Today in Labor History

Leonard Woodcock

The United States Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect. The Pendleton Act established that positions within the federal government should be awarded based on merit, not political affiliation. – 1883

Thousands of detainees, including foreign-born radicals and “labor agitators” arrested during the Palmer Raids, won their right to meet with legal representation at deportation hearings.CLICK TO TWEETU.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer conducted the raids, stating that communism was “eating its way into the homes of the American workman” and that socialists were causing most of the country’s social problems. – 1920

Former UAW President Leonard Woodcock died in Ann Arbor, Michigan at age 89. He had succeeded Walter Reuther and led the union from 1970 to 1977. – 2001

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