The Bay View Massacre.

By May 3, 1886 every factory in Milwaukee, save one, had been shut down. The North Chicago Rolling Mills Steel Foundry, where Joseph and his brothers worked, was still in operation. Strikers attempted to enter the facility on the 5th. When they failed to heed warnings to stop (by some accounts because they did not hear the order to halt), they were fired upon by Guard members. At least seven men died, including a boy and a retiree who had no role in the strike. The Bay View Massacre occurred on the heels of the Haymarket violence in Chicago. Although the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded that year, the movement for an 8 hour work day was effectively squelched.