Today in Labor History

April 16 - Union Communications Services, Inc.

Employers lock out 25,000 New York City garment workers in a dispute over hiring practices. The Int’l Ladies’ Garment Workers Union calls a general strike; after 14 weeks, 60,000 strikers win union recognition and the contractual right to strike - 1916

Five hundred workers in Texas City, Texas die in a series of huge oil refinery and chemical plant explosions and fires - 1947

An estimated 20,000 global justice activists blockade Washington, D.C., meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund - 2000

 April 15

A. Philip Randolph, civil rights leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, born in Crescent City, Fla. - 1889

(A Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait is a fascinating biography of a great American hero. A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979) was not only the most famous African American labor leader of his time, he was also a key figure in the civil rights movement.  At 75, Randolph instigated and directed the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The civil rights legislation that followed is perhaps his greatest legacy.)
 
IWW union Agricultural Workers Organization formed in Kansas City, Mo. - 1915

Teacher unionists gather at the City Club on Plymouth Court in Chicago to form a new national union: the American Federation of Teachers - 1916

Start of ultimately successful six-day strike across New England by what has been described as the first women-led American union, the Telephone Operators Department of IBEW - 1919
Transport Workers Union founded - 1934


The first McDonald’s restaurant opens, in Des Plaines, Ill., setting the stage years later for sociologist Amitai Etzioni to coin the term "McJob." As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, a McJob is "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector" - 1955

(The Lexicon of Labor is an invaluable resource for all unionists, from rank-and-file activists to newsletter and website editors to union leaders. It offers readable, informative descriptions of more than 500 key terms, places, people and events in American labor history, from explaining who the Wobblies and Knights of Labor were to reporting on the 1997 Teamster strike at UPS. Revised and updated edition.)