Today in labor history for the week of April 2, 2012
April 02
The American Federation of Labor charters the Union Label Department. 1909
The Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a 1918 Washington, D.C. law establishing a minimum wage for women - 1923
[The Labor Law Sourcebook: Texts of 20 Federal Labor Laws: Handy collection puts the full texts of all the major U.S. labor laws into one book. Includes the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and 15 more. In the UCS bookstore now.]
Major league baseball players end a 232-day strike, which began the prior August 12 and led to the cancellation of the 1994 postseason and the World Series - 1995
April 03
20,000 textile mill strikers in Paterson, NJ gather on the green in front of the house of Pietro Botto, the socialist mayor of nearby Haledon, to receive encouragement by novelist Upton Sinclair, journalist John Reed and speakers from the Wobblies. Today, the Botto House is home to the American Labor Museum - 1913
UAW Local 833 strikes the Kohler bathroom fixtures company in Kohler, Wisc. The strike ends six years later after Kohler is found guilty of refusing to bargain, agrees to reinstate 1,400 strikers and pay them $4.5 million in back pay and pension credits - 1954
Martin Luther King Jr. returns to Memphis to stand with striking AFSCME sanitation workers. This evening, he delivers his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech in a church packed with union members and others. He is assassinated the following day - 1968
April 04
The first issue of The Labor Review, a "weekly magazine for organized workers," was published in Minneapolis. Edna George, a cigar packer in Minneapolis, won $10 in gold for suggesting the name “Labor Review.” The Labor Review has been published continuously since then, currently as a monthly newspaper - 1907
Unemployed riot in New York City’s Union Square - 1914
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, where he has been supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of this tragedy, riots break out in many cities, including Washington, DC - 1968
[All Labor Has Dignity: People forget that Dr. King was every bit as committed to economic justice as he was to ending racial segregation. He fought throughout his life to connect the labor and civil rights movements, envisioning them as twin pillars for social reform. As we struggle with massive unemployment, a staggering racial wealth gap, and the near collapse of a financial system that puts profits before people, this collection of King's speeches on labor rights and economic justice underscore his relevance for today. They help us imagine King anew: as a human rights leader whose commitment to unions and an end to poverty was a crucial part of his civil rights agenda. Unprecedented and timely, All Labor Has Dignity will more fully restore our understanding of King's lasting vision of economic justice, bringing his demand for equality right into the present. In the UCS bookstore now.]
Some 1,700 United Mine Workers members in Virginia and West Virginia beat back concessions demanded by Pittston Coal Co. - 1989
April 05
Columnist Victor Riesel, a crusader against mob infiltration of unions, was blinded in New York City when a hired assailant threw sulfuric acid in his face - 1956
14,000 teachers strike Hawaii schools, colleges - 2001
A huge underground explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W. Va. kills 29 miners. It was the worst U.S. mine disaster in 40 years. The Massey Energy Co. mine had been cited for 2 safety infractions the day before the blast; 57 the month before, and 1,342 in the previous five years - 2010
April 06
The first slave revolt in the U.S. occurs at a slave market in New York City’s Wall Street area. Twenty-one blacks were executed for killing nine whites. The city responded by strengthening its slave codes - 1712
Birth of Rose Schneiderman, prominent member of the New York Women's Trade Union League, an active participant in the Uprising of the 20,000, the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York City led by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1909, and famous for an angry speech about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire: “Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers…Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement” - 1882
[Triangle: The Fire that Changed America: This excellent book vividly recounts the tragic fire but also tells us of life in the city during the early 1900s and brings us into the stories of the young women who lost their lives in the blaze. The author tells of their struggles against oppressive, inhumane conditions and poverty-level wages -- work lives not that different from many of today’s immigrant workers. In the UCS bookstore now.]
A sympathy strike by Chicago Teamsters in support of clothing workers leads to daily clashes between strikebreakers and armed police against hundreds and sometimes thousands of striking workers and their supporters. By the time the fight ended after 103 days, 21 people had been killed and 416 injured - 1905
What was to become a two-month strike by minor league umpires begins, largely over money: $5,500 to $15,000 for a season running 142 games. The strike ended with a slight improvement in pay - 2006
April 07
National Labor Relations Board attorney tells ILWU members to “lie down like good dogs,” Juneau, Alaska - 1947
Some 300,000 members of the National Federation of Telephone Workers, soon to become CWA, strike AT&T and the Bell System. Within five weeks all but two of the 39 federation unions had won new contracts - 1947
15,000 union janitors strike, Los Angeles - 2000
April 08
128 convict miners, leased to a coal company under the state’s shameful convict lease system, are killed in an explosion at the Banner coal mine outside Birmingham, Ala. The miners were mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses - 1911
President Wilson establishes the War Labor Board, composed of representatives from business and labor, to arbitrate disputes between workers and employers during World War I - 1918
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) is approved by Congress. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the WPA during the Great Depression of the 1930s when almost 25 percent of Americans were unemployed. It created low-paying federal jobs providing immediate relief, putting 8.5 million jobless to work on projects ranging from construction of bridges, highways and public buildings to arts programs like the Federal Writers' Project - 1935
President Harry S Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize the nation’s steel mills to avert a strike. The Supreme Court ruled the act illegal three weeks later - 1952