Today in Labor History

March 08  -- SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.

Thousands of New York needle trades workers demonstrate for higher wages, shorter workday, and end to child labor. The demonstration became the basis for International Women’s Day - 1908

Three explosions at a Utah Fuel Co. mine in Castle Gate, Utah, kill 171. Fifty of the fatalities were native-born Greeks, 25 were Italians, 32 English or Scots, 12 Welsh, four Japanese, and three Austrians (or South Slavs). The youngest victim was 15; the oldest, 73 - 1924

New York members of the Fur and Leather Workers Union, many of them women, strike for better pay and conditions. They persevere despite beatings by police, winning a 10-percent wage increase and five-day work week - 1926

The Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act took effect on this day. It limits the ability of federal judges to issue injunctions against workers and unions involved in labor disputes - 1932

César Chávez leads 5,000 striking farmworkers on a march through the streets of Salinas, Calif. - 1979

Teamsters

Today in Labor History, March 8, 1857 and 1908 (via unionist.com, Working Class Heroes and CWLU): Two all-women strikes in New York City, 51 years apart, inspired International Women's Day.

A holiday celebrated world wide, it honors working women and women’s struggle everywhere. It should be a real source of pride and inspiration to American women.

On March 8, 1857, garment workers in New York City marched and picketed, demanding improved working conditions, a 10-hour day, and equal rights for women. Their ranks were broken up by the police. Fifty-one years later, March 8, 1908, their sisters in the needle trades in New York marched again, honoring the 1857 march, demanding the vote, and an end to sweatshops and child labor.