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The first labor unions in Minneapolis were organized following the Civil War. During the substantial growth of population and industry in the 1880s-1890s, labor unions became a major political force in the state of Minnesota, and especially in Minneapolis, where industrial workers were concentrated.
Relations between unions and employers were most contentious--violent in fact--in 1934, when Minneapolis teamsters, having successfully won a strike in the coal yards, tried to organize all the teamsters in the city. They met fierce opposition from the Citizens Alliance of Minneapolis, the employer's organization representing over 800 city businesses. The union voted to strike May 12, 1934 and violent clashes ensued in May and July, killing several people.
Governor Floyd B. Olson declared martial law on the streets of Minneapolis and eventually requested President Franklin D. Roosevelt to intervene. Although he didn't do so publicly, Roosevelt did threaten to withdraw public funds available to Minneapolis firms via the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This proved to be ample motivation for employers to recognize the unions and to enter into collective bargaining with the workers.
In the mid 1930s, Nellie Stone Johnson organized workers of the Minneapolis Athletic Club and was one of the founders of the Hotel and Restaurant Union-Local 665. She went on to become the first black elected to public office in Minneapolis in 1945, when she won a seat on the Library Board. In 2001, Broadway Community School in north Minneapolis was renamed the Nellie Stone Johnson School in her honor.
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