May 25
Pressured by employers, striking shoemakers in Philadelphia are arrested
and charged with criminal conspiracy for violating an English common
law that bars schemes aimed at forcing wage increases. The strike was
broken - 1805
Philip Murray is born in Scotland. He went on to emigrate to the
U.S., become founder and first president of the United Steelworkers of
America, and head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from
1940 until his death in 1952 - 1886
Two company houses occupied by non-union coal miners were blown up
and destroyed during a strike against the Glendale Gas & Coal Co. in
Wheeling, W. Va. - 1925
Thousands of unemployed WWI veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. to
demand a bonus they had been promised but never received. They built a
shantytown near the U.S. Capitol but were burned out by U.S. troops
after two months - 1932
The notorious 11-month Remington Rand strike begins. The strike
spawned the "Mohawk Valley (NY) formula," described by investigators as a
corporate plan to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the
threat of violence, employ thugs to beat up strikers, and other
tactics. The National Labor Relations Board termed the formula "a battle
plan for industrial war." - 1936
The
AFL-CIO begins what is to become an unsuccessful campaign for a 35-hour
workweek, with the goal of reducing unemployment. Earlier tries by
organized labor for 32- or 35-hour weeks also failed - 1962
[Greed and Good:
America’s unions have always bargained over the wages, hours, and
working conditions of workers. Should unions now also be paying equally
serious attention to the "wages" executives take home? Veteran labor
journalist Sam Pizzigati thinks so. A generation ago, Greed and Good
notes, top executives averaged 40 times the pay of their workers.
Today’s top execs routinely grab over 300 times what their average
workers earn. That’s one key reason why America’s richest 1 percent now
holds more wealth -- over trillion more -- than America’s entire bottom
90 percent combined. This incredible concentration of wealth at the top,
this book’s vivid pages help us understand, is squeezing satisfaction
from our jobs, pleasure from our pastimes, even years from our lives. In
The UCS bookstore now.]
SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.
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