Brown and Sharpe Labor Strikes (Mss. Gr. 219)

Historical note

Founded in 1833, the Brown and Sharpe Company began repairing clocks, watches and other small precision mechanical items. By 1898, the company was manufacturing tools used in machinery and employed 1500 workers. Nearly three quarters of Brown and Sharpe workers enlisted to fight in WWI in 1917. Following the war, sales and the work force dropped as a result of the Great Depression. In 1941, Brown and Sharpe workers finally unionized through the American Machinists Union.

The years between 1941 and 1951 were marked by an uneasy peace as financial losses began to mount and finally workers organized their first strike. Brown and Sharpe reduced its work week in order to save jobs, but had to lay off 700 employees by 1970. In both 1975 and 1979 strikes were organized to no avail. One of the longest strikes in American labor history began in 1981 and legal actions lasted 15 years. Eventually, the union lost. After multiple layoffs, the company could not pull itself out of its massive debt and was forced to put itself up for sale. A company in Sweden, Hexagon A.B., purchased Brown and Sharpe in 2000.