On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 13 October 1948, 181 drivers at the Ruppert brewery in Manhattan went on wildcat strike in support of 21 drivers who had failed to keep up with excessively quick delivery schedules. Their union, the United Brewery Workers, had sanctioned the sackings and did not approve the walkout. Bosses claimed the following morning that everything was back to normal, but had to admit by the end of...

On this day, 12 October 1919, 150 Royal Navy sailors mutinied and broke out of their ships at Port Edgar upon hearing they were being sent to the Baltic to fight against the Russian revolution. The desertion prevented the first destroyer flotilla from departing. Most of the mutineers were arrested and 10 imprisoned: despite the government having pledged that only volunteers would be sent to fight...

On this day, 11 October 1884, one of the longest-burning fires in the world began when striking mine workers set fire to the New Straitsville mine in Ohio. Miners employed by the Columbus & Hocking Coal and Iron Company had walked out on strike in June, and mine bosses hired scab replacement workers in their place. To prevent the mines from operating, a group of unknown people set fire to mine...

On this day, 10 October 1947 a strike began by Black African railway workers in the French colonies now known as Benin and the Côte d'Ivoire. The strike spread throughout the whole of French West Africa (including what is now Senegal and Guinea as well). It lasted until March 19 the following year when workers returned to work having gain many concessions from their employer. More information, sou...

On this day, 9 October 1912, the mostly female workforce at the Phoenix Mill in Little Falls, New York, walked out on wildcat strike to force their employer to follow a new state law limiting working hours to 54 per week, down from 60. 2,000 other workers from the Phoenix and Gilberts Mills joined them on strike, and the workers joined the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union. The I...

On this day, 8 October 1916, mostly migrant workers at Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company in New Jersey walked out on strike against low wages and dangerous conditions. City authorities collaborated with the company and sent in police to brutally repress the strike, killing four and injuring dozens and the strike collapsed after 10 days. This is a history of the dispute: https://libcom.org/history...

On this day, 7 October 1988, thousands of workers in Montenegro, then part of Yugoslavia, went on strike demanding the resignation of the Communist Party leadership, whom they blamed for 200% inflation and a 50% reduction in living standards over the past eight years. Montenegrins and Serbs also complained of persecution by ethnic Albanians in neighbouring Kosovo. While riot police attacked and te...

On this day, 6 October 1995, 32,000 machinists went on strike at Boeing, one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers. It lasted for 69 days and ended in most of their demands being met.  More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10666/machinists-at-boeing-strike Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on  patreon . If you...

On this day, 5 October 2001, workers at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, launched a sitdown strike for better pay. In particular, the workers were complaining about wages and additional allowances, which were considerably lower for health workers than they were for workers in the justice system. The strike shut down almost all of the 1500-bed facility, with only a few beds...

On this day, 4 October 1945, US President Harry S. Truman ordered the Navy to seize half of the US's oil refining capacity in order to break a three-week strike of the nation's oil workers. More info in this excellent book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/strike-jeremy-brecher Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on  patreon . If you...

On this day, 3 October 2019, a series of protests led by Indigenous peoples began in Ecuador in protest at an austerity package backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) known as Decree 883. The bill, aimed at reducing public spending, included pay cuts and increases in fuel costs of at least 30%. The movement began with a strike of transport workers on 3 October. After unions called off the...

On this day, 2 October 1915, the mostly women workers at the weaving mill in Morozov, Russia walked out for a pay rise to compensate for the increasing cost of living. The strike spread to tens of thousands of other workers in nearby towns, who stayed out until 7 October when they received a 20% raise.  More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9226/morozov...

On 1 October 2012 health workers in Estonia began a strike for better pay and conditions. In particular, they were demanding a 23% pay increase for caretakers, 17.5% for nurses, and 11% for doctors. They also demanded reduced workloads, and pay for interns. At first, workers in Tallin and Tartu walked out from outpatient care centres, while doctors initiated a go-slow. On October 8 the strike expa...

On this day, 30 September 1919, compositors and pressmen working at The Daily Sketch newspaper in London refused to print the paper until an editorial criticising an ongoing railway strike was deleted. That same day, another newspaper had its publication delayed by its workers demanding that a government advert appealing to the public to resist the strike be thrown out. However they were persuaded...

On this day, 29 September 1909, the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union began the first of what became known as the free speech fights, in Missoula, Montana. Members would publicly speak on the streets of the town in open defiance of a law banning public speaking. When one speaker was arrested another took their place, including well known organisers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who was...

On this day, 28 September 1991, leading labour organiser Shankar Guha Niyogi was assassinated in his sleep at midnight in Bhilai, India. Niyogi, who had successfully led efforts to organize cement factory and contract coalminers, as well as establish health care and cultural programs for poor workers and peasants, had angered many local industrialists, whose profits had suffered as a result. He wa...

On this day, 27 September 1973, the United Farm Workers in California won their second strike in a jurisdictional dispute with the Teamsters union, when yet again the Teamsters were forced to concede the UFW's jurisdiction in organising farm workers. During the dispute one UFW striker was killed, three others shot and wounded, and others were attacked or firebombed.  More information, sources and...

On this day, 26 September 1939, the actor Ricky Tomlinson was born. Now famous for his roles in The Royle Family, Riff Raff and Mike Bassett: England Manager, he also participated in the 1972 building workers' strike. Following the dispute, Tomlinson was one of 24 building worker trade unionists who were convicted on various charges relating to the strike in what was one of the greatest miscarriag...

On this day, 25 September 2005, sex workers in Gyeonggi province, South Korea, organised in the Democratic Coalition of Sex Workers, reached the first collective bargaining agreement with brothel owners in the country's history.  Over the next five years, the union had grown to encompass some 220 members in the vicinity of the US army base camp Humphrey. And it had achieved improvements for its me...

On this day, 24 September 1945 in New York City, around 1.5 million workers got an impromptu day off when elevator workers in over 2,000 city high-rise buildings, including the Empire State building, went on strike against pay cuts, which workers said breached the contract recommendations of the War Labor Board. Garment workers walked out on sympathy strike. The strike remained strong for five day...

On this day, 23 September 2017, the strike of video game voice actors in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) against 11 US video game developers and publishers, including Activision, Electronic Arts, Disney and others, ended in a partial victory after 340 days. It was the longest strike in the history of the union. In particular, employers agreed...

On this day, 22 September 1912, the syndicalist union the Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of the World Worker) was formed in Mexico during the turbulent events of the revolution, despite repression by the then-government of Francisco Madero.  However, the union later began supporting a capitalist faction involved in the conflict – the constitutionalist forces of Venustiano Carranza – and wound up f...

On 21 September 1945, a strike began of supervisors in US coal mines demanding recognition for their union, the United Clerical, Technical and Supervisory Employees of the Mining Industry, part of the United Mine Workers of America. The strike began to spread, and rank-and-file coalminers stopped work in solidarity with their supervisors. Eventually, 200,000 miners were out, shutting down at least...

On this day, 20 September 1979, Aotearoa's (New Zealand's) only nationwide general strike took place when the Federation of Labour called a one-day strike of all its members in support of the Drivers Union. 300,000 people took to the streets around the country after a pay agreement between transport workers and employers was blocked by the government. The government claimed that the strike had no...

On this day, 19 September 1795, two enslaved people named Tula and Karpata who had been leading a revolt on the Dutch colony of Curaçao were betrayed and taken prisoner, effectively ending a month-long rebellion.  They and two other leaders, Pedro Wakao and Louis Mercier were executed, and many other rebels had been killed in the fighting. Despite this, the government was forced to grant limited r...