Today in Labor History June 6,7,8, and 9th

 

Labor activist Helen Marot

Labor activist Helen Marot was born on this day. Marot was a librarian from a wealthy family in Philadelphia, who investigated working conditions among children and women. During her life, she participated in numerous labor organizations, particularly those dedicated to the interests of women, such as the Women’s Trade Union League and the Bookkeepers, Stenographers, and Accountants Union in New York. She also organized and led the 1909-1910 Shirtwaist Strike in New York and was part of a commission that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire in 1912. – 1865

The US passed anti-anarchist legislation designed to quell the rising power of anarchists in the labor movement. – 1902

Today in Labor History June 8

The first documented labor strike in San Francisco occurred when Chinese laborers demanded a raise while working on the Parrott Block granite building. – 1852

A battle between the Militia and striking miners at Dunnville, Colorado ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Seventy-nine of the strikers were deported to Kansas two days later. – 1904

An electrical cable being installed as part of a fire suppression system in the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine fell into the mineshaft and was accidentally ignited by the assistant foreman’s carbide lamp when he went to inspect it.  The resulting fire killed 168 miners and was the nation’s worst hard-rock mining disaster. – 1917

35,000 members of the Machinists Union begin what was to become a 43-day strike, the largest in airline history, against five carriers. The mechanics and other ground service workers wanted to share in the airlines’ substantial profits. – 1966

New York City drawbridge tenders, in a dispute with the state over pension issues, left a dozen bridges open, snarling traffic in what the Daily News described as “the biggest traffic snafu in the city’s history”. – 1971

Today in Labor History June 7

The Colorado state militia was sent to Cripple Creek (again) to suppress a Western Federation of Miners (WFM) strike. A brutal strike occurred in Cripple Creek in 1894, the only time a state militia was called out in support of striking workers. There had been numerous firefights between striking workers and the mine owners’ private security forces, including the use of dynamite. The private cops had been terrorizing union members, their families and even local residents unaffiliated with the mines. The WFM won that strike, but it was short-lived. The mine owners went on the offensive, particularly in 1903-1904, a period known as the Colorado Labor Wars. During this period, private detectives, goons, vigilantes, state militias and national guards were all used by the mine owners to attack the miners. On June 6, 1904, there was an explosion at the Independence mine that killed several nonunion miners. The Citizen’s Alliance brought in the National Guard, who on June 7 shot into the WFM’s union hall. The Citizen’s Alliance also set up kangaroo courts and convicted and deported nearly 240 miners who refused to renounce their union memberships. The Cripple Creek strike officially ended in December 1907. However, the WFM’s struggle in Colorado helped inspire the creation of the even more radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905. One of the leaders of the WFM and Cripple Creek struggle, Big Bill Haywood, was also a founding member of the IWW. – 1904

A sole performance of Pageant of the Paterson (NJ) Strike occurred today, created and performed by 1,000 mill workers from the silk industry strike, New York City. – 1913

Striking textile workers battled police in Gastonia, North Carolina. Police Chief O.F. Aderholt was accidentally killed by one of his own officers. Six strike leaders were convicted of “conspiracy to murder” and were sentenced to jail for from 5 to 20 years. – 1929

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, later to become the United Steelworkers of America, was formed in Pittsburgh. – 1936

This day marked the founding convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers. The merger brought together the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. – 1979

The United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club announced the formation of a strategic alliance to pursue a joint public policy agenda under the banner of “Good Jobs, A Clean Environment, and A Safer World”. – 2006

Today in Labor History June 6

The US Employment Service was created. – 1933

A general strike by 12,000 auto workers and others in Lansing, Michigan shut down the city for a month in what was to become known as the city’s “Labor Holiday” The strike was precipitated by the arrest of nine workers, including the wife of the auto workers local union president whose arrest left three children in the couple’s home unattended. – 1937

Proposition 13 passed in California, allowing commercial property owners to maintain phenomenally low property tax rates and bleed the state of revenues for education and public services. – 1978

The Labor Party’s founding convention opened in Cleveland, Ohio. – 1996