Today in labor history January 28th, 2025

 

Mexican laborers being fumigated with the pesticide DDT 

in Hidalgo, Texas, in 1956.

Today in labor history, January 28, 17-year old house cleaner Carmelita Torres leads what will become known as the “Bath Riots” at the Juarez/El Paso border, refusing the gasoline and chemical “bath” imposed on Mexican workers crossing the border into the U.S. Torres and 30 other women resisted and several hundred people quickly joined in the demonstration. Troops eventually quelled the riot and Torres was arrested. The practice continued for decades - 1956

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn spoke in Seattle about the "fighting joy of living". Flynn was a leader in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and became a full-time organizer for the group in 1907

The first U.S. unemployment compensation law was enacted in Wisconsin – 1932

Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic (elective) abortion. The Soviet Union legalized it in 1919. And the Nazis legalized abortion in 1935, but only to get rid of what they considered genetically inferior people. They prohibited women of Protestant German heritage from having abortions - 1935

The first national coal miners’ union, the American Miners’ Association, was formed. – 1861