On February 4th, 1946 tugboat workers staged a strike at the nation's largest port. 3,500 workers manning 450 tugboats pulled their barges in on that early morning in the middle of winter.

Tugboat workers on average spend half their life away from home. They demanded pay increase, two weeks paid vacation, a reduction in work week from 48 to 40 hours, and transportation back to home port once relieved. Unlike the typical worker, tugboat workers would be "on watch" for weeks at a time.

These little ships were at the time responsible for ferrying 65% of the city's coal supply and 95% of its fuel oil. Less than a week into the strike, newly elected Mayor O'Dwyer called a state of emergency. He called for all non-essential public buildings to close, eventually closing schools to conserve the energy used to heat the classrooms.

Subways were left unheated. Advertisers lights were shut off. Midtown was blanketed in darkness, with police officers stationed to turn tourists away. Apartments thermostats were limited to a maximum of 60 degrees. The strike was called "the most drastic disruption of the city's life since the Civil War draft riots" by the New York Times.

City-goers found themselves without anywhere to go as the clock turned midnight on February 12th. Mayor O'Dwyer ordered all "motion picture houses, theaters, night clubs...all places of assembly and other amusement, libraries and museums, all schools and other educational institutions, all commercial, business and industrial establishments... to cease operating and close effective 11:50 p.m. on February 11, 1946."

If the strike continued, the paralysis which blanketed the metropolis would turn more drastic. Tugboats were not only responsible with providing the city with fuel for electricity, they also carried barges piled with garbage out of New York City.

Mayor O'Dwyer was able to negotiate a deal two days after the brown-out. A three-person arbitration panel would decide the outcome of the contract negotiations. Coal miners were back at work by eight in the morning on February 14, 1946. The New York City tugboat strike of 1946 was part of the wave of "Strike Wave" which occurred in the 18-months following the end of World War II. The strikes prompted the Republican Congress to pass the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act in 1947.