Today in Labor History June 13, 2024

 

Tony Mazzocchi

A riot erupted at the Miner’s Union Day parade in Butte, Montana. Acting Mayor Frank Curran was pushed out of a second-story window. Frustration and mistrust had been growing for decades. In 1914, miners were being paid $3.50 a day, the same as in 1878, despite the fact that the price of copper had more than doubled in that same time period. – 1914

Tony Mazzocchi was born in Brooklyn, NewYork. An activist and officer in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, he was a mentor to Karen Silkwood, a founder of the Labor Party and a prime mover behind the 1970 passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. – 1926