Anna LoPizzo

saltwn · #1 (**permalink**) 05-20-2012, 06:03 PM

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Anna LoPizzo was a striker killed during the Lawrence textile strike (also known as the Bread and Roses strike)

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Prompted by one mill owner's decision to lower wages when a new law shortening the workweek went into effect in January, the strike spread rapidly through the town, growing to more than twenty thousand workers at nearly every mill within a week.

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"If America had a Tomb of the Unknown Immigrant paying tribute to the millions of immigrants known only to god and distant cousins compiling family trees, Anna LoPizzo would be a prime candidate to lie in it."

On Jan. 29 a peaceful parade of the strikers was charged by the militia, and officer Oscar Benoit firing into the crowd, hit striker Anna Lo Pezza (sic), killing her.

Lawrence, Massachusetts was home to many textile mills which relied heavily upon immigrant labor. According to Carlson the strike was "a spontaneous revolt by immigrants who had arrived in Lawrence expecting a land of opportunity, but found instead a claustrophobic life of hard work and low pay." Carlson continues,

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"It is obvious," the State Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded in 1911, "that the full-time earnings of a large number of adult employees are entirely inadequate for a family." Consequently, the average Lawrence family sent mother, father, and all children over the legal minimum age of fourteen to work. The dirty, crowded mills were breeding grounds for disease. Tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments killed some 70 percent of the city's mill workers. "A considerable number of the boys and girls die within the first two or three years after beginning work," wrote Dr. Elizabeth Shapleigh, a Lawrence physician. "Thirty-six of every 100 of all men and women who work in the mills die before or by the time they are 25 years of age." ... While the mill hands lived and died in poverty, their employers thrived.

Mill owners who had predicted a quick end to the strike after LoPizzo's death were surprised when, a few days later, a group of enraged Italian women happened upon a lone police officer on an icy bridge. After stripping him of his gun, club and badge, they sliced the officer's suspenders and took off his pants--a humiliation technique popular with the disorderly women of Lawrence--and dangled the officer over the freezing river. That put an end to any hope that they would quickly scurry back to work...

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"One policeman can handle 10 men," Lawrence's district attorney lamented, "while it takes 10 policemen to handle one woman."

October 2, 2000 — A MARKER FOR A MARTYR — Anna Lopizzo was killed Jan. 28, 1912, at age 34, shot through the heart during the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Mass., when more than 30,000 laborers were on strike for 63 days against American Woolen Co., after management cut wages. Her grave was unmarked for 88 years, until David R. Morris, assistant business manager of Electrical Workers Local 2321 in North Andover, set about getting a headstone made. Granite cutters in Barre, Vt., where children of the strikers were taken for safety in 1912, donated a headstone carved with the Bread and Roses symbol — grain stalks and a rose. The gravestone was displayed at Lawrence Heritage State Park as part of the annual Bread and Roses festival until Labor Day and placed on her grave in ceremonies held Sept. 14.

For Anna and all those who suffered so that we could enjoy a decent wage, I give an honorable remembrance, take off my hat, and bow low.

GottaGo · #2 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 08:10 AM

There was a time when Unions were beneficial. That time no longer exists.

There is a law for every 'protection' that Unions claim they are protecting workers from. The only purpose they serve now is to drive wages up to an unrealistic and unsupportable level.

Their time is done.

saltwn · #3 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 09:05 AM

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Originally Posted by GottaGo

There was a time when Unions were beneficial. That time no longer exists.

There is a law for every 'protection' that Unions claim they are protecting workers from. The only purpose they serve now is to drive wages up to an unrealistic and unsupportable level.

Their time is done.

I respectfully disagree. It was unions who got those laws on the books and I fear without their presence the conditions and wages in this country would be unrecognizable.

GottaGo · #4 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 09:54 AM

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Originally Posted by saltwn

I respectfully disagree. It was unions who got those laws on the books and I fear without their presence the conditions and wages in this country would be unrecognizable.

It was a good thing that they laws got on the books.

Without massive changes in laws, those protective laws aren't disappearing. So the Unions purpose today is..... ?????

saltwn · #5 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 06:36 PM

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Originally Posted by GottaGo

It was a good thing that they laws got on the books.

Without massive changes in laws, those protective laws aren't disappearing. So the Unions purpose today is..... ?????

Many labor laws have changed. For instance, you used to get paid the first payday after quitting a job. Now they can hold that another pay day. You used to get paid the same day you were fired. Now they can have you wait until the second regular pay period.
Every year someone tries to get rid of Davis Bacon wages.
Strikes have been interfered with buy the federal government.
Walmart employees can and have been fired for speaking the word union.
There is a big campaign against unions but it's ok for oil companies and apple growers to set prices.

GottaGo · #6 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 07:21 PM

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Originally Posted by saltwn

Many labor laws have changed. For instance, you used to get paid the first payday after quitting a job. Now they can hold that another pay day. You used to get paid the same day you were fired. Now they can have you wait until the second regular pay period.
Every year someone tries to get rid of Davis Bacon wages.
Strikes have been interfered with buy the federal government.
Walmart employees can and have been fired for speaking the word union.
There is a big campaign against unions but it's ok for oil companies and apple growers to set prices.

Why shouldn't apple growers be able to set their prices? Or any producer?

So, if you want Union work, don't work for WalMart, it's that simple.

Pay after termination of a job is regulated by state. In TN, it's the first regular pay date after termination. You cannot hold it any longer than that.

So much you paint to the benefit of Unions, is regulated either by federal law or state law. People pay a Union to do...what? Nothing that the person themselves should be able to do.

AZRWinger · #7 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 08:55 PM

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Originally Posted by saltwn

I respectfully disagree. It was unions who got those laws on the books and I fear without their presence the conditions and wages in this country would be unrecognizable.

Oh the unions also got laws giving them special privileges as well such as antitrust exemptions and the ability to levy dues deductions from nonmembers.

saltwn · #8 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 10:32 PM

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Originally Posted by GottaGo

Why shouldn't apple growers be able to set their prices? Or any producer?

So, if you want Union work, don't work for WalMart, it's that simple.

Pay after termination of a job is regulated by state. In TN, it's the first regular pay date after termination. You cannot hold it any longer than that.

So much you paint to the benefit of Unions, is regulated either by federal law or state law. People pay a Union to do...what? Nothing that the person themselves should be able to do.

I can set my wages similarly -good for goose/good for gander
walmart can order you to work a split shift starting at 3am, know why they like doing that? To pizz you of and make you quit after 18 years.
used to be you get fired you get paid soI guess it was regulated by the feds once upon a time. I'm not arguing that particular law just that yes labor laws have changed.
You can start your own union and decide to pay no dues at all. Keep in mind you want something in case of a strike.

saltwn · #9 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 10:47 PM

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Originally Posted by AZRWinger

Oh the unions also got laws giving them special privileges as well such as antitrust exemptions and the ability to levy dues deductions from nonmembers.

I never had a union take money from me when I didn't belong to it. I think you are mistaken.

AZRWinger · #10 (**permalink**) 05-21-2012, 11:08 PM

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Originally Posted by saltwn

I never had a union take money from me when I didn't belong to it. I think you are mistaken.

Nope Wisconsin public employee unions don't require membership just paying dues. You may have had the option to not join the union but were not informed of it.

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