When furniture factory whistles blew on April 19, 1911, more than 6,000 cabinet workers, wood carvers, varnishers, upholsterers, and less skilled workers walked out of 59 Grand Rapids plants, beginning a four-month strike that divided the city and permanently changed it. Predominantly immigrants or the children of immigrants from the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, and other European countries, they felt pushed to strike after the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association repeatedly refused demands for higher pay, shorter hours, better working conditions, and an end to piece work. With financial assistance and encouragement from national unions of carpenters, painters, woodcarvers, and upholsterers, they stayed out despite an injunction limiting them to two pickets at each factory, strike pay of $5 per week, and strikebreakers imported by company owners, who believed economic need would force employees back. Despite intense feelings, the strike saw very little violence, as leaders urged restraint and Mayor George Ellis deputized workers to police their own ranks; there were no deaths, few arrests, and little physical damage beyond broken factory windows and a few cracked heads. The strike continued through the summer with little movement on either side, but by early August the national unions had nearly exhausted their funds and warned that strike pay would be sharply reduced, while Christian Reformed Church leaders forbade their members to belong to unions. Workers then began returning to their jobs, and on August 19 the remaining strikers voted to end the walkout. The strike took a toll on both workers and company owners, and after it ended most owners raised pay and reduced hours while workers set aside efforts to unionize the industry. Furniture company owners and their allies, recalling Mayor Ellis's support for the strikers, then helped secure a new city charter that weakened the mayor's power by creating a city manager form of government that remains in effect today.