Today in Labor History

December 20  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

Delegates to the AFL convention in Salt Lake City endorse a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote - 1899

The first group of 15 Filipino plantation workers recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association arrive in Hawaii. By 1932 more than 100,000 Filipinos will be working in the fields - 1906
(Labour and the Challenges of Globalization: For decades, corporations around the world have scoured the planet for the best deal they could find on labor: the cheaper, more desperate and defenseless the workforce, the better. It hasn’t mattered to big capital that their striving to squeeze a few extra pennies from workers’ paychecks usually spells misery for the higher-paid, more decently-treated workers in the countries they abandon.  What can workers and their unions do about it? This new book shows the responses of labor movements in ten nations.)

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) takes effect today - 1970

Thousands of workers began what was to be a 2-day strike of the New York City transit system over retirement, pension and wage issues. The strike violated the state’s Taylor Law; TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint was jailed for ten days and the union was fined $2.5 million - 2005