Thursday, January 03, 2013

Today in Labor History



2012.12.31-history-tom-mooneyJanuary 03  -- 
SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.

The ship Thetis arrives in Hawaii with 175 Chinese field workers bound to serve for five years at $3 per month - 1852

Wobbly Tom Mooney tried in San Francisco for Preparedness Day bombing - 1917

In a familiar scene during the Great Depression, some 500 farmers, black and white, their crops ruined by a long drought, march into downtown England, Ark., to demand food for their starving families, warning they would take it by force if necessary. Town fathers frantically contacted the Red Cross; each family went home with two weeks’ rations - 1931

The Supreme Court rules against the closed shop, a labor-management agreement that only union members can be hired and must remain members to continue on the job - 19492012.12.31-history-members

(The Union Member’s Complete Guide: Everything You Want—and Need—to Know About Working Union is an easy-to-read, thorough explanation of what unions are, how they work, and the rights and responsibilities of membership. Countless workers today became union members only because they took jobs in previously organized workplaces and have little understanding of how unions work. This book gives them that basic understanding and answers bedrock questions about such things as the structure of the labor movement, how contracts are negotiated, the grievance process, core labor laws, their union’s role in their community and a whole lot more.)

AFL-CIO American Institute for Free Labor Development employees Mike Hammer and Mark Pearlman are assassinated in El Salvador along with a Peasant Workers’ Union leader with whom they were working on a land reform program - 1981

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