In the 1910s, American labor was severely dissatisfied with the living and working conditions in their communities. Workers’ living standards deteriorated as rents increased, machines increased the rate of exploitation by increasing productive output without a pay raise to match, and the working day increased in length. Throughout the country, workers created unions to fight back against their bosses.
Meanwhile, the canning industry in San Jose exploded. James Dawson and his wife opened the first cannery in 1871. Throughout the decades, capital investment in the industry led to the rise of dozens of canneries all over San Jose, Santa Clara County, and California. This massive growth led to the consolidation of the industry, led by Marco Fontana and the California Fruit Canners Association, of which he held half of the member companies. By 1916, canners had another major merger with the creation of the California Packing Corporation, called Calpak, which developed the label Del Monte. Canners and growers formed various organizations and drove wages downwards, allowing the fruit industry to dominate the national and global markets, especially after the opening of the Panama Canal.
Finally, within the time frame of World War I, strike activity exploded. Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) implemented no-strike clauses in labor contracts in order to discourage the tactic as he did not want workers to be seen as disloyal during the war. However, this was not the position of the American working class. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 19,915 work stoppages between 1914 and 1918. Upon the American entrance in the final two years of the war, approximately 7,414 strikes occurred, or roughly 56% of the work stoppages within the four year period. Further, in 1917, 4,359 strikes took place. Workers opposed both the war and America’s entrance to it, and this set the conditions for the Italian strike.
Workers of all different ethnic backgrounds tilled the fields of Santa Clara Valley; Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Cornish, Mexican, and American agricultural workers all contributed to the seasonal production of food. Aware of their exploitation by their bosses, these workers formed unions either with the AFL or the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which gained massive popularity after the Wheatland Hop Riot of 1913. Workers in San Jose created the Toilers of the World, which operated under the AFL, but the IWW held massive influence over its leadership. It was formed in March 1917 with the specific aim of increasing wages for working people regardless of gender and ethnicity, as preparation and entrance into World War I caused the cost of living to skyrocket. Italian women, the subjects of our story, in particular complained about the increased cost of macaroni and olives, which they deemed basic necessities.
On May 6, Italian workers, under the leadership of the Toilers of the World, held a mass meeting. They agreed to fight for higher wages, increasing the pay from $0.25/hour to $0.3125/hour (in 2025 dollars, from $6.30 to $7.81) for men and with an unknown wage increase for women. Most industries avoided a strike, but the canners in California refused to recognize the Toilers and actively fought against them. In response, the Toilers agreed to go on strike during the peak of the canning season.
On July 23, 1917, 600 workers from the California Fruit Canners Association established a picket line. At the same time, 300 men and women from the Bisceglia Brothers cannery walked off the job, and later, sympathy strikers joined them. Violence erupted at the Bisceglia Brothers cannery when a striking worker was shot and wounded in order to prevent a car from driving up to the plant. At the Pratt-Low Cannery in Santa Clara, where 900 workers were on strike, a scuffle between a foreman and two strikers resulted in the death of one striker and the injury of two others. The following day, workers at the Di Fiore Company went on strike, and a sympathy strike by the Kartschoke-Peterson brickyard joined them. The strike then spread throughout the Bay Area to San Francisco where 450 canning workers from several sites join their brothers and sisters in San Jose as well as 150 workers in Oakland.
Italian newspapers voiced their support for the strike, although they cautioned against violent urges. They recognized flagrant nativism being used as a barrier to their acceptance in mainstream society. They did not want these brave workers to be seen as un-American. The Italian media denounced all charges that Italian immigrants had colluded with the Germans to disrupt American supply lines. The canners and the federal government charged the immigrants with “disloyalty” for having the audacity to improve their living situation. Patriotism, or lack thereof, was a convenient tool for the business elite.
The federal government had an immediate response to the striking Italians. On July 24, troops from Camp Fremont (present-day Palo Alto) marched and occupied the striking canneries. The San Jose Rotary Club, composed of the local business elite, coordinated efforts to crush the strike. The Boy Spies of America, the Knights of Liberty, the Liberty League, and the Sedition Slammers worked in tandem to defeat the workers. After two days, the federal troops left, but the volunteers for the business class remained and intimidated the workers. President Woodrow Wilson immediately responded to the strike. In a telegram to the Canner’s League of California, he explained the strike has national and international ramifications. Although the core demand for the strike was about wages, the halting of food production hindered American war efforts in Europe, which could lead to a victory for the Central Powers.
Four days after the strike, Herbert Hoover met with the AFL and the Toilers at the Labor Temple on 2nd Street in San Jose to negotiate ending it. The meeting highlighted tensions between the AFL and the Toilers, as the former did not provide translation. The Italians did not want to return to work unless their demands were met; however, due to confusion from the AFL, 500 workers went back to work. On July 31, the workers and their bosses reached a deal. Men would increase their wages to $0.30/hour and women’s wages would go up to $0.175/hour. The piece-rate system, which women primarily relied on to supplement their income, would increase as well. Finally, all workers could return back to work without retaliation.
This strike is an important episode in San Jose’s labor and progressive history. It illustrates the power of work stoppages in key industries, both domestically and internationally, and how strikes are one of the strongest weapons of the working class, if used properly. These demands were concise and practical to everyday people, yet powerful enough to mobilize solidarity strikes all over the Bay Area. The strike of a single cannery transformed into a general strike, according to the California Federation of Labor. It is also a reminder of the importance in building solidarity across the gender and national line to win. These women, whose names we will never know, are an inspiration and represent the best of what San Jose has to offer.
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Sources:
California Federation of Labor. Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Convention OF THE California State of Federation Labor, 1917.
Foner, Philip Sheldon. History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Labor and World War I, 1914-1918. Vol. 7. New York City: International Publishers, 1987.
Reis, Elizabeth. “Cannery R.O.W.: The AFL, the IWW, and Bay Area Italian Cannery Workers.” California History 64, no. 3 (1985): 174–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/25158303.
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