The Portland General Strike of 1946: Portland's Labor Movement Takes On City Manager James E. Barlow
PHOTO: Portland Central Union President Horace E. Howe & Portland City Manager James E. Barlow.
On Sunday, June 30, 1946, Portland Public Works Department (PWD) workers who were members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 946 voted 68-5to authorize a strike at a meeting at the Maine State Federation of Labor’s Labor Temple at 110 Exchange Street in Portland. For several years the PWD workers had gone without pay raises during the Great Depression and had dutifully done their jobs to maintain the city as America fought wars in Europe and the Pacific. But with the war over, the workers demanded to be paid what they were worth.
Local 946 formed in the summer of 1945, two years after the Portland Firefighters unionized with the IAFF. That fall, the union won its first victory when the Portland City Council finally agreed to enforce a 1937 policy granting them a half a day off with pay on Saturdays. However, the city vehemently refused to recognize Local 946 as the official bargaining agent for the workers, just as the same councilors had refused to recognize the Portland Professional Firefighters (IAFF) Local 740 in 1942. The city also refused to move on wage increases as the post-war inflation rapidly eroded workers’ paychecks. By the following June, the PWD workers were ready for a brawl.
The workers voted to authorize a strike under the condition that the union would first ask Republican Governor Horace Hildreth to allow the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration to help resolve the labor dispute, even though it wasn’t clear if the board had the authority to do so. Horace E. Howe, president of the Greater Portland Federated Labor Council, urged workers to wait “until all possible avenues of mediation have been exhausted” before walking out.
“We will use all means possible" to avoid calling a walk-out in protest of the city’s refusal to grant wage increases, Howe told the Portland Press Herald.
A native of Portland, Howe came from a strong union family and was a longtime labor leader in the city. His father was the Portland chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. Howe served in World War I and carried a union card since he was 18. He joined the Street Carmen’s Union that year while a conductor for the Portland Street Railway Co. Two years later he took a job at Central Maine Power to become a line inspector. He became Vice President of the Maine State Federation of Labor, the precursor to the Maine AFL-CIO, in 1940 and had served as the President of IBEW Local 333 since 1941.
Now, as president of the central labor union representing 30 AFL unions throughout Greater Portland, Howe faced his greatest challenge yet in leading a strike of workers who didn’t even have the right to unionize under the 11-year old National Labor Relations Act.
Boss Barlow
On the other side of the table was City Manager James E. Barlow, who ruled the city with an iron fist for 18 years with the blessing of a conservative, pro-business City Council. A civil engineer by trade, Barlow was fiercely anti-labor and laser focused on bringing down the city’s debt load at the expense of public investments and fair treatment of city employees. He was not about to cave to a bunch of insubordinate union hotheads.
He also wasn’t afraid to clash with other councilors over a range of issues from spending to traffic enforcement. Buoyed by strong support from civic and business leaders, Barlow managed to weather his political opponents’ repeated attempts to take over the City Council throughout his stormy 18-year tenure.
In 1931, Barlow cut salaried employees wages by 17 percent while accepting a 21.5 percent cut in salary himself. He refused to restore the $2,000 cut in his pay when the economy began to recover in 1937. During the war, Barlow became an advisor to the Roosevelt administration on civilian defense, but continued to stoke controversy back in Portland. He was widely criticized for failing to take full-advantage of federal money, blocking the U.S. Army’s plan to spend $700,000 to expand the Municipal Airport and balking at ripping up abandoned street car tracks for vital scrap metal during the war. Barlow argued that the benefits of these projects didn’t outweigh the expense. He preferred to spend federal money to promote tourism, using Works Progress Administration funding to build the city’s municipal golf course in 1937.
Barlow’s administration was marked by a particular hostility toward organized labor and the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In April, 1937, Barlow sparked outrage among the ranks of organized labor when he and the City Council authorized the Portland Police to use any means necessary to break potential sit-down strikes, including the use of tear gas and even shooting strikers. In late 1936, a wave of sit-down strikes rocked the auto industry from South Bend, Indiana to the earthshaking General Motors sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. In April, 1937, 5,000 striking shoe workers with the militant Congress of Industrial Organizations were met by baton wielding police on a bridge between Lewiston and Auburn. The cops beat the predominantly French Canadian female strikers, provoking a riot and leading the Governor to deploy the National Guard. Union leaders were arrested and the ACLU published a report accusing state and local authorities of “fascist” tactics to break the strike.
It was in this climate of anti-labor hysteria that Portland City Manager James Barlow declared that “Portland will be one city that will resist attempts of outsiders to come in here and stir up trouble and discontent among its citizens. We will use every power we have to protect the property of our merchants and manufacturers.”
At the recommendation of a City Councilor, Portland Police Chief Ralph O. Brooks ordered plain-clothes officers to trail and surveil union organizers and report on any talk of potential sit-down strikes and "refusal of employees to leave stores and factories.”
“I told these men that the police department would go the limit in protecting property against invasion, either by employees or outsiders,” Brooks said.
As 500 CIO workers picketed shoe plants in Auburn on March 25, 1937, the conservative Portland Evening Express warned that there was the “possibility” of a sit-down strike of department store workers and truck drivers in Portland. The Chamber of Commerce told the Portland City Council that CIO organizers planned to “get a foothold” in the city’s department stores and “induce” employees to strike before the Easter buying season.
Cumberland County Sheriff Henry E. Burnell sent Deputy Sheriff George R. Bryant to canvas Portland businesses to determine whether the dreaded CIO had come to town. Bryant told a conference of city and county officials that while five CIO organizers were believed to be in the city, “only one group of store employees had been approached by the agitators” and “only two employers were at all concerned at the prospect of a strike.” Sheriff Burnell also sent one of his men to Lewiston to study the methods of CIO organizers in case the city was hit by a strike wave. He said he had ordered additional tear gas just to be safe. Chief Brooks told the City Council that he would immediately order the evacuation of any stores and factories if workers launched a sit-down strike. “Resistance,” he said, “would be met with resistance.” However, city attorney Barnett I. Shur warned city officials against “running out” labor organizers and reminded councilors that workers had a right to free speech and assembly.
On April 12, 1937, the Portland Central Union passed a resolution accusing the Police Chief and members of the City Council of intimidation. The central union called on the City Attorney to teach Chief Brooks and the City Council about the legal rights of workers and refrain from using the city’s detectives as private spies. It wasn’t the only instance of political leaders in Maine deploying spies to surveil labor unions. In 1935, Republican U.S. Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, who was previously elected Governor with support from the Ku Klux Klan, hired a Scarborough Klansman to spy on local unions in an effort to expose leftists in their ranks. It doesn’t appear that the investigation yielded any results.
Opposition Grows to Barlow’s Rule
Not all of Portland's citizens supported Barlow’s iron grip on the city. Some sought to repeal the 1923 ballot referendum that abolished the alderman ward system, created the five-member council elected at-large and replaced the elected mayor with the unelected professional manager position. Business class “good government” reformers” known as the “goo-goos,” had pushed for the city manager/non-partisan council at-large system because they believed it made municipal government more efficient, pro-business and less beholden to political parties and machine politics than the previous system with its two-dozen party-affiliated aldermen and councilors, each elected from one of the city’s nine wards.
The Portland Ku Klux Klan backed the 1923 referendum because anti-Catholic Klansmen believed that the ward system allowed Irish Catholic and Jewish neighborhoods to have too much influence in city politics, whereas a council form of government diminished the power of ethnic minorities. Following passage of the referendum at the ballot box, one Klan official wrote in a letter to the Catholic Bishop of Portland, “Hereafter, no n*****s, Catholics, nor Jews will ever hold office in Portland.”
However, abolishing the ward system and sidelining political parties also led to less interest in local politics. Voter turn-out for municipal elections steadily declined after the 1923 referendum passed. Just 4,000 Portlanders cast votes in 1945 out of a population of 73,000 residents. By 1945, enough Portlanders were fed up with Barlow’s authoritarian rule that they backed a measure aimed at diluting the power of the city’s Protestant business elite and allowing for more diverse and working-class influence in city politics.
At a heated public hearing in Augusta in February, 1945, Portlanders turned out 4-1 in favor of state legislation to change the Portland City Charter to increase the city council from five to nine members and shorten the length of terms. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Dana R. Bowker (R-Portland), also ensured City Councilors were chosen from specific local districts rather than exclusively at-large. Under the revised proposal, three councilors would be elected at-large and the rest would be elected by geographic region. If passed by the Legislature it still would need to go before Portland voters in a ballot referendum.
Proponents of the charter change, which included organized labor and members of the Portland legislative delegation, argued that it would provide broader geographic representation and make local neighborhoods less dependent on citywide voting blocks. A number of union leaders testified in support of the bill. Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, CIO (IUMSWA) Local 50 President Coleman J. Green, who represented 18,000 members at the South Portland shipyards, said the union backed the Bowker Bill “because it is the nearest thing we can get to representative government.”
John A. Russell, President of the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council, complained that the current city government was not interested in investing in education, public safety or road maintenance.
“Portland is a disgrace so far as winter plowing is concerned,” said Russell. “The City Manager can’t purchase salt. We can’t afford help and mechanics. The Fire Department and school situations haven’t been settled yet. The Fire Department is undermanned, so is the School Department.” He added that City Hall was supposed to be the "people’s building,” but “the manager and council have the say on who can use it for charitable purposes.” Russell charged that the city government delayed taking action on critical matters and then has “closed council sessions when things get too hot.”
Portland Central Union President Horace E. Howe testified that Portland city government “failed miserably to give the citizens of Portland protection and other things they need.” He noted that the Fire Department was short 40 men.
“As for teachers, they get… the lowest pay in the country,” Howe said.
A year earlier, the Portland Teachers’ Association had protested the City Council’s cuts to the school budget and denied teachers proposed minimum salary increases. Using his well-worn tactic of pitting workers against workers, Barlow argued that one department’s pay could not be raised without raising wages for all city employees.
Howe pointed out that the city government also failed to take advantage of federal funding to eliminate slum conditions in the city. All of these problems could have been avoided, said Howe, if city officials “had looked after all interests instead of catering to special interests.” He said he would prefer Portland to go back to having an elected mayor rather than a city manager, but he supported the Bowker Bill as a compromise. William A. Holland, who had unsuccessfully run for Portland City Council, argued that the current form of government allowed a majority of three men on the council to “control it and give the city an awful trimming.” He called the council-at-large/city manager form a government a “closed corporation, open only to a certain class.”
Retired immigration clerk William H. O’Brion, a frequent gadfly at city council meetings and a seven-time unsuccessful council candidate, argued at the public hearing that “you have to buy your way into this government.” He said the city was effectively run by prominent wealthy Republican textile magnate Robert Braun, who was a key supporter of the 1923 city manager/council referendum, and Nathan A. Cushman, founder of the massive Cushman’s Bakery chain.
The Chamber of Commerce attempted to appeal to patriotism in opposing the charter change. The business group argued that passage of the Bowker Bill would result in a vicious campaign that would divide Portlanders at a time when they needed to be united behind the war effort. City Councilor and staunch Barlow supporter Augustus E. Small told the Press Herald that Bowker was only motivated to submit the bill because he was upset that his street hadn’t been plowed. He called it “tommyrot” that “the people” wanted a change, comparing criticism of Barlow to the persecution of Jesus Christ. The City Manager, he said, has “operated with a crown of thorns ever since he has been here.”
The Legislature passed the Bowker Bill and Portland voters went on to pass the charter change on a 2 to 1 margin that September. The move effectively retired four at-large city councilors who supported Barlow, including Council Chairman Harry C. Libby and Helen C. Frost, the first woman elected to the Portland City Council. Bowker told the Press Herald that the decisive victory and large number of ballots cast was proof “that Portland voters are dissatisfied with the present form of our municipal government.”
“The Bowker bill will promote increased interest in future city elections and will afford a general city-wide representation in the City Council,” said Bowker.
But Frost and Libby still intended to run for their old seats in the December municipal election. Portland Central Union President Horace E. Howe and IUMSWA Local 50 leader Coleman J. Green also threw their hats in the ring. The two union men would compete with six other candidates, including three incumbent City Councilors, for three at-large seats on the Council.
Howe’s platform included raising wages for teachers and policemen, improving job opportunities for local youths and expanding industry in the city. He criticized the city government for dragging its feet on implementing a two-platoon system for firefighters.The father of two enjoyed the support of the Maine State Federation of Labor and most of the local unions, including the firefighters’ and policemen’s unions. Portland City Councilors called for an investigation into the municipal unions, arguing that they had no right to make endorsements in local elections. Howe questioned why the council considered municipal unions participating in city politics to be a violation and had no problem with Portland City Attorney W. Mayo Payson serving in the Maine House of Representatives for the past decade while also serving the city.
The following month, Howe represented AFSCME Local 946 employees in urging the City Council to raise wages for public works employees, reduce the work week from 48 to 44 hours with no cut in pay, and a guarantee of 24 days of work a month for laborers. As usual, Barlow opposed any wage increases and had the backing of three City Councilors, including Frost and Chairman Libby. Howe accused Barlow of negotiating in bad faith and told reporters that union leaders were “trying to prevent” a strike. The only concession Barlow ended up making was guaranteeing 24 days of work a month for laborers and agreeing to retain 40 to 50 “temporary” laborers as permanent, entitling them to full-time pay and vacations.
The Press Herald noted that Barlow was the main target of the charter change proponents and predicted that “heads would roll” at City Hall if Bowker Bill supporters won enough seats on the newly enlarged City Council in the December election. But hopes that backers of the pro-labor slate of candidates were sorely disappointed when all of the votes were tallied in the December election. The pro-administration incumbent slate — Councilors Harry B. Libby, Helen C. Frost and Fred H. Gabbi — all won their at-large elections. Howe came in fifth place. In a shocking upset, the fiery 78-year-old Billy O’Brion was the only candidate on the labor slate to prevail on election day, winning his election for the Munjoy Hill District 1 seat by just 41 votes. But after a recount was done, he ended up losing by only seven votes to pro-Barlow candidate N. Francis Jensen.
The “peppery O’Brion” would eventually win a seat on the City Council in 1948 after ten straight defeats. He would serve on the council for four terms until his death at 92, making him the oldest city councilor in the nation. Five other pro-Barlow candidates won the other council elections in 1945 for a complete pro-business sweep of the City Council.
About 11,300 Portland voters, a third of the electorate, turned out to vote. While it was far short of the record of 13,601 votes cast in 1932, turnout in 1945 was more than double the number of Portlanders who voted in 1944 and triple the turnout in the 1942 election. By that measure, the new council system had apparently stirred more voter interest than in previous years. But for organized labor, the election was a crushing defeat. The biggest winner was City Manager James E. Barlow who emerged from the political fray stronger than ever. But the unionized workers of Portland would prove him to be a paper tiger the following year.
Next Week: AFL Unions Launch the Portland General Strike of 1946