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class activity was picking up in Baltimore. Expectations (and apprehension),
especially in the press and in governmental circles, seemed to picked up even more
because of the national strike wave and the growing sit-down mania. In late
February, overzealous state legislators introduced a bill in the Maryland Assembly
to outlaw sit-down strikes, although there had been virtually no need for it as yet in
the state. When seventy-five women workers stopped work, and twenty-five of
them sat down two weeks later at the Roberts Dress Company, the press headlined
that "City's First Strike Of This Type Starts In South Paca Street Factory."28
This headline was, of course, inaccurate, because at least one sit-down had
occurred on a ship in Baltimore harbor. Moreover, the Roberts sit-down was a
mild affair when compared to the struggles in Flint - or in the port. The strike was
called on the orders of the ILGWU national office in New York to support the
union's efforts in organizing two Roberts shops in that state and to oppose moving
work out of Baltimore to nonunion shops. The Baltimore plant manager offered
the strikers sandwiches, cake, and coffee; the police were polite and unobtrusive;
and, after a week, the number of sit-downers was reduced to ten to save the union
money in caring for them. After two weeks, the union announced a settlement, and
the remaining workers in the building emerged victorious: another advance was
made in Baltimore's most unionized industrial sector.
A more important advance in garments, however, came more quietly. In
February, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, with a membership variously
estimated at 7,000 to 10,000 workers, firmly pressed Baltimore men's clothing
manufacturers to break the tradition of giving city workers lower raises than those
given in Northern cities, and to raise wages the full 12% won shortly before in New
York. After a couple of weeks of grumbling and foot-dragging, the Baltimore
employers capitulated. They were unwilling to go up against such a formidable foe
in the midst of a strike wave. In many ways, this victory was symbolic of the way
that the ACW helped build the CIO in the late 1930s: it used its strength quietly
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