Baltimore police strike

Baltimore police strike
Baltimore police strike
	Two officers on strike carry signs with uniformed officers nearby
Date	July 11, 1974 – July 17, 1974
Location	Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Goals	Wage increases
Methods	Strikes, protests, demonstrations
Parties
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees	City of Baltimore
Lead figures
	George P. Hoyt; Thomas Rapanotti Marvin Mandel; Donald Pomerleau
Number
1,500 strikers
Casualties and losses
None	None

The Baltimore Police Strike was a 1974 labor action conducted by officers of the Baltimore Police Department. Striking officers sought better wages and changes to BPD policy. They also expressed solidarity with Baltimore municipal workers, who were in the midst of an escalating strike action that began on July 1. On July 7, police launched a campaign of intentional misbehavior and silliness; on July 11 they began a formal strike. The department reported an increase in fires and looting, and the understaffed BPD soon received support from Maryland State Police. The action ended on July 15, when union officials negotiated an end to both strikes. The city promised (and delivered) police officers a wage increase in 1975, but refused amnesty for the strikers. Police Commissioner Donald Pomerleau revoked the union's collective bargaining rights, fired its organizers, and pointedly harassed its members.

The Baltimore action was one of a handful police strikes in the United States since the Boston Police Strike of 1919,^[1] and was followed by a wave of police unrest in U.S. cities.^[2] The action was also test case for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which was rapidly growing in size and strength but had not had much success in unionizing police officers.

^ Cite error: The named reference Sun16Aug1974 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Ray, Gerda (Spring–Summer 1977). "Police Militancy". Crime and Social Justice (7): 40–48. JSTOR 29766004. The causes of the sudden upsurge of police militancy in the last two decades lie in the changing conditions of policing. In large measure, today's police are moved to collective action by the realization that the declining legitimacy of the state subjects them to the explicit hostility of large segments of the population. Police work has become harder. As the degree of race and class conflict intensifies, the police assume a more demanding role both in repressing strikes and demonstrations and in attempting to contain the escalating level of crime. They are attacked, on the one hand, by progressive groups demanding the curtailment of their coercive power and, on the other hand, by reactionary elements calling for law and order and increased police efficiency.

[Sun16Aug1974-1] Cite error: The named reference Sun16Aug1974 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Ray1977-2] Ray, Gerda (Spring–Summer 1977). "Police Militancy". Crime and Social Justice (7): 40–48. JSTOR 29766004. The causes of the sudden upsurge of police militancy in the last two decades lie in the changing conditions of policing. In large measure, today's police are moved to collective action by the realization that the declining legitimacy of the state subjects them to the explicit hostility of large segments of the population. Police work has become harder. As the degree of race and class conflict intensifies, the police assume a more demanding role both in repressing strikes and demonstrations and in attempting to contain the escalating level of crime. They are attacked, on the one hand, by progressive groups demanding the curtailment of their coercive power and, on the other hand, by reactionary elements calling for law and order and increased police efficiency.

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