Today in Labor History

April 09 Union Communications Services, Inc.

IWW organizes the 1,700-member crew of the Leviathan, then the world’s largest vessel - 1930

April 08

A total of 128 convict miners, leased to a coal company under the state’s shameful convict lease system, are killed in an explosion at the Banner coal mine outside Birmingham, Ala. The miners were mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses - 1911

President Wilson establishes the War Labor Board, composed of representatives from business and labor, to arbitrate disputes between workers and employers during World War I - 1918

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) is approved by Congress. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the WPA during the Great Depression of the 1930s when almost 25 percent of Americans were unemployed. It created low-paying federal jobs providing immediate relief, putting 8.5 million jobless to work on projects ranging from construction of bridges, highways and public buildings to arts programs like the Federal Writers' Project - 1935

(Kings in Disguise: A Graphic Novel: This award-winning tale, set in the height of the Great Depression, received rave reviews long before graphic novels became the phenomenon they are today. Hailed as one of the top 100 comics of all time by The Comics Journal, Kings in Disguise now reemerges as a classic.)

President Harry S. Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize the nation’s steel mills to avert a strike. The Supreme Court ruled the act illegal three weeks later - 1952

Working Class Heroes shared Union Review's photo.

Today in labor history, April 9, 1970: Defying a law prohibiting them from striking, public school teachers in Minneapolis walk out over wages and the right to bargain collectively. A year after the strike was settled, the Minnesota legislature passed the Public Employment Labor Relations Act (PERLA), strengthening collective bargaining rights for public employees.