Today in Labor History

Rose Pesotta

First use of the term “scab,” by Albany Typographical Society. – 1816

Norman Thomas was born on this day. Thomas was a Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. – 1884

The time clock was invented by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, NewYork. Bundy’s brother Harlow started mass producing them a year later. – 1888

A mine fire in Telluride, Colorado, killed 28 miners, prompting a union call for safer work conditions. – 1901

Rose Pesotta, union organizer, anarchist, and vice president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, was bornCLICK TO TWEET. Pesotta began working in a shirtwaist factory in New York in 1913 and there became involved with ILGWU Local 25. She went on to organize tirelessly for the union around the country and in 1934 was elected vice president of the ILGWU, the first woman to hold that position. – 1896

Bituminous coal workers went on strike directly against the US government, which had seized all the bituminous coal mines on May 21. The government secured an injunction against the strike, resulting in $3.5 million fine against the UMW. – 1946

The Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, exploded, killing 78 miners. The explosion was large enough to be felt in Fairmont, almost 12 miles away. At the time, 99 miners were inside. Over the course of the next few hours, 21 miners were able to escape the mine, but 78 were still trapped. The bodies of 19 of the dead were never recovered. – 1968

The Great Recession hit high gear when the stock market fell to its lowest level since 1997. Adding to the mess: a burst housing bubble and total incompetence and greed, some of it criminal, on the part of the nation’s largest banks and Wall Street investment firms. Officially, the recession lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. – 2008

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6,000 members of the United Garment Workers of America struck at 27 wholesale houses in Chicago, which were then members of the National Wholesale Tailors’ Association. – 1904

Joe Hill, IWW organizer and songwriter was executed by a Utah firing squad after being convicted of murder on trumped-up charges.CLICK TO TWEETWhile in prison, Hill sent a telegram to IWW leader Big Bill Haywood: “Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize!” In a later telegram, he added, “Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I don’t want to be found dead in Utah. His ashes were supposedly sprinkled in every state of the union, except Utah. However, it is said that the IWWstill keeps a small vial of some of his remaining ashes.  – 1915

The nation’s first automatic toll collection machine was used at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway. – 1954

The National Writers Union was founded, representing freelance and contract writers and others in the trade. In 1992 it merged into and became a local of the United Auto Workers. – 1981

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Martin Irons

The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen was founded on this date in 1785 in a tavern in New York City. The Society, which still exists today, created a library, clubhouse, bank and school for their apprentices, mechanics, tradesmen and their families. – 1785

Martin Irons died near Waco, Texas. Born in Dundee, Scotland, he emigrated to the U.S. at age 14. He joined the Knights of Labor and in 1886 led a strike of 200,000 workers against the Jay Gould-owned Union Pacific and MissouriCLICK TO TWEETrailroad. The strike was crushed, Irons was blacklisted and he died broken-down and penniless. Said Mother Jones: “The capitalist class hounded him as if he had been a wild beast.” – 1900

To the huge relief of Post Office Department employees, the service set a limit of 200 pounds a day to be shipped by any one customer. Builders were finding it cheaper to send supplies via post than via wagon freight. In one instance, 80,000 bricks for a new bank were shipped parcel post from Salt Lake City to Vernal, Utah, 170 miles away. The new directive also barred the shipment of humans: a child involved in a couple’s custody fight was shipped—for 17¢—from Stillwell to South Bend, Indiana, in a crate labeled “live baby” – 1916

Ben Reitman, hobo organizer, anarchist and one time partner of Emma Goldman, died on this date. Reitman served as a doctor for hobos and the downtrodden and participated in numerous free speech fights and anarchist causes, getting beaten, tarred and feathered, jailed, and run out of town for his troubles, most notably during the San Diego free speech fight. He also wrote the book, Boxcar Bertha. – 1942

With many U.S. political leaders gripped by the fear of communism and questioning citizen loyalties in the years following World War II, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers to take a “non-communist” pledge. A few days earlier the Hollywood Ten had been called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. – 1947

The National Football League Association, which represents the nation’s professional football players, ended a strike that lasted 57 days. The labor action was effective: while it was ongoing, not a single major league football game was played. Because of the strike, the football season lasted only nine games per team, an almost 50 percent reduction from the originally scheduled 16. The players were demanding a percentage of profit revenues, which the NFL refused. Eventually, the players won a new contract, which provided an increase in salaries and post-season pay, as well as bonuses and severance packages for retiring players. – 1982

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 234 for, 200 against. It passed in the U.S. Senate by 61 for, 38 against. President Bill Clinton signed the agreement into law on December 8, 1993, stating that “NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs”. What it actually meant was job losses, decreased wages, and attacks on public interest laws. –  1993

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The Ravensdale Coal Mine

The Ravensdale coal mine explosion killed 31 workers in Washington state. The mine was well known for excessive coal dust. – 1916

A county judge in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania granted an injunction requested by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company forbidding strikers from speaking to strikebreakers, posting signs declaring a strike is in progress, or even singing hymns. Union leaders termed the injunction “drastic.” – 1927

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John L Lewis

The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada was founded in Pittsburgh.  FOTLU was the predecessor organization to what became the American Federation of Labor in 1886.  Its goal was to “organize a systematic agitation to propagate trades union principles…to elevate trades unionism, and to obtain for the working classes, that respect for their rights, and that reward for their services, to which they are justly entitled.”- 1881

The main headquarters of the New York City Wobblies (IWW) was ransacked and destroyed by agents acting under the US Attorney General Palmer. The Palmer raidswere part of the first U.S. communist witch hunt, starting well before the more well known McCarthy purges. It was also where J. Edgar Hoover cut his baby teeth. – 1919

To “organize workers into a powerful industrial union”, United Mine Workers of America President, John L. Lewis called a meeting in Pittsburgh’s Islam Grotto, founding the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). – 1938CLICK TO TWEET

Four workers were killed and one was injured during a hazardous chemical (methyl mercaptan) leak at a DuPont industrial plant in suburban Houston. DuPont had ignored safety standards to increase profits. – 2014

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Joe McCarthy

The National Women’s Trade Union League was formed in Boston. It was organized as a coalition of working-class women, professional reformers, and women from wealthy and prominent families. Its purpose was to “assist in the organization of women wage workers into trade unions and thereby to help them secure conditions necessary for healthful and efficient work and to obtain a just reward for such work.” – 1903

Senator Joe McCarthy (R-WI), right-wing lunatic, alcoholic and shame of the nation, was born on this day.CLICK TO TWEETMcCarthyism destroyed the lives of thousands of good Americans and Union members by falsely accusing them of Communism. McCarthy stomped on civil liberties and the exercise of freedoms with impunity until he was censured by the Senate. (McCarthyism was  used by Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines during his 2014 campaign to smear his opponent). – 1909

The American Railway Supervisors Association was formed at Harmony Hall in Chicago by 29 supervisors working for the Chicago & North Western Railway. They organized after realizing that those railroaders working under their supervision already had the benefits of unionization and were paid more for working fewer hours. – 1934

The Depression-era Public Works Administration agreed with New York City on this day to begin a huge slum clearance project covering 20 acres in Brooklyn, where low-cost housing for 2,500 families would be completed. It was the first of many such jobs-and-housing projects across the country. – 1934

The National Federation of Telephone Workers,  later to become the Communications Workers of America, which is now one of the largest unions in the United States, was founded in New Orleans. – 1938

Jimmy Carter-era OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) published standards reducing permissible exposure to lead, protecting 835,000 workers from damage to nervous, urinary and reproductive systems. – 1978

The Federation of Professional Athletes was granted a charter by the AFL-CIO. – 1979

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Karen Silkwood

Over 20,000 workers participated in the funeral march for the Haymarket anarchists framed for throwing the Haymarket bomb. – 1887

259 miners died in the underground Cherry Mine fire in Cherry, Illinois.
As a result of the disaster, Illinois established stricter safety regulations and in 1911, the basis for the state’s Workers Compensation Act was passed. – 1909

A Western Federation of Miners strike was crushed by massive government intervention and the militia in Butte, Montana. The miners were striking for better pay and safer working conditions. The WFM was a “radical” organization co-founded by Butte Union miners and played a key role in the founding of the IWW. -1914

The Holland Tunnel opened, running under the Hudson River for 1.6 miles and connecting the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey. Thirteen workers died over its seven-year-long construction. – 1927

GM workers’ post-war strike for higher wages closed 96 plants. – 1945

Members of the International Typographical Union, on strike against the Green Bay (Wisconsin) Press-Gazette over technology changes, created the Green Bay Daily News (later the News-Chronicle) as a money-maker for the strikers and to support their cause. Surviving until 1976, it was seen as the longest-running strike paper in newspaper history.  The Gannett chain ultimately bought the paper, only to fold it in 2005. – 1972

Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union activist Karen Silkwood was killed in a suspicious car crash. She was driving to a meeting with a New York Times investigative reporter. She was bringing them documents proving the company she worked for, Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation, had falsified quality control record of nuclear fuel rods. – 1974

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Ellis Island

On this day in 1954, Ellis Island closed as an immigration entry point. After 1924 the famous island in Jersey City instead served as a detention and deportation center until 1954. Albert Einstein was among the millions of immigrants that were processed prior to the 1954 closure. After World War 2, Germans soldiers were imprisoned there as well as those on the left deemed hostile during the McCarthy period. Today Ellis Island houses an immigration museum. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were closed after damage by Hurricane Sandy. The storm hit a day after the Statue of Liberty reopened. It had just completed a year-long renovation. – 1954

“Chainsaw Al” Dunlap announced he was restructuring the Sunbeam Corporation and laid off 6,000 workers—half of the workforce
. Sunbeam later nearly collapsed after a series of scandals under Dunlap’s leadership that cost investors billions of dollars. – 1996

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The Edmund Fitzgerald

Chicago Haymarket martyr Louis Lingg, 22, “cheated” the state the day before his scheduled execution by committing suicide in his prison cell by exploding a dynamite cap in his mouth. – 1887

Members of the Independent Union of All Workers occupied the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota, in what may have been the first sit-down strike. Workers occupied the plant for three days, demanding a raise. Unable to open the blockaded plant, Hormel accepted binding arbitration and the workers received a ten percent wage increase. The agreement was brokered by Governor Floyd B. Olson. – 1933

The ship Edmund Fitzgerald, the biggest carrier on the Great Lakes, and crew of 29 were lost in a storm on Lake Superior while carrying ore from Superior, Wisconsin to Detroit. The cause of the sinking was never established. – 1975

The Tile, Marble, Terrazzo Finishers, Shop Workers & Granite Cutters International Union merged into the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners – 1988

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It started at 7:20 pm in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83-87 Summer Street. The fire was finally contained 12 hours later, after it had consumed about 65 acres of Boston’s downtown, 776 buildings and much of the financial district, and caused $73.5 million in damage. – 1872

200 assembly-line workers at Nash Motors Company in Kenosha, Wisconsin, walked out in protest of the new piece rates. Owner Charles Nash subsequently locked out all 3,000 workers. Workers at both the Racine and Milwaukee Seaman Body plants eventually joined the strike eventually all winning raises of up to 17% and union recognition at each plant. – 1933

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was found on this date by eight international unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor. It was originally called the Committee for Industrial Organization but changed its name in 1938 when it broke away from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The CIO supported the New Deal Coalition and was open to African Americans as equal members. Both the CIO and its rival the AFL grew rapidly during the Great Depression. In its statement of purpose, the CIO said it had formed to encourage the AFL to organize workers in mass production industries along industrial union lines. The CIO failed to change the AFL policy from within. On September 10, 1936, the AFT suspended all 10 CIO unions (two more had joined). In 1938, these unions for the Congress of Industrial Organizations as a rival labor federation.  In 1955, the CIO rejoined the AFL, forming the new entity known as the American Federation of Labor-Congress on Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO)- 1935

Philip Murray, the first president of the United Steelworkers Organizing Committee, first president of the United Steelworkers of America, and president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations for 12 years following the death of John L. Lewis, died on this date at age 66 – 1952

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20,000 black and white workers launched a General Strike in New Orleans. In the wake of the streetcar drivers’ labor victory earlier in the year in which they won a closed shop and shorter workday, a massive organizing campaign led to the creation of dozens of new unions and greater demands from the city’s workers. On October 24, several thousand members of the Triple Alliance (teamsters, scalesmen and packers) struck for overtime pay and the 10-hour day. Many members of the Alliance were African American. The bosses used race-baiting to try to divide the workers, but failed. Members of other unions started to join in solidarity, leading to a General Strike on November 8. The strike successfully bled the banks of half of their pre-strike holdings. Finally the bosses agreed to sit down with both black and white union leaders and agreed to the 10-hour day and overtime pay, but not a universal closed union shop. – 1892

The Catholic Worker movement was founded in 1933 by Day along with Peter Maurin, a Catholic social activist, combining a spiritual vision of social justice with trade unionism and other activism. Day was considered an anarchist to by anarchist. Catholic Workers houses still exist throughout the country, providing hospice care, housing for activists, and support for various movements. – 1897

President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced plans for the Civil Works Administration to create four million additional jobs for the Depression-era unemployed. The workers ultimately laid 12 million feet of sewer pipe and built or made substantial improvements to 255,000 miles of roads, 40,000 schools, 3,700 playgrounds, and nearly 1,000 airports (not to mention 250,000 outhouses still badly needed in rural America). It cost $200 million a month and gave jobs to four million people. – 1933

Students at San Francisco State College went on strike, leading to what would become the longest student strike in U.S. history. The strike was led by the Black Student Union and a coalition of other student groups known as the Third World Liberation Front. The strike began on November 6, 1968 and lasted until March 20, 1969. Throughout the strike, activists were violently attacked by the San Francisco Police. The activists were demanding equal access to public higher education, more senior faculty of color and a new curriculum that would embrace the history and culture of all people including ethnic minorities. One of their victories was the creation of the College of Ethnic Studies in 1969, inspiring similar programs at hundreds of other universities. – 1968

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Joe Hill wrote a song about “Mr. Block”, who was a boss-loving, American Dream-believing, self-sabotaging knucklehead. Some call Riebe the first underground comic book artist. – 1912

Some 1,300 building trades workers in eastern Massachusetts participated in a general strike on all military work in the area to protest the use of open-shop (a worksite in which union membership is not required as a condition of employment) builders. The strike held on for a week in the face of threats from the U.S. War Department. – 1917

The first Red Scare, or “Palmer’s Reign of Terror”, began in the U.S. on this date with the imprisonment of 3,000 anarchists without bail at Ellis Island. During the Palmer raids, hundreds of anarchists, communists, union leaders and other radicals were rounded up, imprisoned, deported and even killed. – 1919

The U.S. Supreme Court used the Taft-Hartley Act to break a steel strike. Taft-Hartley was passed in 1947, in the wake of the 1946 Oakland General Strike. It severely limited strike activities, specifically prohibiting sympathy strikes and General Strikes and was essentially a giveaway to employers helping to pave the way for the progressive weakening of the U.S. labor movement. – 1959

Lemuel Ricketts Boulware died in Delray Beach, Florida on this date at age 95. As a GE vice president in the 1950s he created the policy known as Boulwarism, in which management decides what is “fair” and refuses to budge on anything during contract negotiations. IUE Union President Paul Jennings described the policy as “telling the workers what they are entitled to and then trying to shove it down their throats.” – 1990

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