1. Applebaum, Leon. “A Lock-Out: The Hosiery Workers in Kenosha, 1928-1929”. IN: Holter, Darryl. Workers and Unions in Wisconsin: A Labor History Anthology. Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin; 1999; pp. 82-87. Notes: Excerpted from his article, “Turmoil in Kenosha: The Allen-A Hosiery Dispute of 1928-1929,” Wisconsin Magazine of History (v. 70, no. 4), Summer 1987, p. 281-303.
  2. “Turmoil in Kenosha: The Allen-A Hosiery Dispute of 1928-1929”. Wisconsin Magazine of History. 1987; 70(4):281-303. Notes: Discusses a bitter and tumultuous strike by the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers Branch 6 against the Allen-A Hosiery Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Only about half of the firm’s employees worked in the full-fashioned department which was involved in the strike; this department made silk stockings and had two categories of employees: the knitters (primarily men), who knit the foot of the stocking and the toppers (primarily young women), who attached each foot to the leg of the stocking, which the knitters then seamed together. Dissension had been growing between the employees and the company prior to the strike due to management’s announced intention to adopt an emerging industry trend to require each skilled knitter to supervise two knitting machines, rather than the previous practice of only one machine. On February 15, 1928 management precipitated the strike by firing all their knitters and announcing that only those knitters who were not in a union would be re-hired the next day; the approximately 250 knitters and their supporters among the approximately 450 toppers went on strike in the morning.With the 1,300 Allen-A employees making up almost ten percent of the total factory workers in Kenosha, the effects of the strike were felt throughout the community, including political repercussions in city government. The police chief and the city manager, both of whom had tried to remain neutral regarding the labor dispute, were removed from office by the businessmen on the city council. In March 1928, when the strikers held a mass picket in defiance of a federal injunction which prohibited any activity in furtherance of the strike, many strikers were arrested and brought to trial, but a jury found them innocent; the company responded with additional legal challenges.
  3. Bailey, John W. “Labor’s Fight for Security and Dignity”. IN: Neuenschwander, John A., editor. Kenosha County in the Twentieth Century: A Topical History. Kenosha, Wis.: Kenosha County Bicentennial Commission; 1976; pp. 223-274. Notes: A review of the major strikes and other events of importance to the labor movement in Kenosha County from 1900 until about 1965, based on some oral histories, but primarily on accounts in the Kenosha Telegraph-Courier and the Kenosha Labor publications. Highlights are mentioned for several strikes, including an April 1906 strike at the Allen Tannery plant in which a striker was hospitalized after being shot in the chest (p. 228) and the bitter 1928-1929 strike by at the Allen-A Hosiery knitting plant (p. 237-246).One of the enduring achievements of the Kenosha labor movement was the creation of their local labor paper in 1935, The Kenosha Labor; the paper is still in publication in Kenosha today, although from October 1992 onwards under the plainer title of The Labor Paper. A special feature in the early days of this local labor paper was a labor comic strip called “the John Smiths,” created by Harold Magin, a Kenosha unionist; besides appearing in the Kenosha Labor, the comic strip was also “syndicated to some forty newspapers” (p. 254). The entire run of the Kenosha labor paper will be found at the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison.
  4. Holter, Darryl. “Labor Spies and Union-Busting in Wisconsin, 1890-1940”. Wisconsin Magazine of History. 1985 Summer; 68(4):[242]-265. Notes: In 1925 Wisconsin union leaders, after twenty years of effort, were able to get significant restrictions placed in state law on the union-harassing activities of employers, especially regarding labor spies; other states later followed Wisconsin’s lead and enacted similar legislation. Besides exploring the legislative and organizational tactics used from 1890 to 1940 by the Wisconsin labor movement to combat labor spying, this fascinating article discusses how labor spies actually operated, how detective agencies began offering this specialized service, and how the 1925 law affected the operation of detective agencies doing this type of work in Wisconsin.The author provides an in-depth example of each of the two situations in which labor spies were used; the strike discussed is that against the Allen-A Hosiery company in Kenosha, Wisconsin from 1928 to 1930 by members of Branch 6 of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers, United Textile Workers of America and, for the second situation, he uses the Western Paper Makers Association (a manufacturers’ association led by David Clark Everest) and their activities to suppress unions among paper mill workers in central Wisconsin along the Fox, Wisconsin, Marinette, Eau Claire and Peshtigo Rivers. The article also examines the helpful role of congressional hearings held from 1936 to 1940 by the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Robert La Follette, Jr. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin named this article as the winner of the annual William Best Hesseltine Award for the best article to be published in the Wisconsin Magazine of History during the year. Also: Holter, Darryl O. Labor Spies and Union Busting in Wisconsin, 1890-1940. [Milwaukee? Wis.: D.O. Holter?, 1987?, c1985. 24 p. Article reprinted by permission from the Wisconsin Magazine of History, v. 68, no. 4 (Summer 1985).