June 1937 Strike at Phillips Packing Company

On June 23, 1937, workers in the canning factory in Phillips Packing Company walked off the job. Other workers from the various other factories inside Phillips joined them during the daytime. At night, 1,000 workers joined with other supporters marched through Cambridge. Trucks were overturned & the police responded. The issue didn’t end until July 1937, when the workers settled for small raise (that they had turned down originally, prior to the strike).

The federal Farm Security Administration (originally known as the Resettlement Administration & would be folded into the Office of War Information during WWII) sent Arthur Rothstein (June 17, 1915 – November 11, 1985) to Cambridge to take photographs of the strikers & the activity in Cambridge & that’s what I’m showing in this post. Arthur had an interesting history & spent fifty years photographing various subjects across the United States. His most famous picture is of a farmer & his two sons walking in front of ramshackle building during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, in 1936, during the Dust Bowl years.

You can see that photo here: Dust Bowl

Jim Duffy has a great write-up on the strike back in 2017 on his Secrets of the Eastern Shore website. You can find that here:  Secrets of the Eastern Shore 2017

I’ll put a caption on each photo so you can see what Rothstein was capturing at that time.

Arthur Rothstein on L Street in Washington, DC in 1938, Wikipedia

Employees reporting to work at the Phillips Packing Company photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8c33010)

Phillips Packing Company Warehouse No. 4, Cambridge, MD, photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8b38856)

Phillips Tomato Packing Company - driver waiting to deliver tomatoes, Cambridge, MD, photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8c25760)

Strike at Phillips Packing Company in Cambridge, MD photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8b38856)

Strike at Phillips Packing Company No. 2 in Cambridge, MD photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security, Administration Office of War Information file  fsa 8b36137)

Trucks unload into the canning room 3, Phillips Packing Co., Cambridge, MD photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8c33084r). The lines at the top of the photo are what was posted online.

Trucks unload into the canning room, Phillips Packing Co., Cambridge, MD photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8c33054r)

Trucks waiting at the Phillips Packing Co., Cambridge, MD photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937 (Farm Security Administration Office of War Information fsa 8c33117r)