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New Yorkers Cope With a Strike on the IRT, July 1926

1,745 views · Published 5 December 2018 · 7:34 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Speed Graphic Film and Video · 2018 · Autos & Vehicles

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In June of 1926, transit workers on the IRT subway struck for higher pay.  The motormen were asking for $1 an hour, and the switchmen $0.80.  IRT management pushed back hard--they brought in strikebreakers from out of town and threatened to sue the strike leaders.  By the end of the month, they had broken the strike.
Scenes in this video include:
0:13 commuters at South Ferry walk or drive instead of taking the subway.
1:36 In Brooklyn, the Atlantic Avenue station of the IRT has no customers, while the BMT, the elevated and the streetcars are all busy.
4:05 At Broadway and 181st Street in Washington Heights, there are long lines waiting for buses.  The strike hit northern Manhattan and the Bronx particularly hard, since there was no convenient alternative rapid transit.
5:44 Bonus footage from a September 1920 strike on the Brooklyn Rapid Transit, predecessor to the BMT, showing people riding on the backs of trucks.  The location is unknown, but is probably at the entrance to one of the East River bridges.  Note that this film has badly degraded.
This is all silent film, so I have added some street noise from some later Movietone film.

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