March 14
Henry Ford announced the new continuous
motion method to assemble cars. The process decreased the time to make a
car from 12 and a half hours to 93 minutes. Goodbye, craftsmanship.
Hello, drudgery - 1914
Twenty-seven migrant workers are killed,
15 injured when the truck in which they are being transported collides
with a train outside McAllen, Texas - 1940
The movie
Salt of the Earth
opens. The classic film centers on a long and difficult strike led by
Mexican-American and Anglo zinc miners in New Mexico. Real miners
perform in the film, in which the miners’ wives—as they did in real
life—take to the picket lines after the strikers are enjoined - 1954
(Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films About Labor is
an encyclopedic guide to 350 labor films from around the world, ranging
from those you’ve heard of—Salt of the Earth, The Grapes of Wrath,
Roger & Me—to those you’ve never heard of but will fall in love with
once you see them.)
Working Class Heroes
"On
this date in 1940, An oncoming train collided with a truck carrying
more than 40 Migrant agricultural workers, killing 34 of the workers,
who ranged in age from ten to 48. The neighboring citrus packing plant
served as headquarters for rescue operations. The tragedy, resulting in
the most fatalities on a Texas highway in the 20th century. caused a
renewed attention to safety issues surrounding railroad crossings and
the transportation of agricultural workers. But similar tragedies also
occurred during the Braceros Program over the next 25 tears and still
occur today." ...via Historic Workplace and Environmental Health and
Safety Issues -Mel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiMjKmuva0I
This clip is from the 1959 film, Why Braceros?, produced to justify the
braceros program to the general public. The program was initially
prompted by a demand for manual labor during World War II, and began
with the U.S. government bringing in a few hundred experienced Mexican
agricultural laborers to harvest sugar beets in the Stockton, California
area. The program soon spread to cover most of the United States and
provided workers for the agriculture labor market. The agricultural
program, under various forms, survived until 1964, when the two
governments ended it as a response to harsh criticisms and reports of
human rights abuses. Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous
industries. Farmer workers are at very high risk for fatal and nonfatal
injuries. For more information on farm work, farmwork hazards and their
controls, link to:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/aginj... and
http://www.ncfh.org/aaf_03.ph
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