Italian laborers working on railroad improvements in the western part of Bridgeport protested being forced to live in an old carriage shop considered crowded and unhealthy, with $1.25 per month being taken out of their pay for the accommodations.

The protest lead to an investigation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which together with an anonymous burning of the barracks leads to reform.

Population of Bridgeport: 70,996.

1901-1905
Dennis Mulvihill, DEMOCRAT, an Irish immigrant is elected Mayor of Bridgeport. Mulvihill was keenly aware of the trouble of local workers, since he had worked as a stoker in the Wheeler and Wilson sewing machine factory. At a time when the population of the city was growing rapidly and in need of city services such as schools, Mulvihill tried to reduce city spending and lower taxes.

Population of Bridgeport is more than one-half foreign born and overwhelmingly blue-collar.
1890: 48,866 persons
1900: 70,996 persons

Nationally based corporations acquire a number of Bridgeport's important firms; e.g. 1900:
Bryant Electric becomes subsidiary of Westinghouse; 1904: Crane Company of Chicago absorbs Eaton, Cole, and Burnham; 1907: Singer Manufacturing acquires Wheeler and Wilson Sewing Machine Co. Companies such as Raybestos (1904), Bridgeport Metal Goods (1909) are founded.

Socialist Party begins in Bridgeport.

Gustave Whitehead August 14, 1901: German immigrant Gustave Whitehead, employed at the Locomobile factory flies the propeller driven craft he designed to an altitude of 200 feet, travelling one and a half miles. Whitehead's flight was reported in the Bridgeport Herald, New York Herald, and the Boston Transcript.

May 1903. Trolley workers at the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company went on strike, asking for a $2.25 per ten-hour day. On June 26, 1903, a mass meeting took place in Washington Park to support the strikers.

Building trades employers try to force workers to present a reference card from former employers in order to be hired. 415 carpenters, joiners, painters, and plumbers strike for 30 to 98 days, successfully opposing the use of reference cards as requirements for employment. Strikers believed that the contractors would use the reference cards to discriminate against union activists.

Children worked in local factories. Employees of Buckingham and Brewer Printers.

Female Cartridge inspectors at Union Metallic Cartridge Company strike for 5 days, demanding increasing wages. They are fired from their jobs.

George Tillyou, manager of Steeplechase Island, refused to permit inspection by agent of the union for journeymen carpenters. The journeymen carpenters go on strike; they are fired and replaced.

Marcus L. Reynolds, Mayor

Bridgeport called the "Industrial Capital of Connecticut" by Fred Enos, president of the Bridgeport Board of Trade, based on capital invested in industries and value of products.
Theatrical stage employees at S.Z. Poli strike for increased wage rate of $2.00 per week. They are unsuccessful.

Theatrical stage employees at S.Z. Poli strike for increased wage rate of $2.00 per week. They are unsuccessful.

Building trades strike: May 1, 1906. 220 bricklayers, plasterers and stone masons, and 180 hod carriers, strike building contractors, demand higher wages, and for the 220, half holiday Saturdays. The strikes are unsettled after six months; the hod carriers find employment elsewhere.

1907-1909:
Henry Lee, Mayor

Skilled and unskilled workers at the American Tube and Stamping Company during two strikes bring workers together in solidarity. On May 18, 75 machinists, supported by 17 unskilled workers, strike for ½ day, successfully demanding a shorter work day (9 hours) with no decrease in wages. On July 16, 900 iron and steel workers, joined initially by at least 80 machinists, strike for a month, demand increased wages and the return of an alternating schedule. The unskilled workers are members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and a majority are Hungarian. After a month, the workers return with the alternating shift schedule restored but no wage increase. Bridgeport City Council raises wages for unskilled laborers and mechanics employed by the city to $1.75 per day from $1.50 per day. (Skilled labor employed by the City is paid $l5 to $18 per week). 1500 laborers on New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. in various parts of Connecticut strike for 20 days. They demand a pay increase from $1.50 per day to $1.75. Most workers in the State, including Bridgeport win 10 cents per day. NOTE: Bridgeport strike graphic

Iron Molders at Bridgeport Malleable Iron Company strike for 4 days, demanding restoration of former piece prices and that helpers be supplied; unsuccessful.

Nature and Goals of Work:

The Voices of the Twentieth Century project interviewed men and women of varying backgrounds, ages, and vocations. Despite the differences in their stories, it became clear that these people often shared common experiences through work. On some level, the experience of working, whether as an entrepreneur, a volunteer, or an assembly line laborer, is a universal. Our interviewees often spoke of a general philosophy of work. They told us what working meant to them, how they approached it, what they had learned from it, and what they hoped to get out of it. These are just a few of their impressions of the working experience.