Friday, November 08, 2013

Today in Labor History

20,000 workers, black and white, stage general strike in New Orleans, demanding union recognition and hour and wage gains - 1892
President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces plans for the Civil Works Administration to create four million additional jobs for the2013.11.04history-fdr Depression-era unemployed. The workers ultimately laid 12 million feet of sewer pipe and built or made substantial improvements to 255,000 miles of roads, 40,000 schools, 3,700 playgrounds, and nearly 1,000 airports (not to mention 250,000 outhouses still badly needed in rural America) - 1933
In one of the U.S. auto industry’s more embarrassing missteps over the last half-century, the Ford Motor Co. decides to name its new model the Edsel, after Henry Ford’s only son. Ford executives rejected 18,000 other potential names - 1956

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