Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1908. That was the day that the Executive Board of the American Federation of Labor established its Metal Trades Department.  The goal was to coordinate the organizing and legislative efforts of those in the many metal trades. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1921. During that summer the battle waged over the efforts to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coal mines. The miners had been evicted from their company homes, and had established tent colonies. One was located at Lick Creek.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1914.  That was the day that the Miner’s Union Day parade was scheduled in Butte, Montana.  In spite of the festivities trouble was brewing down in the copper mines. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1904.  That was the day that 18,000 workers in the Chicago’s stockyards went out on strike.  Work in the stockyards was often brutal and dangerous. Thousands of workers toiled in the yards, many of them immigrants from Eastern Europe.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1969. That was the day that labor leader John L. Lewis died. Born to a Welsh-American Coal mining family in Iowa, Lewis became the leading champion of industrial unionism in the 1930s.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1946.  That was the day that the US Supreme Court handed down a decision that would have massive implication for American workers. The case was known as Anderson V. Mount Clemens Pottery.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1954.  That was the day that marked the public downfall of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Senator McCarthy had become the public face of anti-Communist hysteria during the Cold War.  He used his position as Senator to make wild accusations against alleged communists in the US Government.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1904. That was the day that John Carley, a union miner, was shot down in Dunnville, Colorado.  He was part of a strike in the Cripple Creek gold mining region.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1929. That was the day that Police Chief Orville Aderholt was shot and killed, at a camp of striking textile workers in Gastonia, North Carolina.  The textile mills had fallen on hard times in the 1920s.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894.  That was the day that the Colorado state militia troops came to Cripple Creek to intervene in a mining strike. But unlike every other time in US mining history that a state militia was called out, the state troops did not have their guns pointed at the miners.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1947. That was the day that Secretary of State George Marshall delivered a speech at Harvard University.  In his speech Marshall made a call for the United States to send assistance to European countries devastated by World War II.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1904. That was the day when 900 Wisconsin paper makers walked off the job from Appleton to Menasha, from Combined Locks to Neenah.  They were members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers .  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1900. That was the day that International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union was formed in New York City by seven local unions. While men held nearly all of the leadership roles in the early days of the union, most of the workers were Jewish women.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1916.  That was the day that John Greeni , an Italian immigrant miner, walked out the St. James Mine in Aurora, Minnesota .  The mine was part of the Mesabi Iron Range, the richest deposit of iron-ore in the United States. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1981.  That was the day that the “Cannery Murders” took place in Seattle, Washington.  Two union organizers, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes were gunned down at their labor hall.  They were working to reform the canning industry for Local 37 of the International Longshoreman’s and Warehousemen’s Union.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1987. That was the day that Rose Will Monroe, one of the women who came to be known as Rosie the Riveter, died in Clarksville, Indiana.  She was 77 years old.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.  That was the day that came to be known as the Republic Steel Massacre or the Memorial Day Massacre, in Chicago, Illinois. Workers had gathered to rally for a union at the Republic Steel Plant.  The crowd included men, women and children and began with a festive holiday atmosphere

Today in Labor History, May 29 Today in Labor History, May 29, the year was 1941.  That was the day that the animators at Walt Disney went out on strike.  Attempts to organize a union for cartoonists had begun a decade earlier, resulting in the formation of the Screen Cartoonists Guild in 1938. 

Today in Labor History, May 28, the year was 1882.  That was the day that John Muir, a Scottish American conservationist founded the Sierra Club in San Francisco California.  The Sierra Club’s purpose is to "explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth."  

Can you imagine if the earth beneath your hometown caught fire and kept on burning for more than half a century?  That is what happened in Centralia, Pennsylvania. Today in Labor History, May 27, the year was 1962.  Centralia was a mining town with 2,700 residents, built above a rich vein of anthracite coal.

Today in Labor History, May 26, the year was 1824.  That day was the first time when women workers in the United States left their jobs and walked out on strike.  It happened at the Slater Mill, part of New England’s rapidly growing textile industry. 

Today in Labor History, May 25, the year was 1986.  That was the day that more than five million people participated in “Hands Across America.” The event was organized to raise money to combat the problems of homelessness and hunger in the United States. 

Today in Labor History, May 24, the year was 1949.  That was the day a shot gun blast broke through a closed window and struck Victor Reuther, as he sat reading a newspaper in his living room. 

Today in Labor History, May 23, the year was 2003.  That was the day that the US Senate approved more than 300 billion dollars in tax cuts over the next decade.  The cuts barely passed.  Vice President Dick Cheney cast the deciding vote, 51-50.  

Today in Labor History, May 22, the year was 1969.  That was the day that began the first strike of the Chicago Teachers Union.  The strike lasted three days.  It won teachers a $100 per month pay raise.