Today in Labor History March 26

 

San Francisco brewery workers began a 9-month strike as local employers followed the union-busting lead of the National Brewer’s Association and fired their unionized workers, replacing them with scabs. Two unionized brewers refused to go along, kept producing beer, prospered wildly and induced the Association to capitulate. A contract benefit since having unionized two years earlier, certainly worth defending: free beer. – 1868

Congress amended the Immigration Act of 1907 to specifically bar the entrance of “paupers, anarchists, criminals and the diseased”. The move was specifically designed to limit entry of Eastern and Southern European immigrants, many of whom were becoming radicalized by the deplorable working and living conditions in late 19th and early 20th century America. – 1910

On this day in Labor History the year was 1911. Marking one the most tragic days in US labor history. 146 women and girls died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

A mining disaster at Jed, West Virginia killed 83 workers. – 1912

On March 26th, Chicano labor organizer Cesar Chavez started a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to advocate for the rights of farm workers - 1966

On March 26, 2020, new unemployment claims in the United States surged to 3.3 million, the largest weekly increase in U.S. history to date amid job losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic - 2020