On August 27, 1906, at five o'clock in the
afternoon, on a prearranged signal, the employees walked out.
They returned to work the next morning and all were permitted to
take their accustomed places except those who had given the
signal. They were discharged. At five o'clock that afternoon the
men put aside their work, and the following morning reappeared.
Again the men who had given the signal were discharged, and the
rest went to work. The union then sent notice to the foreman that
the discharged men must be reinstated or that all would quit. A
strike ensued which soon led to a boycott of national
proportions. It spread from the local to the St. Louis Central
Trades and Labor Union and to the Metal Polishers' Union. In 1907
the executive council of the American Federation of Labor
officially placed the Buck's Stove and Range Company on the
unfair list and gave this action wide and conspicuous circulation
in The Federationist. This boycott received further impetus from
the action of the Mine Workers, who in their Annual Convention
resolved that the Buck's Stove and Range Company be put on the
unfair list and that "any member of the United Mine Workers of
America purchasing a stove of above make be fined $5.00 and
failing to pay the same be expelled from the organization."
Espionage became so efficient and letters from old customers
withdrawing patronage became so numerous and came from so wide a
range of territory that the company found itself rapidly nearing
ruin.
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