High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Philadelphia transit strike of 1944 was a sickout strike by white transit workers in Philadelphia that lasted from August 1 to August 6, 1944. The strike was triggered by the decision of the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC), made under prolonged pressure from the federal government in view of significant labor shortages, to allow black employees of the PTC to hold non-menial jobs, such as motormen and conductors, that were previously reserved for white workers only. On August 1, 1944 the eight black employees being trained as streetcar motormen were to make their first trial run; that fact was used by the white PTC workers to start a massive sickout strike.