--- title: The Longest Strike in U.S. History description: The Kohler strike lasted for 11 years from 1954 to 1965, and has a legacy still being felt today. canonical: https://time.com/6308684/longest-strike-us-history-kohler/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-09-01T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:57.833Z article:section: History og:title: The Longest Strike in U.S. History og:description: The Kohler strike lasted for 11 years from 1954 to 1965, and has a legacy still being felt today. og:url: https://time.com/6308684/longest-strike-us-history-kohler/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfcea3cf19ed8add/698a3fc709208f5be541aa51/kohler-strike-negotiations-bobby-kennedy.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Walter Reuther with Robert Kennedy and Jack Conway og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Longest Strike in U.S. History twitter:description: The Kohler strike lasted for 11 years from 1954 to 1965, and has a legacy still being felt today. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfcea3cf19ed8add/698a3fc709208f5be541aa51/kohler-strike-negotiations-bobby-kennedy.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Longest Strike in U.S. History > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Los Angeles Investigating After Studio Trimmed Trees Used for Shade By Striking Writers and Actors [Watch (HLS stream): Los Angeles Investigating After Studio Trimmed Trees Used for Shade By Striking Writers and Actors](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6P31pSiS.m3u8) (2:20)  _Published 2023-07-20. A row of tightly trimmed ficus trees along a stretch of sidewalk outside Universal Studios has become a hot spot in the face-off between Hollywood studios and striking screenwriters and actors. Some members of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA unions — along with sympathetic local politicians — think the studio purposely pruned the trees in an effort to remove a source of shade for workers picketing under the hot Southern California sun._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 1, 2023 11:00 AM UTC  On Mar. 27, 1958, Walter Reuther (left), president of the UAW, goes into a huddle with Senate Rackets Committee Counsel Robert F. Kennedy (center) and Jack Conway, assistant to the UAW Chief, before Reuther testified in the Senate Committee's probe of the 4-year-old strike by the UAW against the Kohler Company, a Sheboygan, Wisconsin plumbing fixture firm. Reuther opened his testimony by charging that the Kohler Company has refused to recognize the law during the bitter strike. On Mar. 27, 1958, Walter Reuther (left), president of the UAW, goes into a huddle with Senate Rackets Committee Counsel Robert F. Kennedy (center) and Jack Conway, assistant to the UAW Chief, before Reuther testified in the Senate Committee's probe of the 4-year-old strike by the UAW against the Kohler Company, a Sheboygan, Wisconsin plumbing fixture firm. Reuther opened his testimony by charging that the Kohler Company has refused to recognize the law during the bitter strike. Bettmann Archive  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 1, 2023 11:00 AM UTC The ongoing [writers and actors strike ](https://time.com/6296449/sag-aftra-strike-tv-shows-movies/)halting the television and movie business has already surpassed 100 days as [Labor Day](https://time.com/4922395/labor-day-holiday-history/) approaches. But so far, it’s still nowhere near as long as the longest strike in U.S. history. Labor historians say the longest strike the nation has ever seen was the Kohler strike, which lasted for 11 years from 1954 to 1965\. Kohler is one of the biggest manufacturers of plumbing fixtures in the U.S. The Sheboygan, Wis., area was essentially a company town with its own schools and recreation facilities and red brick houses with green lawns. The Mar. 17, 1958, issue of TIME reported that the company's president Herbert Kohler “considers himself a just and benevolent employer” and that “this monument to paternalism, incorporated as the Village of Kohler may rank as the world's most attractive company town.” ### More From TIME But workers wanted more than a nice neighborhood. They pushed for a contract with higher wages, protections for the most senior employees during layoffs, and union dues deducted from paychecks. “These are employees who are trying to get their union recognized and are looking for a contract,” says Elizabeth Shermer, professor of History at Loyola University Chicago. **Read More:** [_'They Are Doing Bad Things to Good People': Fran Drescher on Why SAG-AFTRA Is Striking_](https://time.com/6295968/fran-drescher-interview-sag-aftra-strike/) The strike officially began on April 5, 1954, and while workers were prepared for a fight, no one expected the strike to become a long and ugly battle that would last more than a decade. The United Auto Workers union (UAW) and its head Walter Reuther, considered one of the most charismatic union leaders of the era, helped the Kohler strikers stay afloat with a strike fund. For the first two years, the UAW gave strikers enough money for food, medical care, and $25 a week of “jingling money,” according to TIME, but as the strike dragged on, the funds were cut back. Some workers had to leave town and find new jobs elsewhere. After initially shutting down for the first two months of the strike, Kohler brought in nonunion workers to replace those that had left. The UAW also organized a nationwide boycott of Kohler products among plumbers, contractors, and municipal officers, from Boston to Los Angeles. The battle between management and workers spilled out into the streets and became increasingly acrimonious. Gas masks were a common sight at pickets, according to TIME, and in one confrontation, 300 people were arrested. The strike tore Sheboygan apart. There were families where strikers ostracized a close relative who crossed the picket line. As a Mar. 17, 1958, issue of TIME magazine described the bitterness of the strike four years in, with 2,800 of 3,300 workers striking: --- > “For its size (pop. 45,000), the Wisconsin city of She-boygan—'the greatest little town in the world’—may well be the most hate-ridden community in the U.S. Passing on the street, men who used to be coworkers, neighbors and friends now glare at each other in deep-frozen enmity. At night, normally law-abiding citizens vent their gnawing hatred against their enemies in acts of vandalism: slashing automobile tires, scattering nails in driveways, hurling glass jars filled with paint through house windows. Sheboygan's hate reaches even to the children: an everyday sight is a tight-lipped child followed by other children shrilly jeering, 'Your father's a dirty scab!’” time magazine --- While the Kohler strike's length gives it a unique place in U.S. history, it fit into a larger pattern of labor movements at the time. Strikes were common in the 1950s. “This was the height of postwar union strength,” says Joseph A. McCartin, professor of History at Georgetown. “Almost 35% of non-agricultural workers in the country at that time were represented by unions.” By comparison, 10% of wage and salary workers were members of unions in 2022—[the lowest rate on record](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.htm)—and the rate for private sector workers was 6 percent. Nelson Lichtenstein, a historian at UC Santa Barbara, argues that while there’s been a “Renaissance of union sentiment” in recent years—from efforts to [unionize Starbucks](https://time.com/6148475/starbucks-union-organizers-gen-z/) and [Amazon](https://time.com/6169185/chris-smalls-amazon-labor-union/) to the [Hollywood strike](https://time.com/6294212/sag-aftra-actors-strike/)— it’s “minuscule compared to what was happening in the 50s.” Lichtenstein says, “Many, on the one hand, think of the 50s as a period of social harmony. We think of _Leave It to Beaver—_but in fact, there were strikes and strikes and strikes and strikes.” The Kohler strike came to an end in the early 1960s, when the National Labor Relations Board found Kohler guilty of unfair labor practices. The strike technically ended in 1962, but the labor dispute didn’t fully resolve until 1965, when new Kohler management came in and paid wages that the strikers had been demanding and put more money in their pension funds. TIME reported at the time that the boycott was only “partially successful,” despite the UAW pouring $12 million into the effort, and essentially declared victory for Kohler management: “Despite the most extensive boycott campaign ever mounted by organized labor, the effect of the long dispute on the company was hardly shattering; Kohler today is still a leader in the industry.” Some of the anti-union tactics in today's Hollywood strike can be traced back to the Kohler era. Lichtenstein explains that in the late 1940s and early 1950s, companies like Kohler would publicize their offer to strikers to increase pressure on them to accept. In a modern-day parallel, he argues, the Hollywood studios publicized their offer to striking writers on Aug. 22. As McCartin explains the legacy of the Kohler strike: “What makes the Kohler strike interesting to consider today is it points out how some of the same resistance continues among leaders of some of America's biggest and most successful businesses.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6308684/longest-strike-us-history-kohler/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6308684/longest-strike-us-history-kohler/"},"headline":"The Longest Strike in U.S. History","datePublished":"2023-09-01T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:50:57.833Z","description":"The Kohler strike lasted for 11 years from 1954 to 1965, and has a legacy still being felt today.","url":"https://time.com/6308684/longest-strike-us-history-kohler/","keywords":["Holidays","Explainer","uspoliticspolicy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfcea3cf19ed8add/698a3fc709208f5be541aa51/kohler-strike-negotiations-bobby-kennedy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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