Today in Labor History May 22

 

Eugene Debs

Eugene Debs was thrown in prison for his role in the Pullman Railway Strike (also known as the “Debs Rebellion”). – 1895

White firemen on the Georgia Railroad struck against the hiring of blacks. A New York Times correspondent reported that there was much violence against the black firemen, coming not from the strikers but from “citizens along the line of the road, who object to the preference given negroes over white men.” -1909

The Civil Service Retirement Act of 1920 gives federal workers a pension. – 1920

The Congress of Industrial Organizations’ (CIOs) Steelworkers Organizing Committee was disbanded at a Cleveland convention and immediately succeeded by the workers’ new union, the United Steelworkers of America. – 1942

The first strike by Chicago teachers began on this day and lasted for three days. – 1969