The relatively conservative officials of the San Francisco Labor Council confronted a dilemma. Opposed to a general strike, they knew they would have to put the question to a vote of all the member unions of the council.

There had only been a handful of general strikes in U.S. history, the last in Seattle in 1919. A general strike occurs when all workers in a city or region simultaneously stop work. Usually this is done to protest a government or employer action or policy felt to be against the common interest of workers. An extraordinary event, it takes a rare combination of circumstances to bring it about: a high degree of cooperation in a labor movement, widespread anger among working people, union leaders willing to stick their necks out and call for it to happen, and a spark or symbolic incident that crystallizes people’s willingness to act. All of these elements were in place in San Francisco in July 1934.

Council president Ed Vandeleur warned union representatives that a general strike was against AFL rules and unions’ charters could be revoked if they voted to join one. At a mass meeting on July 14, five representatives from each union in the council heard Mike Casey, militant hero of the 1901 waterfront strike, argue against a general strike, despite his own Teamster local’s previous vote to support it. But the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of a general strike, to begin the following Monday. Most of the council officers finally voted for the resolution, because they understood if they opposed it they would simply be ignored by their own members. They then appointed themselves to head the General Strike Committee.

In fact, the San Francisco General Strike was already getting underway. Several unions, including the Teamsters, had stopped work. Store shelves had been stripped by anxious consumers. Gas stations were closed and streetcars had mostly ceased running. By the official deadline of Monday, July 16, few workers remained on the job. Workshops and factories were quiet. Large picket lines on highways outside the city turned deliveries away. Just nineteen restaurants in the downtown area and medical facilities throughout the city were allowed to stay open. The city was shut down.