My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office ... - Monoskop

THE TPL AND THE STRIKE OF 1870 151
Grand Chief Operator was Ralph Pope, later an associate of Thomas Edison;
other officials were W. W. Burhans, C. J. Ryan, and J. M. Peters. The
leaders of the TPL correctly suspected that Western Union would try to
destroy the organization if its existence became known; TPL members
communicated with one another telegraphically using cipher codes. When
Western Union learned that TPL members were communicating secretly
over its lines, it attempted to stamp out the practice by lowering the men’s
wages and threatening them with discharge. 5
Although the TPL had no specific policies relating to women, it admitted
women as members, and it is clear from Minta’s letter that many women
operators were in sympathy with its goals. Women telegraphers supported
the TPL’s position on pay and participated in the strike it called in January
1870 to protest pay levels and working conditions.
It was the first major strike for the telegraph industry, then only
twenty-five years old. The strike began when four men at the San Francisco
Western Union office protested an attempt to cut their wages. One of the
men was a member of the TPL; he requested that the TPL be allowed to
arbitrate the dispute. Instead, Western Union simply fired two of the men.
When operators at Sacramento heard of the firings, they demanded the
right to communicate with the San Francisco operators, using the TPL cipher
code; Western Union management refused. The TPL demanded that
the men be reinstated; when Western Union refused, a nationwide strike
was called. The strike began in San Francisco on January 3, 1870; it quickly
spread to New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington. At the New York
Western Union office, twelve women telegraphers joined in the strike action.
In Chicago, six women operators, possibly the whole ladies’ department,
joined the strike. The militancy of the women, remarked the Chicago
Tribune, was a “curious feature of the present strike.” The Tribune also
noted with surprise that the women “made common cause with the men,
and also suspended work. They belong to the same association, and are governed
by the same rules.” 6
The concept of women going on strike was so novel that the newspapers
would not print their names; however, the six nonmanagerial female
employees of the Chicago Western Union office in 1869 were Emma Stanton,
Addie M. Hobbs, Mary H. Kidnay, Julia J. Wirt, Josie C. Adams, and
Fide M. Curtiss.
The strike, however, was unsuccessful. Western Union called in strike-