March 12 -- SOURCE:
Union Communications Services, Inc.
Greedy industrialist turned benevolent
philanthropist Andrew Carnegie pledges $5.2 million for the construction
of 65 branch libraries in New York City—barely 1 percent of his net
worth at the time. He established more than 2,500 libraries between 1900
and 1919 following years of treating workers in his steel plants
brutally, demanding long hours in horrible conditions and fighting their
efforts to unionize. Carnegie made $500 million when he sold out to
J.P. Morgan, becoming the world’s richest man - 1901
The
first tunnel under the Hudson River is completed after 30 years of
drilling, connecting Jersey City and Manhattan. In just one of many
tragedies during the project, 20 workers died on a single day in 1880
when the tunnel flooded - 1904
The Lawrence, Mass., "Bread and Roses" textile strike ends when the
American Woolen Co. agrees to most of the strikers’ demands; other
textile companies quickly followed suit - 1912
Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995, born in Camden, S.C. - 1922
Steelworkers approve a settlement with Oregon Steel Mills, Inc. and
its CF&I Steel subsidiary, ending the longest labor dispute in the
USWA’s history and resulting in more than $100 million in back pay for
workers - 2004
Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995, born in Camden, S.C. - 1922 ~De
Kirkland was born in Camden, South Carolina and rose over his career to head the 16-million-member American labor movement.
In 1941, Kirkland entered the United States Merchant Marine Academy,
graduated 1942, and became a deck officer on U.S. merchant ships during
World War II. After the war, he worked in the Research Department of the
AFL. He received a B.S. degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of
Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Kirkland married Edith
Draper Hollyday in June 1944, with whom he had five daughters. A year
after their divorce in 1972, he married the Czech-born Irena Neumann
(1925–2007).
From 1979 to 1995 Kirkland was president of the
American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations
(AFL-CIO). During his tenure, union membership in the United States
declined precipitously. The unions suffered some of their most serious
defeats, including the 1981 air traffic controllers's strike and the
1985 Hormel meat packers' strike.
He also served on the Federal Prison
Industries, Incorporated (FPI) board from 1980-1988, representing Labor
during FPI's growth years. On the international front, Kirkland's
support of the Solidarity movement in Poland contributed to the decline
of communism. According to Michael Szporer's Solidarity: Great Workers
Strike of 1980, Amercan Unions under the leadership of Lane Kirkland
contributed $150,000 beginning shortly after the successful Solidarity
Strike, as early as September 1980.
At the time the Carter
administration, including its two prominent Polish Americans, Zbigniew
Brzezinski and Ed Muskie advised against such aid fearing Soviet
reaction. Kirkland boldly took the initiative persuading Zbigniew
Brzezinski of the wisdom of supporting the Solidarity movement. In all
US union support of Solidarity far exceeded its European counterparts.
CIA involved was also relatively small, which was later rationalized by
Caspar Weinberger by unions taking the lead and doing a far better job.
(He was awarded posthumously with the highest Polish award, the Order of
the White Eagle).
His best remembered quotation is:
If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.
On November 13, 1989, Kirkland was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bush
In 1994, Kirkland was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.
In 1999, Lane Kirkland was awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.
Lane Kirkland died in Washington, D.C., aged 77, from complications of
cancer.
The movie Salt of the Earth
opens. The classic film centers on a long and difficult strike led by
Mexican-American and Anglo zinc miners in New Mexico. Real miners
perform in the film, in which the miners’ wives—as they did in real
life—take to the picket lines after the strikers are enjoined - 1954
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