President
Martin Van Buren issues a broadly-applicable executive order granting
the 10-hour day to all government employees engaged in manual labor -
1840
(Every Employee’s Guide to the Law, 3rd Edition goes
into solid, useful detail about the federal and state laws that,
together with union contracts, are designed to assure fairness and
justice in the workplace. The book discusses issues that have become a
larger part of the national consciousness over the past decade,
including privacy and e-mail, sexual harassment, age discrimination and
the confidentiality of medical records.)
Cowboys earning $40 per month begin what
is to become an unsuccessful two-and-a-half-month strike for higher
wages at five ranches in the Texas Panhandle - 1883
Cesar Chavez born in Yuma, Ariz.- 1927
Construction begins on the three-mile
Hawk’s Nest Tunnel through Gauley Mountain, W. Va., as part of a
hydroelectric project. A congressional hearing years later was to report
that 476 laborers in the mostly black, migrant workforce of 3,000 were
exposed to silica rock dust in the course of their 10-hour-a-day,
six-days-a-week shifts and died of silicosis. Some researchers say that
more than 1,000 died - 1930
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs
legislation establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps to help
alleviate suffering during the Depression. By the time the program ended
after the start of World War II it had provided jobs for more than six
million men and boys. The average enrollee gained 11 pounds in his first
three months - 1933
Wisconsin
state troopers fail to get scabs across the picket line to break a
76-day Allis-Chalmers strike in Milwaukee led by UAW Local 248. The
plant remained closed until the government negotiated a compromise -
1941
Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, later to become a Supreme
Court justice, issues an injunction against baseball team owners to end a
232-day work stoppage - 1995
March 30
Chicago stockyard workers win 8-hour day - 1918
At the height of the Great Depression,
35,000 unemployed march in New York’s Union Square. Police beat many
demonstrators, injuring 100 - 1930
The federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act is enacted - 1970
Harry Bridges, Australian-born dock
union leader, dies at age 88. He helped form and lead the Int’l
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) for 40 years. A Bridges quote: “The
most important word in the language of the working class is
‘solidarity’” - 1990
Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild announce
that the membership has voted to merge with the American Federation of
Television and Radio Artists, creating the 150,000-member SAG-AFTRA -
2012
March 29Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day - 1852
Sam Walton, founder of the huge and
bitterly anti-union Wal-Mart empire, born in Kingfisher, Okla. He once
said that his priority was to “Buy American,” but Wal-Mart is now the
largest U.S. importer of foreign-made goods—often produced under
sweatshop conditions - 1918
“Battle of Wall Street,” police charge
members of the United Financial Employees’ Union, striking against the
New York Stock Exchange and New York Curb Exchange (now known as the
American Stock Exchange). Forty-three workers are arrested in what was
to be the first and only strike in the history of either exchange - 1948
National Maritime Union of America merges with National Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association - 1988
March 27 - 
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