were lifted, prices soared, leading to inflation, but even that didn’t stop shelves from emptying. In Denver, a group of women frustrated by the shortages went so far as to hijack a bread truck.
On Jan. 15, 1946, some 174,000 workers at three large electrical manufacturers walked off the job. A week later 750,000 steelworkers across the country went on strike, the largest labor stoppage in the country’s history. In the months that followed, as disputes at some of the largest companies were settled, strikes spread to small and mid-sized businesses across the country. They affected a wide array of industries: Coal miners. Railroad workers. Truckers. Telephone company employees. Longshoremen and seamen.
Workers in the auto industry were among the first to strike in November of 1945. Among the 320,000 employees to go on strike at General Motors plants were returning veterans who had taken jobs there because better paying ones were unavailable. Others had worked the assembly lines without raises throughout the war to supply defense products.
A character in A Dame Worth Killing who has helped lead an unsuccessful strike in Dayton expresses worker grievances this way:
“Every employee in that factory worked longer hours once we went to war, and that was okay. It was our bit for the country. No raise in wages to go with the longer hours, but now that the war’s over, there’s still the same long hours without a nickel more in pay, even with everything booming. All we want is what other factory workers across the country are asking for — a fair deal.”
Sometimes employers countered work disruptions by hiring strikebreakers, experienced thugs who made their point with fists and clubs. And sometimes, as in A Dame Worth Killing, innocent people with no connection to the labor disputes, found themselves in danger as a result of them.
M. Ruth Myers, April 4, 2022
Photo credits:
Oakland strikers – foundsf.org
UAW strike – autoblog.com
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