The very first labor strike in American history occurred right back at the very founding of what is now the United States. In 1619, the burgeoning colony of Virginia held its first elections, but despite having been living and working in Jamestown for over a decade, a vast number of Dutch and Polish craftsmen were not permitted to vote. The reason given was that they were not of English descent. In response, the craftsmen, who produced tar, pitch, turpentine, and other similar products that were needed in building ships, went on strike. The craftsmen’s work was considered so important, and there were so few other people in Jamestown who could carry out the work in their place, that the Virginia Company leaders were compelled to change their minds and awarded the continental workers full voting rights.
America’s first strike, then, occurred more than four centuries ago. The very first strike in recorded history, however, took place more than three millennia ago.
Sometime around 1157 BCE, the pharaoh Ramses III was overseeing the construction of some of the tombs, catacombs, and pyramids that form what is known today as the Valley of the Kings. Slaves and stonemasons were used to construct these enormous structures, but their decoration was left to teams of professional and highly-skilled craftsmen and artisans, whom the pharaoh called in to work on the tombs in secret. These artisans were responsible for the elaborately painted interiors still visible in many of the tombs to this day, with frescos and murals covering all the walls from floor to ceiling.
But at one of these locations, a village named Deir el Medina, near Thebes on the west bank of the river Nile, the workers under Pharaoh Ramses’ employ began to become restless. A papyrus scroll dating from the time records that after 18 days of near-constant working, the workers at the Royal Necropolis in Deir el Medina had still not received any food rations. They were essentially being left to feed and fend for themselves, all while working nonstop on the Pharaoh’s tombs. Eventually, the situation became so dire—and the workforce became so famished, that the builders and craftsmen at Deir el Medina decided to stage a sit-down strike.
On day ten of the “second month of winter” in the 29th year of Ramses’ reign, the papyrus explains, the workers walked into the mortuary that they were currently working on at Deir el Medina. There, they set down their tools and ceased working, in protest over the dire conditions the Pharaoh was expecting them to work under. “The prospect of hunger and thirst has driven us to this,” they are recorded as saying. “There is no clothing, there is no ointment, there is no fish, there are no vegetables.”
“We are hungry,” the workers’ protest continued, “and 18 days have already elapsed in this month” without any rations being forthcoming. “We have matters with the pharaoh.”
After several days, a local statesman, equivalent to a chief of police, was called in to speak with the strikers and on hearing their plight agreed that the situation was untenable. Together, they marched on the pharaoh’s palace, with their wives and children in tow, and brought their protest right to the Pharaoh’s court in Thebes.
In an attempt to see off the uprising, the workers were initially offered half a sack of barley each, and platters of rich pastries were handed out among the crowd. These arrangements quelled the protest for a day or two, but with still no resolution in sight, the strike continued the following morning.
How the strike was eventually resolved has sadly not been recorded in the original documents, as the attention of the Pharaoh and his court eventually turned to organizing lavish celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of Ramses III’s ascent to power. We can presume, however, that an agreement was eventually struck with the striking workers, as proved by the decoration of the tombs of Deir el Medina.