Today in Labor History

If you needed more reasons to hate United

Thanks to an army of thousands of Chinese and Irish immigrants who laid 2,000 miles of track, the nation’s first transcontinental railway line was finished by the joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines at Promontory Point, Utah. – 1869

Pullman fired 3 workers for being on the grievance committee, leading to a strike that shut down the company a day later. – 1894

U.S. and Canadian workers formed the Western Labor Union. It favored industrial organization and independent labor party politics. – 1898

200 labor leaders were arrested in Chicago for complicity in the murder of two policemen and the bombing of factories – 1922

UMW struck at selected U.S. mines. – 1993

A federal bankruptcy judge permitted United Airlines to legally abandon responsibility for pensions covering 120,000 employees. – 2005

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