Today in Labor History

February 02  --  SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.

Three hundred newsboys organized to protest a cut in pay by the Minneapolis Tribune - 1917

Legal secretary Iris Rivera fired for refusing to make coffee; secretaries across Chicago protest - 1977

The 170-day lockout (although management called it a strike) of 22,000 steelworkers by USX Corp. ends with a pay cut but greater job security. It was the longest work stoppage in the history of the U.S. steel industry - 1987

Working Class Heroes 

BENWOOD - Employees of the AZZ Galvanizing plant in Benwood met armed security guards as they arrived for work Thursday, Police Chief Frank Longwell said, noting the guards notified workers their employment had been terminated.

The 22 laid-off workers were given 30 minutes to collect their things and leave. City officials expect the plant to close.
~De
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/580783/Layoff-Count-At-22.html?nav=515

 

 

 

The 170-day lockout (although management called it a strike) of 22,000 steelworkers by USX Corp. ends with a pay cut but greater job security. It was the longest work stoppage in the history of the U.S. steel industry - 1987 ~De

As the July 31 expiration date approached, the USWA offered to continue working under the terms of the 1983-86 Basic Steel Agreement until a new contract could be reached. USX refused the offer, with company negotiator J. Bruce Johnston (quoted in the Daily Labor Report, 1 August 1986) noting that costly plant shutdowns had nearly been completed and that the union was simply trying "to convert the coming strike...into a legal fiction of lockout." 

 

With no further negotiations taking place, a work stoppage began shortly after midnight on 1 August 1986 that involved twenty-five USX steel plants in seven different states and approximately 22,000 USWA members. The company proclaimed the stoppage a strike. The union declared it a lockout (Daily Labor Report, 4 August 1986).

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04272000-10360018/unrestricted/CHP6.pdf