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McDowell, Scott

History

2012

M.A.

The Vermont Marble workers strike of 1935-36 was a labor conflict that unfolded over the course of eight months between the Vermont Marble Company and its employees in and around Rutland, Vermont. The strike occurred within the context of the New Deal Era when a change in the federal government's attitude toward labor resulted in the development of legislation sanctioning the existence of unions and providing them with various legal protections. In their struggle, the marble workers sought to use both the Wagner Act and state labor laws as a tool to end the strike. However, the network of friendship that existed in Vermont between business and politics created a power dynamic that prevented laws at both the federal and state level from having meaningful significance in practice, influenced public opinion, isolated workers from positive state intervention while making them susceptible to negative intervention, and ultimately thwarted the collective efforts of the striking workers at Vermont Marble. Power-social, economic, and political - remained on the side of capital.