Text from article: Minneapolis was home to a landmark general strike nearly 100 years ago that was organized by truck drivers with the Teamsters Local 574. Minneapolis then was a non-union town thanks to a business advocacy group called the Citizens Alliance. Many companies had refused to recognize Teamsters Local 574, despite the union’s 5,000 members. On May 16, 1934, workers began a strike, demanding recognition of the union, wage increases and fewer hours. The union organized warehouses, coal yards and drivers. The strike caused Minneapolis’ industrial area — now the North Loop neighborhood — to shut down. Trucks couldn’t go in or out, and tensions grew. On July 20, 1934, police shot 67 picketing workers — most of them were shot in the back — and two were killed. One hundred thousand people attended the funeral procession for one of the strikers. The governor dispatched the National Guard, and the Citizens Alliance eventually agreed to the union’s demands, making the general strike a success. Today, general strikes are rare in the U.S. largely because they are difficult to coordinate. But lawmakers and the courts for decades have also restricted the power of unions. The two largest general strikes in U.S. history are the Seattle General Strike of 1919, where the city of 315,000 people stopped working, and the Oakland General Strike of 1946, where nearly 130,000 workers refused to work and shut down commerce throughout the area.