1. The 1926 Paterson Silk Workers’ Campaign (44-Hour Week)
In January 1926, Paterson’s silk workers, represented primarily by the Associated Silk Workers and supported by the United Textile Workers (AFL), sought to enforce an 8-hour day and 44-hour work week throughout the city’s silk industry.
Unlike the dramatic 1913 strike, this dispute was largely settled through the threat of a citywide walkout.
- Most broad silk manufacturers agreed before the strike deadline.
- Only a handful of smaller shops initially resisted.
- Within days many of those employers also accepted the new schedule.
- The campaign became one of the few clear labor victories in Paterson during the 1920s.
2. The Passaic Textile Strike and Paterson
Beginning on January 25, 1926, more than 15,000 woolen mill workers struck mills in:
- Passaic
- Garfield
- Wallington
- Lodi
- East Paterson (today Elmwood Park)
The strike quickly spread throughout the textile district surrounding Paterson.
Causes
Workers protested:
- wage reductions
- long hours
- unsafe conditions
- speed-ups in production
- refusal of employers to recognize unions
The strike became the largest textile strike in the United States during the 1920s.
3. Paterson Workers Join the Movement
Although Paterson’s silk industry differed from Passaic’s woolen mills, many Paterson workers became involved.
According to contemporary reports:
- workers at the National Silk Dyeing Company in East Paterson walked out;
- additional dye workers joined almost immediately;
- relief committees were organized in Paterson to raise money and food for striking families;
- Paterson labor organizations held rallies supporting the Passaic strikers.
4. Police and Public Reaction
The strike became nationally famous because of:
- mass picketing
- hundreds of arrests
- police violence
- injunctions against demonstrations
- widespread newspaper coverage
Civil liberties organizations, clergy, and reformers criticized police tactics.
Unlike the 1913 Paterson strike, the 1926 dispute generated national publicity through photographs, newspapers, and even one of the earliest labor documentary films.
5. Communist Leadership
One reason the strike attracted national attention was that it was initially led by Albert Weisbord and the United Front Committee, which had strong ties to the Workers (Communist) Party.
Later in 1926, the American Federation of Labor’s United Textile Workers assumed leadership of negotiations after communist organizers stepped aside.
6. Results
The strike lasted more than a year, ending in March 1927.
The outcome was mixed:
- some wage cuts were reversed;
- workers gained modest improvements in certain mills;
- however, union recognition was largely denied;
- many gains were later weakened or lost.
Despite this, historians regard the strike as one of the most significant labor actions of the 1920s because it influenced later textile organizing throughout the United States.
Significance for Paterson
The labor activity of 1926 demonstrated that Paterson remained one of America’s leading union cities after the famous 1913 Silk Strike.
The year saw:
- successful enforcement of the 44-hour work week in much of Paterson’s silk industry;
- extensive support for neighboring Passaic textile workers;
- renewed cooperation among immigrant workers from Italian, Jewish, Polish, German, and other communities;
- continued recognition of Paterson as a center of the American labor movement.