Friday, March 15, 2013

Today in Labor History

March 15  --  SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.

Official formation of the Painters Int’l Union - 1887

Supreme Court approves 8-Hour Act under threat of a national railway strike - 1917

Bituminous coal miners begin nationwide strike, demanding adoption of a pension plan - 1948
2013.03.11history-robert-georgine2

The Wall Street Journal begins a series alleging insider stock deals at the union-owned Union Labor Life Insurance Co. (ULLICO). After three years a settlement was reached with Robert Georgine, a building trades leader serving as ULLICO president and CEO, requiring him to repay about $2.6 million in profits from the sale of ULLICO stock, forfeit $10 million in compensation and make other payments worth about $4.4 million. All but two of the company’s directors were said to have profited from the deals - 2002


Today in history: March 15, 1810 - Radical African American abolitionist David Ruggles born. Ruggles was an anti-slavery activist who was active in the New York Committee of Vigilance and the Underground Railroad. Unlike some in the abolitionist movement that only relied on moral persuasion, Ruggles argued that fugitive slaves and free Black people beset by kidnappers had a right to defend themselves. He claimed to have led over six hundred people, including friend and fellow abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to freedom in the North. He opened the first African-American bookstore in the United States and published many abolitionist articles and pamphlets, also contributing to abolitionist newspapers such as The Emancipator and The Liberator. His activism earned him many enemies - Ruggles was physically assaulted and his business was destroyed through arson. There were two known attempts to kidnap him and sell him into slavery in the South. Ruggles was especially active against kidnappers - bounty hunters who made a living by capturing escaped slaves. 
 
See interview with author of a recently-published book on Ruggles: 

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