Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 2004.  That was not a good day for hockey fans.  The National Hockey League owners locked out the players.  The owners and players’ union could not come to an agreement on issues including pay, free agency rules and drug testing.  League owners also wanted to implement a salary cap.  The Players’ Association objected.  The first game of the season was supposed to take place on October 13th.  But across the country, the arenas stood silent. As the impasse dragged on, in February the League announced the season was cancelled.   The Associated Press reported, A hockey season on the brink is now a season gone bust. The NHL canceled what was left of its decimated schedule Wednesday after a round of last-gasp negotiations failed to resolve differences over a salary cap -- the flash-point issue that led to a lockout.” The article continued, “No Stanley Cup champion will be crowned, the first time that's happened since 1919, when the 2-year-old league called off the finals because of a flu epidemic.” It was the first time that a North American professional sports league lost a full season to a labor dispute. Some of the players found work in the European leagues at greatly reduced pay.  It is estimated the league lost $2 billion and that the players lost $1 billion in salaries.   The impact of the lock out rippled through restaurants and other businesses that relied on the hockey crowds, causing layoffs for wait staff. Finally, in July an agreement was reached.  The players gave in to the owners demand for a salary cap.  In 2012 another lockout by management cost NHL players another half of the season.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1931.  That was the day that came to be known as the Invergordon Mutiny in Scotland.  The global Great Depression had begun its sweep across Europe.  In response to the economic crisis, the British government began cutting the pay of public sector workers.  This included those in the armed forces.  This came at a time when more workers were joining the armed forces because of the rising unemployment that ravaged the private sector.  For those in the Navy the proposed pay cuts were ten percent for officers and as high as twenty-five percent for those under the rank of petty officer.  As news of the pay cuts spread, sailors at Invergordon held meetings to discuss their response.  Invergordon, Scotland had become an important harbor for the British fleet during World War One.  The sailors decided to strike.  On the day of the strike, several ships were scheduled to participate in exercises. But the sailors on four vessels refused to take their ships out of the harbor.  Many men did not report for duty. Naval leaders gave in quickly, reducing the severity of the pay cut.  But many of the leaders of the strike faced reprisals.  Some were jailed and others were drummed out of the Navy.   Spies for the Admiralty went below decks to monitor the sailors and report those who might cause future trouble. Government leaders tried to keep news of the strike out of the news.  But workers’ rallies against public sector cuts spread to cities like Glasgow and London.  The strike also caused a panic at the London Stock Exchange

On this day in Labor History the year was 1929.  That was the day that Ella Mae Wiggins was gunned down on her way to a rally of striking textile workers in North Carolina.  Ella Mae was born in the mountains of Tennessee.  Her father was a lumber jack who was killed on the job.  She and her brother then entered the textile mills to help support their family.  She married another mill employee and they had seven children.  When her husband left her, Ella Mae struggled to keep her family afloat.  When the Great Depression came textile mill workers were subjected to the “stretch out.”  Owners demanded that fewer workers quicken their pace to produce the same results.  In response textile workers began to organize and strike in Gaston County, the heart of the Southern textile industry. Ella Mae became a local leader of the National Textile Workers’ Union.   She advocated organizing both white and black workers. She became known for leading the other workers in song.  One of her most poignant songs was The Mill Mothers Lament.  The lyrics told her personal struggle of a mother trying to support her children. On the day she was killed, Ella Mae was in a truck heading to a workers rally.  They were met by an armed mob, deployed by the mill owners.  The unarmed workers turned their truck around, but the mob chased them and gunned down Ella Mae.  Five people were charged but they were acquitted of her murder.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1971.  That was the day that the state police stormed Attica Correctional Facility in New York. Four days earlier the inmates had taken over the prison. One guard was killed. The guards were members of AFSCME Council 82. The prisoners demanded improvements to their brutal living conditions in the overcrowded prison.   Police retook most of the prison. But the inmates held guards hostage in Cell Block D.   One of the prisoners, Elliot James Barkley explained the takeover.  “We are men.  We are not beasts and we do not depend to be beaten or driven as such.  The entire prison populace, that means each and every one of us here, have set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States.” When the state police stormed the prison they dropped tear gas from helicopters. They fired 3,000 rounds, firing on the prisoners and hostages indiscriminately.  They killed 29 inmates and 10 hostages.  The police claimed the prisoners had killed the hostages. They also accused the inmates of committing atrocities against the guards.    Public outrage swelled against the inmates, including racially-charged hate directed at the black prisoners. But autopsies proved that all those killed had been felled by police bullets.  Attica became rallying cry for those concerned about prison conditions. It has been referenced by many in movies andsongs, including John Lennon’s Attica State

On this day in Labor History the year was 1997.  That was the day that Union Square in New York City was named a National Historic Landmark.  Republican Governor George Pataki explained the importance of the park in a press release.  “It is only fitting that the National Parks Service should recognize Union Square Park’s long history as a focal point for political expression.  New York is proud that the first Labor Day Parade took place here in Union Square Park more than a hundred years ago, establishing a tradition that spread across the nation.”  Although the park was very important to the labor movement—that is not why it is known as “Union Square.”  The park got its name because it was the place of intersection, or union, of two busy New York roads—what are today Broadway and Fourth Avenue.  In 1831 the open space at the intersection was declared a public space.   The space became an important location for labor rallies and political demonstrations. In 1882, the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history marched through the square.  10,000 workers waiving their banners high.  In 1911, Union workers again gathered in Union Square to protest after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146 mostly young women and girls, some garment worker as young as 11 and 14 years old.  In the later 1920s the park was demolished for the construction of the New York Subway.  But the space continued be important to the city’s union movement.  In 2002, a series of twenty-two bronze plaques were dedicated at the park to tell the history of Union Square.  One of those plaques tells of the first Labor Day parade.  Another is a collage of images of labor demonstrations and sheet music of labor songs.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1851.     That was the day that a Maryland planter named Edward Gorsuch was killed in Christiana, Pennsylvania.     Gorsuch had come to Pennsylvania to try and recapture three black men that had escaped from slavery on his farm outside of Baltimore two years earlier.     A year after the men escaped, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act.     This penalized helping those who had escaped slavery, with a $1,000 fine and up to six months’ jail time.     Emboldened by the law, slave catchers chased those who had made the journey to freedom in the north.    Gorsuch received news that the men he was looking for were in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.     Two of the escaped slaves were at the farm of William Parker, a black man who had also escaped slavery in Maryland.     Located just north of the Mason-Dixon line, Lancaster had a well-established underground railroad network.     An armed black self-defense group had developed to stand against the slave catchers.     Gorsuch and his son gathered a group of men and headed north.     At the Parker farm they were confronted by a group of at least fifty black men armed with guns and pitchforks.     Gorsuch refused to leave, and a gun battle erupted.     Gorsuch was shot and killed in the exchange of fire.     Parker, his family, and the three formerly enslaved men fled to Canada.     Thirty-eight others who were there that day were charged with treason for taking part in the confrontation.    This included Castner Hanway a white man who had tried to defuse the standoff.    None of the charged were ever convicted.     In the south, slave owners were outraged that no one was punished.     Tensions between the North and South sharpened.     As a result, the country moved closer to Civil War, the bloody conflict that finally ended slave labor.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1859.     That was the day that the St. Anthony and Minneapolis Typographical Union Number 42 was founded in Minnesota.     It was one of the oldest unions on record in the state.     Three years’ earlier, printers in St. Paul had formed a union, Local 30, with a dinner to honor Benjamin Franklin’s birthday.     At the time just over 6,000 white people lived in Minnesota.    Typographical workers were very important to the early labor movement in the United States.     These printers were vital to spreading the word about the cause of labor to other workers in the era before radio, television or computers.    In Minnesota, eight journeymen printers joined together to form Local 42.    According the “History of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis” published in 1881, “The Union was prosperous, having at one time on its list every journeyman printer within its jurisdiction.  The war of the rebellion practically dissolved the organization, five of its members entering the Union Army.”     Like it did for many fledgling unions, the Civil War took its toll on the typographical union local Number 42.     One member H.M. Metcalfe was killed in battle.     The union was disbanded during the Civil War, reforming a decade later.     Although the Civil War had disrupted labor organizing across the north, the years following the conflict saw a surge in labor activity.     Wages stagnated during the war, while prices for goods soared.     Workers banded together to demand fair pay and against the exploitation that grew along with increasing industrialization.     These early labor unions were predominantly made up of skilled workers like the printers.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1924.  Sixteen striking Filipino sugar workers on the Hawaiian island of Kauaiwere killed by police.  This incident is known as the Hanapepe Massacre.  Filipinos began immigrating to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations in 1906. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1941.   The ravages of World War II had swept across Europe.   German troops had invaded Norway in April of 1940.   The conditions of the Nazi occupation grew increasingly harsher.   The Nazis began rationing milk, and important part of the diet of Norwegian children and workers.   The rationing however did not apply to the German occupiers.   Angered shipyard workers in Oslo walked off the docks in protest.   Workers from other industries joined them.   20,000 workers from 50 factories and work sites participated in the strike.   The Nazi response to the uprising was predictably swift and brutal.   200 labor leaders were arrested and new Nazi chosen leaders put in their places.   Twenty-seven of the arrested labor leaders and strikers were brought before a court-martial trial.   Rolf Wickstrom, a welder and union steward and Harald Viggo Hansteeen a labor lawyer were sentenced to death for their involvement in the strike and executed.  The remaining twenty-five were convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences.  Ludvik Buland, a union railway worker died while serving his sentence in prison.  So did Harry Vestli, a factory worker.   Journalists were fired or arrested.   Even groups like the Boy Scouts were banned.   Listening to foreign broadcasts on the radio was expressly forbidden.   Then radios were confiscated.  In Sweden, Trade Unionists issued a statement in support of their fellow Scandinavian workers.   “Norwegian trade unionists have fallen in the battle for Norway’s Freedoms and for the right of the Norwegian working class to decide for itself its own action with the limits of Norwegian law.  We honor their memory.”  In 1948 a memorial was placed to honor the deaths of Wickstrom and Hansteen and the workers who stood up for their country.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1916.  That was the day that the Federal Employees Compensation Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.  The act was sponsored by Senator John Kern, a Democrat from Indiana, and Daniel McGillicuddy, a Democratic Congressman from Maine.  The act provided compensation for federal civil service employees that lost wages because they were hurt or killed on the job.   There was great debate at the time over whether employees injured at work deserved to be compensated.   Before the turn of the twentieth century, those who sustained workplace injuries had little recourse.  Employers blamed workers for accidents and typically refused compensation leaving families destitute.   Edward Gainor, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers explained the debate around the 1916 proposal saying, “The only question, the fundamental question, involved in this discussion is whether or not society should bear the burden of the injured worker in any industry.”  Increasingly, some lawmakers were beginning to make the case that society should indeed bear that burden.  Workers and labor leaders organized around issues of work place safety and demanded a compensation if they were injured on the job.  The law providing such a safety net for federal employees passed through the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin of 288 to 6.  Although the Act only applied to federal employees, it was an important step forward in recognizing that all workers deserved to be compensated for workplace injuries.     The federal Office of Workers Compensation Programs that operates today traces its history directly back to the 1916 act.  And because of this 1916 act some Three million federal employees and their families are covered under the acts protections. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1860.  That was the day that Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois.  Her family was wealthy and her father served as a state senator.  In 1881, Jane Adams visited London with her friend Ellen Gates Starr.  There the two women were inspired by Toynbee Hall, a settlement house which worked with the poor and working class in the city.  They decided to establish a similar effort in Chicago.  They founded Hull House in an immigrant neighborhood of Italian, Greek and Jewish workers.  Hull House grew to become a complex of facilities that offered kindergarten, day care, lectures and cultural programs, and an important space for women trade unionists to hold meetings. The women of Hull house became oneof the leading proponents for workplace safety in the nation, pushing for laws and reforms to help workers.   During the 1894 Pullman workers strike, Jane Addams visited the community and had meals with the women workers.   She was able to convince the workers’ strike committee to agree to sit down to arbitration, but the Pullman company officials staunchly refused to negotiate. The refusal of the company to bargain, and the rising anger of the workers was an eye-opener for Jane.   Later she reflected, “During all those dark days of the Pullman strike, the growth of class bitterness was most obvious.” Before the strike, she wrote, “there had been nothing in my experience [that had]reveal[ed] that distinct cleavage of society which a general strike at least momentarily affords.”  In 1931 Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her life-long advocacy for working class women and children and her strong stand for peace during World War I. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1882. That was the day the first Labor Day celebration and parade took place in New York City. The New York Sun printed a vivid report of the parade of 10,000 marching workers. The paper described “men wearing regalia, men with society aprons, and men with flags, musical instruments, badges and all the other paraphernalia of a procession.” The article went on, “As far ahead as one could see and as far down the side streets as forms and faces could be distinguished the windows and roofs and even the lamp posts and awning frames were occupied by persons anxious to get a good view of the first parade in New York of workingmen of all trades united in one organization.  All along the line cheers were sent up.”  The reporter described the colorful banners carried by each trade union, and noted that following the bricklayers came “two decorated wagons containing brick arches.  On each side of one of the wagons were the inscriptions: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for recreation,” and “Get on to it the Union will never surrender.” From New York the idea of setting aside a holiday for workers spread.  Oregon became the first state to officially recognize the holiday in 1897.  Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York established a Labor Day that year as well.  By 1894 twenty-three more states celebrated the workers holiday. It was that year, that President Grover Cleveland declared it a national holiday, in response to the Pullman Strike and Boycott that began in Chicago.  Labor Day is day to honor the sacrifices made by labor fighting for safe and fair workplaces.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1949.  That was the day known in New York as the Peekskill Riots.  Internationally renowned African American Paul Robeson was scheduled to give an open-air concert.   He was known for his deep, moving voice singing iconic songs like Shenandoah and the Ballad of Joe Hill. Robeson was active in the causes of civil and labor rights.  In the Cold War hysteria after World War II, Robeson had been labeled a dangerous Communist.  The New York concert was originally planned to benefit the Civil Rights Congress. The group had been defending the “Trenton 6” a group of six black young men sentenced to die in New Jersey for allegedly killing a white shop keeper. The case was rife with legal abuses.   But protests over the concert led to its cancellation.  It was rescheduled, and the tickets were distributed to trade unionists in New York City.  On the day of the concert 2,500 union members made a human wall around the field to protect against protesters.  Protesters gathered hurling anti-black and anti-Jewish racial epithets. Pete Seeger opened the concert followed by Robeson.  The real trouble came when the concert ended and people tried to leave.  The protesters threw rocks at the passing cars, while policeman stood by and watched.  145 people were injured.  Other concerts were cancelled.  Paul Robeson would continue to be harassed by the FBI.  He was denied a passport due to his stance against anti-black discrimination in the United States and against colonialism in Africa.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1991. That was the day that a fire killed twenty-five workers are the Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet, North Carolina.  More than fifty workers were injured.  The plant made chicken products for fast food restaurants and grocery stores.  According to an article in the New York Times, the plant was “a warren of ramshackle buildings.” The fire “started with hydraulic fluid from a ruptured line spraying in to gas flames that heated large, oil-filled cooking vats.” Ninety workers were inside when the fire began.  Some were able to escape out the main entrance or a loading bay.  But the emergency exits of the plant were locked from the outside.  A worker said that this was on the order of company owner Emmett J Roe, to stop workers from stealing chicken.  A passerby, Sam Breeden was interviewed by the Associated Press. He described the tragic scene “They were screaming: ‘let me out.” They were beating on the door.  The people could not force the door open.” At the time of the fire, the company had not had a fire inspection in eleven years. An inspection after the fire found 54 “willful” violations. The company was fined more than $800,000. Although this was the highest fine in the history of North Carolina, it was far less than federal fines for similar workplace disasters.  That is because North Carolina has a state-run occupational health and safety program.  At the time of the fire nearly half of the states in the country had state-run safety inspections.  And for the company owner Emmett Roe? He was convicted on twenty-five counts of involuntary manslaughter. Serving just four years. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1974.    That was the day that President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.   The act was passed over growing concern about the mismanagement of private pension plans.   In 1963, the Studebaker Corporation closed its auto plant.   Its pension plan was in shambles nearly seven thousand workers received only fifteen percent of their pension or nothing at all.     Across the country more and more workers were relying on private pensions.   In 1960 21.2 million workers had private pensions.    By 1970 the number stood at thirty million.    The funds in those pensions had nearly tripled in that same decade to $138 billion.   Ensuring the security of those pensions was essential for millions of workers and the stability of the economy.   At the bill signing, President Ford explained, “Dramatic growth in recent years has thrust private pension plans into a central role in determining how older Americans live in their retirement years. Yet, this same growth in pension plans has brought with it a host of new problems. Many workers have ultimately lost their benefits - even after relatively long service - because when they left jobs, they thereby gave up rights to hard-earned pension benefits. Others have sustained hardships because their companies folded with insufficient funds in the pension plan to pay promised pensions. In addition, some pension funds have been invested primarily for the benefit of the companies or plan administrators, not for the workers. It is essential to bring some order and humanity into this welter of different and sometimes inequitable retirement plans within private industry.”   President Ford signed the bill on Labor Day, and outlined minimum standards for private pensions.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1893.  That was the day that the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Iron Ship Makers of America was founded in Chicago.  This joined two earlier boilermaker unions into one.  They decided to establish their headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas.  Two years later, the Boilermakers affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The union represents members of 250 lodges in the United States and Canada.   At the turn of the twentieth century, the Boilermakers had about 8,500 members.  But the membership expanded, especially during World War II, as shipbuilding grew for the war.  By 1944, there were more than 350,000 Boilermakers.  In 1954, they merged with the International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers, and expanded their name to include these groups of workers.  But what exactly is a boilermaker?  According to the union’s website the term can have many meanings.  It might refer to a Purdue University student or alumni, whose football team started going by the name of the boilermakers in 1891.  Or boilermaker might refer to dropping a shot of whiskey into a draft of beer, and drinking it all at once.  But for the labor movement a boilermaker is someone that constructs and repairs boilers, and the other workers who are part of the union.  These might include “blacksmiths, forgers, ship builders, cement workers, stove workers, metal polishers, or numerous other job descriptions.”  The boilermaker’s union logo reflects these workers.  It includes images of a ship, a worker working on a boiler, and a blacksmith’s anvil.  Below the images are found the words “Unity, Progress and Protection” declaring the mission of the union and its members.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1921.  On that day the “Battle of Blair Mountain” raged in Logan County, West Virginia.  Members of the United Mine Workers of American were attempting to organize the minefields in the southern part of the state.  The effort to bring workers the union was met with violent resistance.  The miners armed themselves and marched south.  As many as ten thousand joined the march.  They met armed company men at Blair Mountain.  In the battle that ensued, one million rounds were fired.  The mine owners even hired private planes to drop bombs on the union miners.  The US army intervened, and the battle ended.  Despite not being successful in their march, the bloody battle brought national attention to the violence in the coal fields.  But that was not the last Battle for Blair Mountain.  In 2011, there was a proposal to bring mountain top removal mining to Blair Mountain.  This type of mining blasts off large chunks of a mountains surface, to get at the coal seams below.  Protestors stood against the proposal.  They argued it would be environmentally devastating to the area.  They also argued it would blast away one the most important sites of labor history in the nation.  Some coal miners took exception to the protests.  In a CNN documentary on the conflict, one union miner said, “Mountaintop removal is what built this house, sends that little girl to school, provides insurance for my wife…” But another miner joined in the protest against removal. He told CNN that miners had been “brainwashed to think, “Oh I can’t have a job unless it’s a mountaintop removal job.” In 2014, the state prohibited surface mining at Blair Mountain……. for now, 

On this day in Labor History the years was 1935.  That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Revenue Tax Act, more popularly known as the “Wealth Tax.”  The act reformed the federal income tax to raise rates on the wealthiest in the nation. Those making over $5 million could pay taxes up to seventy-five percent.  In a speech to Congress that summer, Roosevelt had explained his thoughts on wealth and taxes.  The President said, “Wealth in the modern world does not come merely from individual effort; it results from a combination of individual effort and of the manifold uses to which the community puts that effort. The individual does not create the product of his industry with his own hands; he utilizes the many processes and forces of mass production to meet the demands of a national and international market. Therefore, in spite of the great importance in our national life of the efforts and ingenuity of unusual individuals, the people in the mass have inevitably helped to make large fortunes possible. Without mass cooperation great accumulations of wealth would 'be 'impossible save by unhealthy speculation. As Andrew Carnegie put it, "Where wealth accrues honorably, the people are · always silent partners." Whether it be wealth achieved through the cooperation of the entire community or riches gained by speculation—in either case the ownership of such wealth or riches represents a great public interest and a great ability to pay.”  Although President Roosevelt tried to win over the nation's wealthy by quoting industrialist Andrew Carnegie, he did not gain their support.  Not surprisingly many of the national’s wealthy lobbied for and used tax loopholes to evade paying the new rates.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1907.  That was the day that became known for the Quebec Bridge Disaster in Canada.  Workers were building a cantilever bridge over the St. Lawrence River. This was not an easy task.  The river was two miles wide at its narrowest point.  The river was deep, moved quickly, and was icy in the winter. But in the late 1880s, businessmen in Quebec who wanted to keep up in trade with Montreal, decided the river had to be spanned.  The project did not begin for more than a decade due to a lack of funds.  Finally, the Canadian government supported the project to improve the nations railway infrastructure. Theodore Cooper, a respected American bridge designer was signed on for the project.  Despite concerns about the bridge design, he never visited the site due to illness. Eighty-six men were working on the project that fateful day.  Their work day was drawing to a close when the bridge suddenly collapsed.  Seventy-five men plunged to their deaths.  Some of their bodies were never found.   The bridge collapsed because of design flaws. The official report of the disaster noted that the loss of life “might have been prevented by the exercise of better judgement on the part of those in responsible charge of the work for the Quebec Bridge and Railway Company and for the Phoenix Bridge Company.” Unfortunately, that was not the last tragedy trying to cross the St. Lawrence.  After the bridge collapse, the Canadian government took over the project.  A partial collapse on that effort killed thirteen more workers in 1916.  The bridge finally opened in 1917.   Its completion came at high price.  Costing $22 million and eighty-six lives.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1963.  That was the day one of the most important stands for justice and equality took place in United States history.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” to a quarter-million people in Washington D.C.  But did you know that one of the main organizers for the march was a man by the name of Bayard Rustin?  Rustin is often left out of the history books because he was gay and because of earlier communist affiliations.  He was born in 1912, and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was raised in the Quaker tradition, and his commitment to peaceful, non-violent protest continued into the Civil Rights Movement. Rustin joined the Young Communists League in the 1930s, a time when Communist organizers were some of the few people actively speaking out about racial injustice in the United States.  After he left the YCL, Rustin spent a brief time as the youth organizer for a March on Washington planned in the 1940s.  This movement was led by one, A. Philip Randolph.  The planned march was aimed at putting pressure on President Franklin D. Roosevelt to desegregate work at industries with federal wartime manufacturing contracts.  When President Roosevelt agreed to issue an order desegregating these jobs, the planned march was called off.  But the idea for the march lived on, and became a reality during the Civil Rights Movement.  Rustin went on to work in the labor movement.  He became the founder and first director of the AFL-CIO’s A. Philip Randolph Institute, which focuses on tearing down the walls of discrimination in work places and within the labor movement

On this day in Labor History the year was 1921.  That was the day that Green Bay Packers football team received a charter from American Professional Football Association.  A year later this would become the National Football League. The Green Bay club had started up two years earlier.  Its original sponsor was the Indian Packing Company, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They packaged canned meat. Meat packing was a major industry in the Midwest during this era.  Packing plants in Chicago, Kansas City, Iowa and Wisconsin processed the cattle and pigs raised in the west as meat to feed the nation. Curly Lambeau was a shipping clerk for the company. He helped to organize a group of local players into a football team. Curly persuaded his boss to donate money for the uniforms. The name “Packers” was born. Then when Indian Packing fell on hard times, they were bought out by Acme, another packing company based in Chicago. So for a brief moment, the Green Bay Packers, one of the staunchest rivals of the Chicago Bears, was actually owned by a Chicago company.   Although Acme only owned the team for a year, the team nickname stuck. Lambeau was able to buy back the team.  He went on to become the Packers coach, leading the team to six championships. The Packers are not the only American sports franchise that’s name harkens back to a particular kind of labor.  Another Wisconsin team, the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, is a reference to that city’s proud beer brewing tradition.  In Big Ten Sports the Purdue Boilermakers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers take to the gridiron.  These names reflect the working traditions of the cities where the teams play ball.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1839.  That was the day that the Amistad sailed into Long Island, New York.  The Amistad served as a Spanish slave ship.  Fifty-three captives, led by an enslaved rice farmer by the name Joseph Cinque, had revolted against their captors and taken control of the ship.  They came from what is now Sierra Leone, Africa.  They had endured the brutal Middle Passage on a Portuguese slave ship, the Tecora.  They had landed in Havana, Cuba where they were transferred to the Amistad.  From there they were supposed to sail to a Cuban sugar plantation.  The transaction was illegal.  Most of the major slave destinations in North and South America had outlawed bringing in newly enslaved people. But since existing slave labor was still used in these areas, the illegal slave trade continued. On July second the African captives escaped their chains and set upon their captors before they could load their guns.  They killed the ship’s captain.   The Africans demanded to be returned to Sierra Leone.  The US Navy intercepted the Amistad as it sailed up the US coastline.  The Africans were thrown into prison and charged with murder.  The case garnered national attention and made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Former President John Quincy Adams presented the defense for the accused.  The court found in favor of the Africans.  Thirty-five were returned home.  The others had died while incarcerated or at sea.  The Amistad became the subject for a 1997 film by Steven Spielberg. While the Amistad became famous, it was not the only one, similar uprisings were attempted on hundreds of slave ships during this era.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1819.  That was the day at Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland.  His father was a policeman, who died while Allan was a boy.  This left the family in poverty.  As a young man he became involved in the Chartism movement.  This reform movement hoped to expand the political rights of the working class in Great Britain. Allan had to flee his homeland to avoid arrest because of his involvement.  This led him to Chicago.  It is a great historic irony that Allan Pinkerton came to the United States because of his involvement in a working class cause.  Today Pinkertons are often considered some of the greatest armed foes against unionism in US labor history.  In Chicago, Pinkerton became involved in law enforcement and then formed his own detective agency.  The Pinkerton National Detective Agency made its name working against railway thefts.  But it became most notorious for opposing the labor movement.  Pinkerton spies infiltrated labor meetings for company owners, worked as hired guns to stop union organizing and protected strike breakers.  Pinkerton died in 1884, and passed the agency to his sons. During the 1890s there were more Pinkertons and reserves than the standing army of the United States. One of the most famous battles between Pinkertons and workers occurred at the 1892 strike against Carnegie steel in Homestead, Pennsylvania.  There Seven workers and two Pinkertons were killed.  The event inspired a song by William W. Delaney.  The lyrics include the lines, “God help them tonight in their hour of affliction, Praying for him whom they’ll ne’er see again, Hear the poor orphans tell their sad story, “Father was killed by a Pinkerton Man.”

On this day in Labor History the year was 1970.  That was the day that the United Farmworkers went out on strike against California lettuce growers.  The UFW had led a successful boycott against grape growers that had drawn national attention to the harsh working conditions and low pay of those who harvested our nation’s food.  In an effort to keep the UFW from organizing lettuce workers, some of the growers had signed contracts with the Teamsters Union.  The UFW argued that these contracts did not represent the workers’ best interests.  As thousands of workers went on strike, Cesar Chavez called for a national boycott of non-union lettuce. In the lead-up to the strike an estimated 4,000 workers attended a meeting in Salinas, California.  One worker, Antonio Sagredo explained the importance of the action. The El Malcriado “Voice of the Farmworker, newsletter reported his words,  “Let the people and the government of the United States know that we are ready to work—but that we must have what we ask.  It isn’t very much.  We don’t ask the impossible—only that they look upon us as human beings. We have the same ambitions that they do.  We have families.  We have rights.  Why must they continue to treat us like beasts of burden and look for a thousand ways to bring us down.”  That December Cesar Chavez was jailed for leading the boycott.  Putting pressure on the growers through encouraging the public to boycott non-union harvested food was a key tactic for the farm worker’s movement.  It impacted the bottom line of the growers and moved them to sit down at the bargaining table.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1900.  That was the day that folk singer Malvina Reynolds was born to a Jewish family in San Francisco.  Her parents were socialists and operated a tailor shop.  Malvina learned the price of speaking out for what you believe in at a young age.  Her parents opposed US entry into World War I.  Because of this, Malvina’s High School would not issue her a diploma.  She was able to still go the college at Berkley, where she eventually earned her PhD.  She married carpenter and labor organizer William “Bud” Reynolds.   She became a prolific folk singer, playing around the Los Angeles area. During the 1960s she wrote about songs supporting civil rights and labor rights. Her song Free Enterprise offers the lyrics, “The air you breathe is poison, the food you eat is worse, the dollars in your pay check are pennies in your purse…There’s nothing free about it, you pay at every turn, Except the guys in Wall Street who have the stuff to burn, they had to make new brain machines to count their profits’ rise, but since there’s always room for more, they can still make their profits soar, a little war does wonders for free enterprise.” Perhaps her most well-known song is “Little Boxes.” The song was inspired by driving by hillside houses in Daly City, California.  It talks about the conformity of middle class suburbia. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1980.  That was the day that Joyce Miller became the first woman ever elected to the Executive Board of the AFL-CIO.  In her 2012 obituary the New York Timesdescribed Joyce’s commitment to women’s rights in the labor movement.  Writing “Ms. Miller saw union membership, collective bargaining and labor contracts as the road to equality for working women, and she believed that women should be a part of union management to make sure that attention was paid to issues like equal opportunity, equal pay, parental leave, child care, health insurance and discrimination in the workplace.”  Joyce grew up in Chicago, where she her earned her Master’s Degree in education from the University of Chicago.  She first entered the labor movement as worker at a gumball factory while attending college.  After graduation, she became the Education Director for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in Pittsburgh.  She remained dedicated to union education for rank and file members.  Joyce was a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women or CLUW.  She served as CLUW’s East Coast Vice President eventually being elected CLUW President in 1977, a position she held for 15 years.   Under her leadership CLUW worked as a powerful voice for women’s reproductive rights, improving child care, and increasing the number of women in union leadership positions. In 1993, President Bill Clinton named Joyce Miller the Executive Director of the Glass Ceiling Commission.  The purpose of the commission was to gather testimony about women’s experiences in the workplace and to draft a report about their findings.  Of her career Joyce said, “I came to the labor movement with stars in my eyes, I saw it as a vehicle for social change, and I’ve never changed my mind.”

On this day in Labor History the year was 1893.  That was the day that workers-rights and women’s rights activist and anarchist Emma Goldman gave a speech in New York City.  Emma Goldman was born in what is today Lithuania.  She came to the New York in 1885, where she built a reputation as a powerful speaker.  In New York she addressed a crowd of between 3,000 to 4,000 unemployed workers in Union Square.   The country was at the beginning of a depression that would sweep the nation.  Working families were finding it harder and harder to put food on the table. By the end of 1893 unemployment would soar to nearly twenty percent.  Undercover agents at the rally reported that Emma had urged the crowd to take bread from the capitalists “by force.”  Goldman recounted saying, “Well then, demonstrate before the palaces of the rich, demand work.  If they do not give you work, demand bread.  If they deny you both, take bread.” Ten days later Emma was arrested in Philadelphia for her comments at the New York rally.  She was sentenced to a year in prison.  After she was released, Emma traveled to Vienna to study medicine.  She returned to the United States to continue her lectures on workers’ and women’s rights.  She spoke out about the need for women to have access to contraception, an opinion that could arouse a backlash at that time.  Emma was arrested multiple times for daring to speak out on controversial issues.  In 1919, during the height of the Red-Scare anti-communist hysteria, Emma Goldman was deported to the Soviet Union.  Emma was courageous defender of free speech. Often called "the most dangerous woman in America

On this day in Labor History the year was 1619.  That was the day that the first ship bearing enslaved people arrived in North America.  It was an English warship called the White Lion, that came to Jamestown in the colony of Virginia.  The ship was a privateer and had captured “twenty and odd” enslaved people from a Portuguese ship in a raid.  Virginian planters were interested in forced labor to work the tobacco fields in the colony.  The laws surrounding slavery in Virginia evolved over time.  Throughout the 1600s statutes replacing indentured servants to race-based slavery for life were written into the law books.  In 1654 John Casor became the first person enslaved under rule of law in North America.  By 1662 a law was passed that children would be considered enslaved or free based on the status of their mother in Virginia.  This meant that slavery could pass down from generation to generation.  This and similar laws ensured slavery would grow.  Historians estimate that 388,000 enslaved people came to what became the United States from Africa.  Due to laws passing down slavery to children, by the Civil War there were nearly 4 million enslaved people in the South.  By the early 1800s enslave people made up about one-third of the Southern population.  Initially enslaved labor worked predominantly to produce crops like tobacco, indigo and also rice.  Some West Africans had developed valuable skills in rice cultivation that white land owners exploited through slavery.  With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became increasingly important to the southern economy.  The South’s dependence on slave labor became more entrenched, and spread westward with the growing United States until the Civil War ended the brutality of slavery.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1997.  That was the day that a strike by the Teamsters Union against UPS ended with a victory for the union.  The strike had started fifteen days earlier. More than 180,000 UPS workers participated in the action. It was the first nationwide strike by UPS workers.   At the time UPS delivered eighty percent of all the packages in the United States.  The company known for its signature brown trucks delivered twelve million packages a day.  The key issue of the strike was that the company increasingly relied on part-time workers.  The insecurities of part time work were growing not just at UPS, but for workers in industries all across the country. The strike settlement came with the union winning its core issues.  The company agreed to convert 10,000 part-time jobs to full-time positions over the course of the next five years. The victory was significant for the US labor movement.   The 1980s and 1990s saw new attacks on labor unions and working people, starting with President Ronald Regan’s breaking of the air traffic controllers’ union strike in 1981.  The UPS victory in a national strike with broad rank-and-file support encouraged working people beyond the Teamsters Union.   Announcing the settlement of the strike, ABC news anchor Peter Jennings declared, “It’s been the most dramatic confrontation between industry and organized labor in two decades.” Teamsters President Ron Carey said, “It is what this country needs, decent jobs, a chance for the dream, a chance to purchase a home, a chance to bring your children up properly, a chance to send them to college. Enough is enough and it’s about time that people start fighting back on this.”

On this day in Labor History the year was 1949.  That was the day that is remembered as “Kemi Bloody Thursday” in Finland. Two strikers were killed.  Kemi is a lumber town in northern Finland. The lumber workers in the area went out on strike when the government proposed slashing their wages by more than thirty percent.  The strike was soon joined by sawmill and dock workers. The walk out caused a massive log-jam on the Kemijoki River.  On the fateful day 3,000 strikers engaged in a peaceful march.  They encountered armed police, and a confrontation ensued.  The police had guns on their side.  The workers had only rocks and sticks.  One striker was shot and killed.  Another was hit by a truck.  Finnish army troops were called in to Kemi.  Twenty-two strike leaders were arrested.  In response to the violence, sympathy strikes were called by other unions, including the seaman’s union. These strikes were seen by many as a fight between the Finnish elected government and Communists in the nation’s trade unions.   Officials in the United States worried the strikes were an attempt by Communists to open the door to intervention in Finland by the Soviet Union. After World War II, Cold War politics shaped responses to labor struggles in many nations.   A song, Fly Black-Winged Bird, remembers the fallen workers.  The lyrics, translated to English, begin, “Fly, black-winged bird, with blood on your feathers across the lands.  From village to village carry your message.  Open up, Autumn sky for the sad news to spread. Shame on a country where an unarmed man gets shot.  Shame on the one who calls the shots.”

On this day in Labor History the year was 1985. That was the day that workers at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota went out on strike.  They were members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local P-9. Hormel had slashed workers’ wages by twenty-three percent during the early 1980s. Benefits were also diminished and incentive programs rolled back.  These changes cut deeply into the Hormel workers’ earnings. What had been considered a good job was changing drastically. This was the story for many workers in Reagan-Era America. The 3,500 Hormel workers voted overwhelmingly to strike. The national UFCW discouraged the action. The strike lasted more than a year. Strikebreakers were brought in, including some of the union members who crossed the picket line to return to work. The National Guard was called in to keep the peace between strikers and scabs. After a year, the strike went down in defeat.  Even after the strike, many were not called back to work. They were put on waiting lists for a job to reopen. Some never returned to the plant.  Twenty-five years after the strike the Austin Daily Herald staff wrote, “What resulted was a bitter, drawn-out labor dispute that drastically impacted the community, from workers who lost jobs to families that were torn apart by picket lines.” The strike became the feature of a documentary by Barbara Kopple. In 1990 the documentary, “American Dream” won the Academy Award. The film tells the story of the Hormel strike as a window into the tragic experiences of many workers in during the 1980s.   The film was made on a shoestring budget. Singer Bruce Springsteen provided $25,000 to help support this important film

On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.  That was the day that the U.S. Congress passed the National Apprenticeship Act.  It was also known as the Fitzgerald Act. The purpose of the act was “to formulate and promote the furtherance of labor standards necessary to safeguard the welfare of apprentices.”  Apprentices are workers learning a skill set.  They are typically paid less than skilled workers or journeymen during the course of their training. Apprenticeship programs are especially found in the building trades, where learning skills like plumbing or electrical work might take years of dedicated training.  But before the protection of the 1937 act, there was no national standard governing apprentice programs.  This led some apprentices to be exploited, earning lower wages even after they gained the skills they needed to do the job as journeymen.  In 1911, Wisconsin was the first state to pass legislation to structure the apprentice system.  In the 1920s multiple labor unions advocated for national apprentice standards to promote fairness and safety for workers. Recognizing the need for national apprentice guidelines, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt commissioned a committee to study the issue.  They were tasked with developing training standards for apprenticeship programs.  The 1937 law gave the committee the authority to complete their job.  The committee on apprentice training became a permanent part of the Department of Labor.  The Bureau of Apprenticeship works with State governments to ensure the fair treatment of apprentices.    Today apprentice programs provide classroom and on-the-job training to help developed a skilled labor force.  In 2015, 52,500 participants graduated from the registered apprentice programs.  Nearly ½ a million workers participated in apprentice training programs, learning skills that will help build their financial security.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1989.  That was the day that Gerry Horgan was killed while walking the picket line.  Gerry was a chief steward for the Communication Workers of America Local 1103.  The Communication Workers were on strike against the telecommunications giant NYNEX company, which became part of the present day Verizon company.  At issue was management’s proposal to shift a greater share of the health care costs to the workers.  The strike wore on for a total of seventeen weeks.  In total, nearly 60,000 telephone workers in the Northeast participated in the walk out.  These included both CWA members as well as workers who were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Gerry Horgan was part of the strike in the town of Valhalla,New York, about twenty-five miles north of New York City.   Gerry was struck by a vehicle driven by a strikebreaker while walking the picket line.  The driver was the daughter of one of the company managers.  She was never charged for hitting Gerry, although some at the scene claimed she accelerated after hitting him with her car.  One witness, Charles Pearce, recalled that “Gerry was rundown like a dog.”   The CWA honors Gerry’s memory by wearing red t-shirts.  In 2010, a CWA article titled “Why We Wear Red,” explained,“The idea started small, we asked our Members to wear red on Thursday to remind the company of the blood they had spilled and to show support for our fallen Brother.  But it quickly spread nationwide as a sign of solidarity every Thursday at CWA locations.”  Gerry Horgan was killed standing up for the rights of workers and fighting for a better tomorrow for all workers. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936. That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.  The act was a key piece of the President’s “New Deal” a series of federal programs responding to the ravages of the Great Depression.  Social Security would provide an income for retirees and the disabled, to ensure they did no slide into complete destitution.  On signing the bill, President Roosevelt, known for delivering memorable speeches, addressed the press.  He said, “Today, the hope of many years’ standing in large part fulfilled.  The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, had tended more and more to make life insecure.  Young people have come to wonder what will their lot when they come to old age.  The man with a job has wondered how long that job will last.  This Social Security measure gives at least some protection to 50 million of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old age pensions, and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.”  He went on to say, “The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and inflation. It is, in short, a law that will care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.”  Over the past few decades, politicians, have increasingly sounded the alarm that Social Security will not remain viable as the large baby boomer generation retires and draws benefits.  Yet despite those who seek to attack Social Security, it remains a bedrock of the social safety net for millions of Americans.

”Communists!”  “Reds!”  Long have these been the cries of the press and politicians seeking to undermine the labor movement in the United States. But sometimes even labor leaders themselves got caught up in the anti-Communist hysteria. On this day in Labor History the year was 1938.  President of the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor, John P. Frey, gave testimony before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities.  It was also known as the “Dies Committee.” Texas Congressman Martin Dies, Jr.  founded the effort to root out an alleged Communist threat in the U.S. In his testimony Frey alleged three hundred leaders of the Congress of Industrial Organization were Communists.  At the time the AFL and CIO were two separate organizations.  The CIO had split off from the AFL to pursue more organizing in industries like auto making and steel.  Even after his testimony, Frey maintained a network of operatives in the labor movement to identify suspected communists.  A few days after Frey spoke before Congress, the Chicago Tribune ran a story explaining the perceived communist-labor threat.  The article declared, “If the communists in the United States continued to operate as the communist party they would have no influence on American foreign policy in the foreseeable future.  But by making themselves leaders of labor and therefore powerful in Democratic counsels they can be of immediate value to the soviets.”  The paper warned that the communists were hoping to march the US into another European war.  War-weary after World War I, the public had little appetite for another major conflict.  The charge that the CIO was infiltrated by communists who wanted war took its toll on the radical labor organization, dividing workers by playing into the fears and hysteria of the era.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1919.  That was the day that the chorus girls of the Ziegfeld Follies formed a union.  They called their organization the Chorus Equity Association.  The Ziegfeld Follies were the hottest ticket on Broadway during the early 1900s. The show was most famous for their chorus girls in elaborate costumes, bedecked with feathers and sparkles. In 1919 performers on Broadway as well as Chicago were standing up for fairer wages and better treatment on the job.  The Actors Equity Association’s contract had expired, and the actors demanded a fair contract.  The producers banded together into the Producing Managers Association. Actors and producers faced off.  The actors held a meeting and decided not to go on stage unless the contract was settled.   Membership in the union swelled. Twelve shows in New York were cancelled. When Florenz Ziegfeld, the head of the Ziegfeld Follies joined the producers’ group, the chorus girls took this a bad sign.    They decided it was time that they too joined the union movement.  A former chorus girl named Marie Dressler was elected the first union president.  The chorus girls joined the striking actors for a march down Broadway.  The Ziegfeld performers formally went on strike, and the curtain fell on the Follies.  Chicago theaters also went dark.  In all, 37 productions are shut down in the two cities.  Finally, on September 7 the strike is settled and the Follies returned.  In 1955 Chorus Equity merged with the Actors Equity Association. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894.  That was the day that federal troops pushed “Kelly’s Industrial Army” out of Washington D.C and across the Potomac River.  The “army” was a group of unemployed men who had come to the capitol to protest government inaction.  The country was in the grip of an economic depression.  The nation’s Agricultural regions in the South and Great Plains were also hit by a drought.  Times were hard for American workers and families. The call had gone out across the nation for the unemployed to make their way to the doorstep of Congress.  The goal was to petition for public infrastructure projects to put people back to work. Businessman Jacob Coxey had organized a march of the unemployed from Ohio.  Charles T. Kelly and his group came from California.  They rode the rails and made it to Des Moines, Iowa where they encamped.  After a while the local residents decided the unemployed group had outstayed their welcome.  The Iowans provided lumber so the Industrial Army could build flatboats and be on their way.  By the time Charles Kelly and his men made it to D.C., Coxey had already been sentenced to twenty days in jail for trespassing on the Capitol lawn. Yet unemployed men from across the country kept coming into the nation’s capital. 1,200 men arrived from different points across the country.  One of those in Kelly’s group was a young Jack London.  The wrote of the experience, “Across the “wild and wooly West,” clear from California, General Kelly and his heroes captured trains; but they fell down when they crossed the Missouri and went up against the effete East.”   The marchers’ protests earned no help from the capitol.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1931.  That was the day that Air Line Pilots Association affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.   The need for pilots to organize became apparent as early as the mid-1920s.  The airline industry was new, and pilots often faced dangerous conditions.  They were often put under pressure to fly under adverse conditions, especially if they were tasked with delivering the mail.  As the Great Depression swept the country, pilots were asked to fly more and more hours for less money.  They organization of pilots started off small and in secret.  But soon it grew.  In 1930 the union got its unofficial start, holding its first convention the following year.   David Behncke was elected the first president.  Behncke had served as a flight instructor for the Army.  He then led the Behncke’s Flying Circus, performing airshows across the Midwest.  Then he went to work for a private airmail service. As union president, Behncke established the organization’s headquarters in Chicago.  Over the years as plane technology has changed, the union has fought to ensure the continued safety of the pilots.  Pilot fatigue, as well as security concerns, especially after the terrorist attacks of 911, have also been important issues for the union.  Today the Air Line Pilots Association represents more than 50,000 pilots flying for 31 airlines in the United States and Canada.  Their mission statement begins with the commitment to “promote and champion all aspects of aviation safety throughout all segments of the aviation community.” 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1979.  That was the day that young women workers at the YH Trading Company in Seoul, South Korea staged a sit-in.  The women made wigs for export.  The company had been one of the leading exporters in the nation.  But then the managers began to move the profits from the wig company to a shipping company under the same ownership, as well as to a film production company.  This drained the profits from the wig factory and left it in debt.  The owner shut down the company without warning, firing all of the employees.  These women did not only lose their jobs. Water and electricity were turned off at the factory dormitories where they lived.  A union represented the young women.  The union planned a strike at the building, but the police were called in to break it up.  The workers decided move their protest to the local headquarters of the New Democratic Party.   The party was in opposition to the leader of Seoul, President Park Chung Hee.  The fired women were welcomed at the New Democratic Party office.  There they decided to stage a sit-in to bring attention to their situation.  The worker’s sit-in only lasted three days.  Then 1,000 police stormed the building.  They overturned furniture and broke windows. They dragged the women out of the building violently.  One woman, 21-year old Kim Kyong-sook died in the raid She fell from the roof of the building in a clash with the police.  Four of the union leaders were sent to prison.  More than two hundred of the workers were expelled out of Seoul, back home to rural areas. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1850.  That was the day that two tailors who were out on strike in New York City were killed in a confrontation with the police.  It is thought they were the first workers to die while participating in a strike in the United States.  They certainly would not be the last.  The United States has one of the bloodiest labor histories of any industrial nation.  It is estimated that at least 700 people have lost their lives to violence during a strike.  The vast majority of those slain were workers.  Some of the most-bloody conflicts included the Great Upheaval of 1877.  Across the country 100 workers lost their lives in an uprising of railway labor.  Then in the 1892 strike against Carnegie Steel in Homestead, Pennsylvania nine strikers and three Pinkerton agents died.  Two years later, thirty workers died across the country in a strike and boycott against the Pullman Palace Car Company.  One of the most infamous labor massacres occurred in Ludlow, Colorado in 1914.  During this coal mining strike gun thugs hired by the company rained machine gun bullets and fire down on a tent colony of the striking workers.  At least nineteen people were killed.  Eleven of them were children.  In 1937, ten workers died on Memorial Day at a demonstration against Republic Steel in Chicago.  These are just some of the battles, massacres and murders that shaped the American labor movement.  Too often the toll of this blood-shed is not taught in history classes. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1890.  That was the day that one of the heroines of the US labor movement, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born in Concord, New Hampshire.  Elizabeth learned her progressive politics at a young age.  Her father was a socialist and her mother was a feminist

On this day in Labor History the year was 1835. That was the day that began the “Baltimore Bank Riot.” The Bank of Maryland had failed in 1834.  Thousands of people who had deposited money in the bank saw their savings vanish. For nearly a year-and-a-half the depositors waited for their money to be returned.  Anger grew.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1993. That was the day that the Family Medical Leave Act went into effect. Union members worked hard to support this legislation, testifying before congress and holding rallies. It was an uphill battle to pass the bill. Starting in 1984 family medical leave was brought before Congress. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1942.  That was the day that the United States and Mexico signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement.  It became known as the Bracero Program.  The word “bracero” can be translated into “one who works with his arms” and refers to farm workers. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That was the day that became known in California as the “Wheatland Riot.” The Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, were trying to organize hop pickers, who worked near the city of Wheatland in Northern California. Living conditions for the hop pickers were rough.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1939.  That was the day that the Hatch Act was enacted.  The law was named after Senator Carl Hatch, a Democratic Senator from New Mexico. The Hatch Act limits political activity by federal employees.  One of the reasons the law was passed was due to allegations of corruption by the Works Progress Administration.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1917.  Frank Little, an activist for the Industrial Workers of The World, or Wobblies was lynched near Butte, Montana.  His beaten body was found hung off of a railroad trestle.  On it was pinned a disturbing note.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1970.  That was the day the NFL Players Association went out on strike.  The American Football League and the National Football League officially merged that year.  Each league had their own player’s association.  With the league merger they joined forces into one union.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1965.  That was the day that US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law.  This federally funded healthcare program provides assistance to one of the country’s most vulnerable populations—the elderly.  At the time the law was enacted, many seniors found it difficult, if not impossible, to get private health insurance.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1956.  That was the day that an oil tank explosion took the lives of nineteen men fighting a fire at Shamrock Oil and Gas company in the northeast of Dumas, Texas.   Dumas was in the Texas panhandle, oil boom country.  The day after the tragedy, the Chicago Daily Tribune carried the story of what happened.