Subsequently, a large number of Hungarians were employed by the company in its early days. In 1944, in an effort to maintain good relations with its Hungarian employees, Bryant transferred a strip of land to the Hungarian Reformed Church to be used for construction of a basketball court, gymnasium and auditorium. Workers at the Bryant plant were involved in a number of notable strikes over the years, including a 1915 strike when a number of Bridgeport companies were closed down amid demands for union representation and an eight-hour day and a 1955 United Electrical Workers strike over working conditions and pay. 1915 strike While thousands took part in the Bridgeport strikes of 1915, few were actually union members and many were women who had been denied membership in craft unions. The Bryant Electric strike was started by five hundred women assemblers and a handful of men who walked off the job on August 20, marched downtown for a mass meeting at Eagle's Hall and elected a strike committee with equal representation for women. The company responded by shutting the plant and charging the strikers with "rioting." The remaining two thirds of the plant joined the strikers and after two weeks the company acceded to the workers' demands for an eight-hour day, overtime pay and union representation. Deindustrialization and plant closing As part of a larger process of regional deindustrialization, Westinghouse shut down the Bryant Electric plant in 1988 after transferring most of the work to non-union plants in North Carolina, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The closing exacerbated the neighborhood's already bleak economic situation. Westinghouse sold its remaining interests in Bryant Electric to Hubbell Incorporated in 1991. Bryant's 20-building, site in Bridgeport's West End was torn down in 1996 to make way for a new industrial park. See also History of Bridgeport, Connecticut References External links Bridgeport Working: Voices from the 20th Century - Bridgeport Public Library Keep Bryant In Bridgeport Photograph (1986) Westinghouse Electric Company Electrical engineering companies of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in Connecticut Companies based in Bridgeport, Connecticut Electronics companies established in 1888 1888 establishments in Connecticut History of labor relations in the United States Labor disputes in the United States Historic American Engineering Record in Connecticut 1991 mergers and acquisitions Electrical equipment manufacturers