Today in Labor History

October 25  --  SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.

25,000 silk dye workers strike in Paterson, NJ - 1934

In what becomes known as the Great Hawaiian Dock Strike, a six-month struggle to win wage parity with mainland dock workers, ends in victory - 1949

The Tribune Co. begins a brutal five-month-long lockout at the New York Daily News, part of an effort to bust the newspaper’s unions - 1990

John Sweeney, president of the Service Employees Intl. Union, elected president of AFL-CIO - 1995







October 24

The 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act, signed by Pres. Roosevelt two years earlier - 1940

U.S. minimum wage increases to 40 cents an hour - 1945
[The Steward’s Pocket Reference & Diary is a handy pocket-sized reference booklet packed with
vital information and tools important to every steward. Included are quick references for Weingarten Rights, Duty of Fair Representation and more. PLUS a year’s worth of handy steward tips, important dates in labor history and lots more. In the UCS bookstore now!]

Working Class Heroes

Today in #LaborHistory: Oct 25 -via- unionist.com

In what becomes known as the Great Hawaiian Dock Strike, a six-month struggle to win wage parity with mainland dock workers, ends in victory - 1949

"The story of the 1949 dock strike will be anchored by the faces and voices of the rank and file longshoremen who were the heroes of 1949. The reality of the times will be captured through the stories of the people who made this history." - from http://homepages.uhwo.hawaii.edu/clear/1949.html
...

"Longshoremen in Hawaii did the same work on the same cargoes on the same ships for the same companies, and belonged to the same union as longshoremen in West Coast ports. Yet under the Big Five's "colonial wage theory," they had always been paid substantially lower wages and worked under inferior conditions." - from http://www.ilwu19.com/history/the_ilwu_story/organization_in_hawaii.htm

"Violence erupted on several occasions, including one event in July 1949 when hundreds of picketers stormed the non-union hiring hall of the Hawaii Stevedores." - from http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/specials/dockstrikes.html