25 unions found the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in Columbus, Ohio; Cigarmaker’s union leader Samuel Gompers is elected president. The AFL’s founding document’s preamble reads: “A struggle is going on in all of the civilized world between oppressors and oppressed of all countries, between capitalist and laborer...” - 1886
(Unions for Beginners: It is a time when unions have returned to the front pages of newspapers and blogs and demonstrators are in the streets of America every day. It is a time when the right wing has tried to strike the final blow against what remains of the right to collective bargaining. It is a time when millions of members of the middle class are falling through the cracks in a downward economic trend that parallels the decline of unions. It is this time when people are turning again to the history of unions. Unions for Beginners provides an introduction to that essential history.)
114-day newspaper strike begins, New York City - 1962
President Bill Clinton signs The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - 1993
Nearly 230 jailed teachers -- about one-fourth of the 1,000-member Middletown Township, N.J. staff -- are ordered freed after they and their colleagues agree to end a nine-day strike and go into mediation with the local school board - 2001
Faced with a national unemployment rate of 10 percent, President Barack Obama outlines new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals, saying the country must continue to "spend our way out of this recession" until more Americans are back at work. Joblessness had soared 6 percent in the final two years of George W. Bush’s presidency - 2009
#LaborHistory: Dec 8, 1886 -via- 'Rip and Ron'
"It was Gompers practical guidance that kept the AFL productive. Keeping with his principles of striving for goals with tangible and realistic ends the AFL supported numerous basic priori
"It was Gompers practical guidance that kept the AFL productive. Keeping with his principles of striving for goals with tangible and realistic ends the AFL supported numerous basic priori
ties;
including the eight hour work day and an end to child labor. The AFL was
designed to certain autonomy to each respective Union so as to keep
peaceful relations. Primarily the National Council of the AFL serves to
lobby for or against legislation affecting the labor community as well
as promoting the creation of new unions and recognizing them as members
of AFL when they became large enough." - from http://logannelson.tripod.com/afl.htm
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