Today in Union History

February 13  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

A national eight-month strike by the Sons of Vulcan, a union of iron forgers, ends in victory when employers agreed to a wage scale based on the price of iron bars—the first time employers recognized the union, the first union contract in the iron and steel industry, and what may be the first union contract of any kind in the United States - 1865

Some 12,000 Hollywood writers returned to work today following a largely successful three-month strike against television and motion picture studios. They won compensation for their TV and movie work that gets streamed on the Internet - 2008

(Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: This wonderful book is an encyclopedic guide to 350 labor films from around the world, ranging from those you’ve heard of—Salt of the Earth, The Grapes of Wrath, Roger & Me—to those you’ve never heard of but will fall in love with once you see them. The author describes all the films in detail, tells you whether they’re available for rental or purchase, and, if so, where. Fiction and nonfiction, the films are about unions, labor history, working-class life, political movements, and the struggle between labor and capital.)

February 12

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass born into slavery near Easton, Md. - 1818

John L. Lewis, president of United Mine Workers of America and founding president of the CIO, born near Lucas, Iowa - 1880