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Exile
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1 Episode 21: The Heiress Who Helped End School Segregation 35:10
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Hilde Mosse comes from one of the wealthiest families in Berlin and stands to inherit an enormous fortune. But she longs for something more meaningful than the luxurious lifestyle her family provides. So Hilde decides to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. As the Nazis take power in Germany and the Mosse family is forced to flee, Dr. Hilde Mosse lands in New York having nearly lost everything.. She finds her calling treating the mental health of Black youth – and the symptoms of a racist system. In addition to photographs, school records, and correspondence spanning Hilde Mosse’s entire lifetime, the Mosse Family Collection in the LBI Archives includes the diaries she kept between 1928 and 1934, from the ages of 16-22. Hilde’s papers are just part of the extensive holdings related to the Mosse Family at LBI. Learn more at lbi.org/hilde . Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and Antica Productions. It’s narrated by Mandy Patinkin. This episode was written by Lauren Armstrong-Carter. Our executive producers are Laura Regehr, Rami Tzabar, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Our producer is Emily Morantz. Research and translation by Isabella Kempf. Voice acting by Hannah Gelman. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson. Theme music by Oliver Wickham. Please consider supporting the work of the Leo Baeck Institute with a tax-deductible contribution by visiting lbi.org/exile2025 . The entire team at Antica Productions and Leo Baeck Institute is deeply saddened by the passing of our Executive Producer, Bernie Blum. We would not have been able to tell these stories without Bernie's generous support. Bernie was also President Emeritus of LBI and Exile would not exist without his energetic and visionary leadership. We extend our condolences to his entire family. May his memory be a blessing. This episode of Exile is made possible in part by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.…
Labor History in 2:00
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Contenu fourni par The Rick Smith Show. Tout le contenu du podcast, y compris les épisodes, les graphiques et les descriptions de podcast, est téléchargé et fourni directement par The Rick Smith Show ou son partenaire de plateforme de podcast. Si vous pensez que quelqu'un utilise votre œuvre protégée sans votre autorisation, vous pouvez suivre le processus décrit ici https://fr.player.fm/legal.
A daily, pocket-sized history of America's working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.
…
continue reading
102 episodes
Tout marquer comme (non) lu
Manage series 3382048
Contenu fourni par The Rick Smith Show. Tout le contenu du podcast, y compris les épisodes, les graphiques et les descriptions de podcast, est téléchargé et fourni directement par The Rick Smith Show ou son partenaire de plateforme de podcast. Si vous pensez que quelqu'un utilise votre œuvre protégée sans votre autorisation, vous pouvez suivre le processus décrit ici https://fr.player.fm/legal.
A daily, pocket-sized history of America's working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.
…
continue reading
102 episodes
Tutti gli episodi
×On this day in labor history, the year was 1946 is what is known as the Royal Indian Navy Revolt. The HMS Talwaar was in Bombay Harbor. Indian workers on ship went on strike. They refused orders from the British naval officers.
A current question is which workers are entitled to union representation? Who really gets counted as a worker? Who decides wages, hours, and conditions? These were the questions that divided the campus of Yale University On this day in labor history, the year was 1992.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1883 marking the deadliest day in Illinois mining history at the time. 74 men and boys lost their lives digging for coal in the Diamond Mine Disaster in Braidwood Illinois.
“We need to spend money on health care, schools, housing--not a war budget.” This was the statement of Fred Pecker, a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6, On this day in labor history, the year was 2003. Fred, who was protesting in San Francisco, was just one of the estimated 10 million people in 800 cities across the globe that protested the U.S. War in Iraq that day.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1913, James Riddle Hoffa was born to a coal miner in Brazil, Indiana. Tragedy struck the Hoffa home in 1920 when at age 7 young Jimmy lost his father. In 1924, like many families in Brazil the Hoffa family moved to Detroit, Michigan in search of work.
If you turned on your T.V. in the winter of 2007-2008, you probably couldn’t find new episodes of your favorite programs. That winter some 12,000 writers represented by the Writers Guild of America took to the picket lines holding a 100 day strike.
On this day in labor history, the year was, 1880, labor leader John L. Lewis was born in a company mining camp outside of Lucas, Iowa. His father was a Welsh coal miner, and young Lewis followed in his footsteps entering the Big Hill Mine in Lucas at the age of 17.
Did you work 40-hours this week? If you did, today is an important day for you! On this day in labor history, the year was 1926 On this day, labor leader Benjamin Gold began what became a general strike of all Furriers in New York City.
On this day in labor history, the year was1979, Rufino Contreras gave his life to the labor movement. In the Imperial Valley of California the United Farm Workers were engaged in a bitter labor strike against lettuce growers. Shortly before noon, Contreres and six other strikers walked onto a lettuce field owned by Mario Saikhon in an attempt to try talk to a group of 75 scabs brought in to break the strike. Before they could reach the scabs shots rang out.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 2000, members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) went on strike against Boeing.
Each and every day Labor’s history continues to be written. Such is the case in North Carolina. On this day in labor history, the year was 2014 which saw a massive protest in Raleigh. The protest was part of the “Moral Monday” movement. “Moral Mondays” started off as and continue as a series of protests against new policies enacted by the Republican legislature and governor of North Carolina.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1913 law enforcement officers and mining company guards rode on an armored train firing indiscriminately into a tent colony of striking miners and their families at Holly Grove, West Virginia. For nearly a year, what became known as the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek mine wars had raged in the rich coal range of West Virginia?…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1919 marking the first day of the week-long general strike in Seattle, Washington. As World War I drew to a close many workers in the city were frustrated by two years without pay increases due to the war.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1993, Today marks an important day for all working families in the United States. In an attempt "to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families." President Bill Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act, or FMLA.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1869 and we celebrate the birthday of one of the most formidable figures in U.S. labor. “Big Bill Haywood” was one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World or IWW in 1905. He was also active in the Socialist Party. Haywood entered the mines at only nine years of age. He became the secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners in 1900.…
During this past year, there have been many news stories of students walking out of public schools to protest the practices of community policing. This tactic has deep roots in the Civil Rights Movement. On this day in labor history, the year was 1964 with nearly a half a million African American and Puerto Rican students in New York City, participated in a one-day school boycot…
Today in labor history, February 2, 1929 3,000 timber workers in New South Wales, Australia were locked out of their jobs. Australia was in the midst of the Great Depression.
Today in labor history, February 1, 1913 was the first day of the Paterson, New Jersey silk weavers strike. During the strike than 20,000 silk weavers walked off the job. They strike started at the Doherty Silk Mill.
Today in labor history, January 31, 1940 Ida May Fuller received a check from the U.S. government for $22.54. That may seem like a small amount, but the check represented something much larger.
“What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.” Those words were penned in the opening paragraph of the book Rules for Radicals, whose author, Saul Alinsky was born today in labor history January 30, 1909.
Sometimes you have to sit down in order to stand up for your rights as a worker. That is what workers in the Firestone rubber plant proved in Akron, Ohio today in labor history, January 29, 1936. Akron was the heart of the rubber industry in the United States, employing 40,000 at its peak.
"The only people whose names are recorded in history are those who did something. The peaceful and indifferent are forgotten; they never know the fighting joy of living." Those words were spoken in Seattle by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, today in labor history, January 28,1917. Flynn certainly embraced the “fighting joy of living,” as a leader in the Industrial Workers of the World. She became a full time organizer for the IWW in 1907.…
Today in labor history, January 27, 1850, renowned labor leader Samuel Gompers was born to a Jewish family in London, England. His family immigrated to the United States in 1863, where Gompers learned the cigar-making trade from his father.
Today in labor history, January 26, 1897 saw the charter of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union, formed out the merger of seven other unions.
After an election, have you ever found yourself scratching your head, wondering why it seems that working people vote for candidates that do not represent their interests? Well, that feeling is nothing new. Back in 1912, Ernest Riebe of the Industrial Workers of the World created a comic strip character, Mr. Block.…
Today in labor history, January 24, 1950 the minimum wage in the United States was raised to 75 cents an hour. This move nearly doubled the minimum wage, from the previous level of 40 cents. 22 million people were eligible for this wage increase. In his statement on the change President Harry Truman declared, “It is a measure dictated by social justice. It adds to our economic strength. It is founded on the belief that full human dignity requires at least a minimum level of economic sufficiency and security.”…
On this date in 1945 Nikolaus Gross was hung in a Berlin prison. Hear why.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1890 Miners from a number of smaller miner unions gathered in Columbus Ohio to consolidate their ranks and form the United Mine Workers of America.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1946. US steel workers staged the greatest walkout in the history of the Steel industry. Nearly 750,000 strikers shut down more than 1,200 steel plants in 30 states.
Today in labor history, January 20, 1909, marked one of deadliest workplace disasters in Chicago history. It took place a little over a mile off-shore near 71st Street, on Lake Michigan. A group of predominantly Irish laborers were working on a tunnel to bring fresh water to the city’s growing south side.…
On This Day in Labor History, the year was 1920. That was the day 3,000 members of the Filipino Labor Union went on strike against the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association on the island of Oahu. Plantation Bosses intentionally recruited Filipino workers, in an effort to weaken the Japanese labor force on the island. The bosses pitted one group as strikebreakers against the other.…
Today in labor history, January 18, 1943 marks the death of the first woman general organizer appointed by the American Federation of Labor. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan was born the only child of working-class Irish immigrants, in Hannibal, Missouri.
Today in labor history, January 17, 1915, the most popular labor song in the United States was completed in Chicago. Ralph Chaplin, an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) activist, artist and writer was in town for a demonstration against hunger. He finished writing “Solidarity Forever,” a song he had started working on the year before at a Miner’s strike in West Virginia.…
Today in labor history, January 16, 1920 thousands of immigrant detainees and labor activists won the basic constitutional right to consult with an attorney. These detainees were victims of the infamous Palmer Raids.
Today in labor history, January 15, 1919 marked one of the strangest industrial disasters in U.S. History. That winter day in Boston the weather shifted suddenly and temperatures began to rise. A fifty foot storage container containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses began to make strange noises.
Today in labor history, January 14,1940, Julian Bond was born in Nashville Tennessee. Bond was one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. He helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, known as “snick.”
On this day in labor history, the year was 1874. What came to be known as the “Tompkin’s Square Riot,” took place in New York City. The nation was caught in the clutches of the 1873 depression. Unemployed New Yorkers called for a public works program to put people back to work.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1932, a very unusual army marched on Washington, D.C. Pro-labor Catholic Priest, Father James Renshaw Cox led the march from Pennsylvania to the Nation’s Capital to demand a public work’s program to put people back to work. For more information on Cox's March http://web.stanford.edu/group/progressive/cgi-bin/?p=2153…
Today in labor history, the year was 1912 this historic day marked the beginning of the “Bread and Roses Strike” of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The strike was led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The state Of Massachusetts passed a law reducing the work week for women and children from 56 to 54 hours.…
Today in labor history, January 10, 1914, two men were killed during a grocery store robbery in Utah. Their murders were blamed on Joe Hill a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, or the IWW, also known as the Wobblies.
Yet farm workers have played an important, and often overlooked role in labor history. Such was the case today in labor history, January 9, 1939. That was the day more than 1,500 Missouri farmers and their families began a “highway sit in.”
Often significant days in history pass with little attention. Today in labor history, January 8, 1811, is one such day. On that day Charles Deslonde, an enslaved sugar laborer in the New Orleans territory led what became one of the largest slave revolts in American history.
Today in labor history, January 7, 1919 began what is known as Semana Trágica, or Tragic Week in Argentina. Labor unrest had been mounting in Buenos Aries. On January 7, police killed four workers who were striking for better conditions at an ironworks plant.
Today in labor history, January 6, 1878, is the birthday of renowned Illinois poet Carl Sandburg. He was born to Swedish immigrants in Galesburg, Illinois. Later Sandburg worked as an editorial writer at the Chicago Daily News. He was part of a group of poets and novelists, known as the “Chicago Literary Renaissance.” Sandburg became most well-known for his poetry, which won two Pulitzer Prizes. He also won a third Pulitzer for his biography of his hero Abraham Lincoln. Sandburg’s poems often evoked images and explored themes of the industrialized United States. This was especially true of his 1920 volume, Smoke and Steel . In this collection Sandburg wrote about workers in Gary, Indiana and farmers around Omaha, Nebraska. He wrote about railroad workers and steel workers. His words instilled unexpected beauty in these industrial scenes. Sandburg wrote in free verse, a style that did not rhyme. He used accessible language in his poems, making them available to the “common man.” He would take short tours around the U.S. reading his poems and playing folk songs on guitar. His poems gained a wide, popular readership. The opening lines of his poem “Chicago,” so captured the workers and spirit of the city, these words remain indelibly entwined in the city’s image: “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.”…
Today in labor history, January 5, 1914 the Ford Motor Company raised its basic wage from $2.40 for a nine-hour day to $5 for an eight-hour work day. Many of Ford’s contemporary critics scorned his “Five Dollar Day.” Journalists and other auto makers predicted disaster for the industry. Henry Ford implemented the wage increase to head off labor unrest in the company and curtail his problems with worker turnover. The wage increase helped to derail efforts to start a union in his factory. The five-dollar day was not an act of altruism by the automaker. It was a calculated business decision. Most importantly for Ford, the wage increase enabled his workers to become customers and buy cars of their own. Ford declared, “One’s own employees ought to be one’s own best customers.” Despite the prognosticators of doom, Ford’s plan worked. Ford’s profits doubled in the two years after he raised the wages. In 1914 Ford sold more than 300,000 Model Ts, more than all other U.S. automakers combined. By 1920 that number had climbed to a million cars a year. Reflecting back on his decision Ford explained, “The payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.” Perhaps those who today are lining up to predict doom and disaster if the minimum wage is raised might benefit from reading this page from labor history.…
Last year Chicago saw the end of what may have been the longest hotel strike in history. On Father’s Day 2013, 130 workers from the Congress Hotel on Michigan Avenue walked off the job. They were protesting a reduction in wages and the hotel’s hiring of minimum-wage subcontractors. For ten years the strikers, let by Unite Here, picketed the hotel. The hotel management remained unmoved. Unite Here quietly ended the strike. But that was not the longest strike in history-not by a long shot. Today in labor history, January 4,1961, barbers assistants in Copenhagen, Denmark ended their strike. They had first walked off the job in 1928—and the Guinness World Book of Records has declared the strike the longest in recorded history! Every strike, or a work-stoppage, has its own character. A strike might be as short as just a portion of a day. Or a strike might last for weeks, months, or years. Sometimes union members call strikes to last a specific amount of time—usually a few days. Other times union members vote for an open-ended strike, with the duration uncertain. The tactic of a strike is one of the most extreme measures a union can take. Usually, a strike means that all other efforts to gain a fair contract have been exhausted. Long strikes have become less common in recent years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were only 15 major work stoppages in 2013. Of these two-thirds lasted three days or less.…
Today in labor history, January 3, 1931 was a day that helped to bring the hunger and poverty caused by the Great Depression to the attention of the nation.
Today in labor history, January 2, 1905 a secret meeting was held in Chicago, attended by 23 industrial unionists.
Today in labor history, January 1, 1963, is one of the most often misunderstood days in United States history. This was the day that Abraham Lincoln issued the “Emancipation Proclamation.” But did you know that Emancipation Proclamation did not actually free enslaved people in the U.S.?
On this day in labor history the year was 1891. That was the day that an Irish teenager by the name of Annie Moore arrived on the shores of New York. She was travelling with her two younger brothers. They had taken a twelve-day sea voyage to be reunited with their parents, who were already in New York City.…
On this day in labor history the year was 1899. That was the day that a group of thirty-three railway clerks gathered in the back room of Behrens’ cigar shop in Sedalia, Missouri. They called themselves the Order of Railway Clerks in America. They affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
On this day in labor history the year was 2006. That was the day that United Steelworker members ended a nearly three-month strike against the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The strike involved nearly 15,000 workers from sixteen different plants across the United States and Canada.
On this day in labor history the year was 1936. That was the day that at 2pm in the afternoon, 200 workers at the Fisher Body Ohio Company on the East side of Cleveland sat down on the job. Fisher was located in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood.
On this day in labor history the year was 1943. That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt seized control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike. The nation was in the midst of World War II.
On this day in labor history the year was 1996. That was the day that working people of South Korea awoke to some alarming news. That morning the country’s new ruling party had passed a new set of labor laws. The new policies had been implemented at an unscheduled morning meeting.
On this day in labor history the year was 2001. That was the year that the spirit of Christmas must have seemed very far away from some of the workers who harvested Christmas Trees in the United States. Many of these workers come from Mexico and Central American countries. They come for the harvest as guest workers.…
On this day in labor history the year was 1913. That tragic Christmas Eve, came to be known as the Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan. A Christmas party was being held for children of striking copper miners.
On this day in labor history the year was 1908. That was the day that three leaders of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison, were sentenced to jail terms for calling for a Boycott against Bucks Stove & Range.
On this day in labor history the year was 2005. At 2:35 that afternoon the Transport Workers Union in New York City called an end to their three-day strike. The union represented 34,000 workers who kept the cities buses and subways running.
On this day in labor history the year was 1907. At 3:45 that afternoon the Chilean military opened machine gun fire on a school occupied by striking workers. It is estimated that between one and three thousand people died that day in what came to be known as the Santa Maria School Massacre.
On this day in labor history the year was 1790. That was the day that work for many living in the new country of the United States began to change in a significant way. Samuel Slater operated the first cotton spindle machine to spin yarn in the U.S in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The 48-spindle machine ran on the water power of Pawtucket Falls.…
On this day in labor history the year was 1983. That was the day that a bitter national strike of Greyhound Workers came to a close. Nearly 13,000 bus drivers, mechanics and clerks had gone on strike. They were members of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
On this day in labor history the year was 1991. That was the day that thousands of workers at in U.S. General motor factories got some very bad news. The company’s CEO Robert Stampel announced that GM would eliminate 74,000 jobs and close 21 plants. The company was struggling.
On this day in labor history the year was 1760. That was the day Deborah Samson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts. She was the first known woman to impersonate a man in order to fight in the Revolutionary War. Her family was poor. As a girl, young Deborah, became an indentured servant.
On this day in labor history the year was 1977. That was the day that eight women in Willmar, Minnesota stood up for their rights in the work place. The women worked at Willmar Citizens National Bank. These women were paid considerably less than the male employees.
On this day in labor history the year was 2005. That was the day the labor movement lost a man who was willing to go to jail to fight for the rights of working people. Clinton Jenks was born in Colorado Springs in 1918. He learned of labor consciousness from his father, a postal worker.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1852. That was the day Socialist leader Daniel De Leon was born in Curaçao to Dutch Jewish parents. As a young man, he traveled Europe. He settled in New York City, and earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1878. De Leon joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1890 and became the editor of its newspaper, The People. His book, Socialist Landmarks, consisting of a series of lectures, became wildly popular. These lectures included Reform or Revolution, What Means This Strike?, The Burning Questions of Trade Unionism, and Socialist Reconstruction of Society. De Leon warned of reforms under capitalism as illusory. He argued for revolutionary socialism and soon assumed leadership of the SLP. As a former Knights of Labor, he was critical of the American labor movement, often referring to the AFL as the American Separation of Labor for its business unionism and refusal to organize any but the most highly skilled, white craft workers. De Leon also took a strong stand against racism in the Socialist movement, stating “Why should a truly Socialist organization of whites not take in Negro members, but organize these in separate bodies? On account of outside prejudice? Then the body is not truly Socialist.” De Leon was among the socialist leaders at the founding 1905 conference of the Industrial Workers of the World. By 1908, he and others looked to effect social change through the Socialist Party and existing trade union movement. This put them at odds with the direct action perspective of the IWW. Many left the IWW at this point, including De Leon and Socialist leader Eugene Debs. When he died in 1914, more than 30,000 turned out for his funeral…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1903. That was the day prominent civil rights activist Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Her parents moved to Littleton, North Carolina when she was young. She often listened to her grandmother’s stories of slave revolts and of the brutality she endured under slavery. Ella attended the historically black college, Shaw University, graduating in 1927. After college, she moved to New York City and worked as a journalist. Ella was profoundly impacted by the Harlem Renaissance and became an educator for the WPA, teaching African and labor history. She immersed herself in the activism of the period and worked on the Scottsboro Boys defense campaign. By 1938, she had joined the NAACP, traveling across the country to direct membership recruitment, fundraising and building of local branches. In 1952, Ella became the president of New York City’s NAACP chapter, working for desegregation and on police brutality cases. Baker went to Alabama to help found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott to organize voter registration drives throughout the South. From there, she formed and led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Ella trained young, committed Civil Rights activists in a collectivist model of organizing and in participatory democracy. By 1964, she helped to organize the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party and its fight to be seated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She was involved in the defense of activist and friend Anne Braden, then targeted by HUAC and later, the Free Angela! Movement in defense of then jailed activist, Angela Davis. She was instrumental in founding the Third World Women’s Alliance and supported various independence movements throughout the world. She died on her birthday in 1986.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1945. That was the day President Truman appointed a fact-finding panel to investigate the General Motors strike. As many as 320,000 UAW GM workers had been on strike for nearly three weeks. They had suffered deep wage cuts, deteriorating working conditions and endless contract violations during the war. UAW now demanded 30% wage increases. But President Truman and GM acted as if it was still wartime. Truman ordered a 30 day cooling off period to be followed by compulsory arbitration. Just two days earlier, 10,000 strikers picketed GM, encircling their downtown headquarters for over an hour. The CIO held an emergency conference, vowing to continue and spread the strike. CIO president Philip Murray took to the radio in defense of the strike. He noted that corporations had made millions in wartime profits, that wage cuts since V-J Day had been as high as 50% and denounced Congress for burdensome new tax laws. Murray added that Truman’s proposed “Fact-Finding Act” and other anti-labor laws served “to weaken and ultimately to destroy labor union organizations.” Bob Carter, chairman of the AC Spark Plug strike committee and chairman of the Greater Flint CIO Council remarked, “I am against arbitration and will oppose the setting up of fact-finding committees. Anyone acquainted with the labor history of this country knows that those committees are used by political stooges of the corporations to cheat workers out of their just demands.” The strike ended in partial victory the following March, with strikers winning a 17.5% raise, just over half their original demand. But UAW members demonstrated their solidarity and their refusal to be cowed into going back to work on the government’s terms.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1918. That was the day streetcar workers in Kansas City walked off the job. It was the third strike since August 1917. Workers had previously struck for union recognition and joined the city general strike that Spring. By summer, the city was so desperate for wartime labor, the transit company began hiring women. Though women faced initial opposition, by fall, the union demanded they receive equal pay for equal work. The company had been paying them $15 dollars less a month than their male coworkers. The Amalgamated filed charges with the National War Labor Board, demanding a general wage increase and equal wages for women. The Board quickly ruled in the union’s favor. But Kansas City Railway refused to abide by the decision. On this day, 2675 men and 127 women walked off the job, demanding the company honor the board’s ruling. Instead the company hired scabs. In the rush to restore service, the company failed to properly train the scab drivers and a number of streetcar crashes reduced the transit company’s fleet by 300 cars. According to Maurine Weiner Greenwald, author of Women, War and Work, the company alleged in the press that the strike was an attack against the entire community. On the Missouri side, state militia guarded the strikebreakers while U.S. Marshals guarded rail tracks on the Kansas side. By April 1919, “a federal grand jury indicted union leaders for obstructing a vital industry during wartime,” even though the war had been over for six months! By May, the strike was lost and the union busted. It would take another 20 years before Kansas City Transit would finally be organized.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1915. That was the day the one millionth Model T rolled off the Ford assembly line in Highland Park, near Detroit. Henry Ford started Model T production seven years earlier. For nearly 20 years, the Tin Lizzie served as the first affordable vehicle, opening up travel and leisure to a new middle class. Ford refashioned the packing house conveyor to develop the assembly line. Before production moved to the sprawling modern River Rouge complex, the Highland Park plant was considered the factory that changed the world. Ford’s ambition to produce cars for the multitudes extended to his workers. As part of his campaign to beat back organizing drives by the Industrial Workers of the World, Ford instituted the $5 day at the Highland Park plant. For auto workers, buying a Model T even with the $5 day wasn't so easy. The $5 day actually amounted to $2.34 in wages and an additional $2.66 a day in profit sharing if Ford determined the worker was actually “living right.” Investigators from his Sociological Department visited workers in their homes. The routine intrusions into the personal lives of workers away from the job included determining spending and cleanliness habits, whether they drank or smoked, whether they were married or single, the state of workers’ marital relations and family values. Workers who failed these home inspections were given six months to shape up or be fired. Ford ruled young single men, women and blacks completely ineligible from the wage program. For a time, employee turnover plummeted and production increased. But wartime inflation and deteriorating working conditions all but killed the $5 day, which ended in 1921.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1958. That was the day twelve ultra-conservatives, including industrialists Robert Welch, Fred Koch and Harry Lynde Bradley gathered in Indianapolis to found the John Birch Society. These men saw secret cabals and communist conspiracy everywhere. They mobilized their vast financial resources to fuel Cold War paranoia. They opposed New Deal policies, the Civil Rights Movement, President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs and the Equal Rights Amendment. They funded Barry Goldwater’s presidential bid in 1964, denounced Nixon as a fake and warned of his establishment of diplomatic ties with China. The Birchers also opposed water fluoridation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They pressed for the U.S to withdraw from the United Nations and viewed the U.S. war in Vietnam as a plot to bring Communism to the United States. Welch, a candy manufacturer, even asserted that President Dwight Eisenhower was a simply a tool for the communists and advocate of a “One-World New Order.” More recently, many Birchers have also helped to found and fund the National Right to Work Committee, whose legal defense arm has pushed hard for anti-union legislation. Prominent members like the Koch Brothers have funneled millions into the NWRC in order to bust unions, kill the Employee Free Choice Act and weaken the regulatory authority of the National Labor Relations Board. Their current headquarters are in Appleton, Wisconsin, hometown of Red Scare warrior, Senator Joseph McCarthy.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1941. That was the day eighteen supporters of the Socialist Workers Party were sentenced in the first Smith Act trial. Earlier that summer, twenty-nine militants had been targeted and arrested for their leadership of events in Minneapolis during the 30s. They had led the 1934 Teamsters strikes that made Minneapolis a union town, successfully confronted the fascist Silver Shirts in 1938 and led a WPA strike the following year. By 1941, federal agents were raiding SWP offices in Minneapolis and St. Paul, seizing boxes of documents, books, pamphlets and other material. The trial began October 27. The prosecution alleged the 29 had conspired to advocate the violent overthrow of the government, were stockpiling weapons and encouraging insubordination among the armed forces. The defendants insisted that advocating class struggle to achieve a peaceful transition to socialism was not the equivalent of violent overthrow. They added the trial was a government witch hunt, bent on suppressing their first amendment rights. Six were released, another five were acquitted. But the remaining 18 were sentenced to between twelve and sixteen months in jail. Dozens of CIO unions including the UAW, USWA, URW and UE all rallied to the defense of the convicted militants. The ACLU, central in the defense case, now mounted the appeals campaign. They failed to overturn the convictions and the 18 surrendered to authorities two years later to begin serving their sentences. For historian Donna Haverty-Stacke, the case showed “how far the Roosevelt administration went to prosecute political dissent—even to the point of targeting the labor-liberal left.” The Act would be repealed in 1952 and hundreds of convictions under the Act would finally be reversed as unconstitutional by 1957.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1896. That was the day eleven steam engineers met in Chicago to found the National Union of Steam Engineers, the forerunner of the International Union of Operating Engineers. Ten of the eleven came from the stationary field. They often worked 60-90 hours a week in dangerous working conditions. Constructing and operating steam boilers was highly skilled, labor-intensive and potentially deadly work. At the time, steam powered railroad and construction shovels, hoists and cranes for high-rise construction and electric power generation. Many flocked to San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake to help rebuild that city. Others left for Panama to work on the Canal. By 1912, the union was issuing charters to locals that represented construction steam engineers and locals that represented fixed boiler operators. It was renamed the International Union of Operating Engineers in 1928. During World War II and after, thousands worked as Navy Seabees, building military bases, airfields and roads. The Federal Highway Trust Program opened up work for thousands more in the construction of the nation’s highway system. Today, you can find Operating Engineers on bridge and dam projects, skyscrapers and pipelines. Its logo, the steam gauge was originally set at 80 psi but now points towards 420 psi. Some think the change came as a result of operating high-pressure boilers for naval ships and steamboats. Others speculate the change came when the 600-psi gauge became the industrial standard. The International Union of Operating Engineers administers one hundred apprenticeships in state of the art facilities, requiring 6000 hours of on the job training and 400 hours of classroom instruction. It represents more than 400,000 members in 170 locals throughout the United States and Canada.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1907. That was the day an explosion rocked Fairmont Coal Company’s number 6 and number 8 coal mines in Monongah, West Virginia, killing 367 miners. Newspaper reports estimated the number of dead to be as high as 500. It is considered the worst mine disaster in the history of the United States. Most miners were killed instantly as the explosion destroyed the mine entrance and its ventilation system. Those not killed instantly suffocated from poisonous gas. Earth tremors were felt eight miles away. The force of the explosion buckled pavement, collapsed buildings and derailed streetcars. More than 3200 miners had died in 1907. With three more mine disasters before the end of the year, the last month became known as Black December. In January, a coroner’s jury verdict ruled that a blow out shot ignited coal dust and made number of recommendations for safer practices. But David McAteer tells a different story in his history of the disaster. He argues that the tipple had a design flaw that led to occasional coal car derailments as they exited the mine. On this day, there had been a derailment with coal cars crashing to the bottom of the shaft and taking out the electrical and ventilation systems with it, igniting the coal dust in the process. The disaster generated a surge in demands for greater mine safety, leading to the creation of the Bureau of Mines in 1910. The Bureau could conduct research and safety training but was powerless to conduct inspections or safety enforcement. Miners would continue to fight for the better part of the century for safety regulations and enforcement.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 2008. That was the day UE local 1110 members at Republic Windows in Chicago began a five–day occupation to protest the imminent closure of their plant. A month earlier, Republic workers witnessed management moving machinery out of the factory. They began monitoring where the machinery was going and soon learned it was headed for a new, non-union plant in Iowa. They planned a possible plant occupation. By December 2, management announced the plant was closing in just three days. Republic Windows owner Richard Gillman blamed Bank of America for refusing to extend credit, just as the federal government had bailed out the banks in a $700 billion deal. Workers learned they would receive no severance or vacation pay, despite WARN Act mandates. The next day they rallied out in front of Bank of America, chanting, “You got bailed out, we got sold out.” Workers were determined to occupy the plant that Friday, when they went to pick up their last paychecks. Police refused to remove the sit-downers and the occupation quickly made national news. Local labor leaders and trade unionists, activists and politicians all visited strikers and lent their support. Journalist Kari Lydersen recounts the events in her book, Revolt on Goose Island, noting the “donations of food, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags and other necessities that poured into the factory.” Protests of Bank of America spread across the country. By the following Wednesday, workers learned that though they could not keep their plant open, they would at least win severance and vacation pay. In 2012, some of those workers reopened the plant under the name, New Era Windows, as a worker-run cooperative. They specialize in energy efficient vinyl windows.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1946. That was the day Federal Judge T. Alan Goldsborough fined John L. Lewis $10,000 and the United Mine Workers $3.5 million. In what was characterized as “a roaring courtroom scene,” Lewis rose to challenge the judge to fine him whatever he wanted. The judge had just found Lewis and the UMW in contempt of court for ignoring his November 18 order to head off a soft-coal strike, then in its fourteenth day. Judge Goldsborough had replaced his order with a temporary injunction after the government demanded a judgment that the strike was illegal and must end. Goldsborough ruled the strike was “an evil, demonic, monstrous thing that meant hunger and cold, unemployment and destitution--a threat to democratic government itself.” He insisted he was a friend of labor, but that Lewis should be sent to prison. UMW chief counsel, Welly K. Hopkins, snapped back defiantly, stating that the government was seeking to “break the union politically, financially and morally.” The federal government had seized the mines in May and was now threatening to run them with Army engineers if Lewis didn’t order miners back to work. AFL, CIO and Railway Brotherhoods all rallied to Lewis’ defense. The Detroit labor movement vowed a 24-hour general strike in support. But by the 7th, Lewis retreated, ordering miners back to work until March 31st. Facing the real threat of the Supreme Court action to uphold the $3.5 million fine, Lewis stated he wanted the Court to “be free from public pressure superinduced by the hysteria and frenzy of an economic crisis.” Lewis and the UMW were tied up in appeals court for months while they attempted to negotiate new contract terms.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1946. That was the day a general strike erupted in Oakland, California. Workers, mostly women, had been on strike for a month at two downtown department stores. Teamsters honored their picket lines and refused to make deliveries. Infuriated owners of Hastings and Kahn’s demanded their merchandise and turned to the city for help. On this day, police assembled early in the morning to clear the streets of picketers. They attacked strikers, forced them off the streets and set up a perimeter of machine guns to escort scab delivery trucks through. One striker recalled, “I was black and blue for six months from their clubs.” Outraged truck drivers, bus drivers and streetcar operators all stopped, got out of their vehicles and joined the strikers, quickly filling downtown Oakland. By the end of the day, the city was completely shut down. 142 AFL unions called for a labor holiday in support of the strikers and now 130,000 workers were on strike in solidarity. UAW member Stan Weir recalled that it was the bus drivers, many just returned from the war, who led the strike. The streets that night had a carnival like atmosphere. War vets led a march to City Hall to demand the resignation of the Mayor and the City Council for their attempts to break the strike. The general strike quickly forced the administration to stop the scabhearding. But local labor leaders were divided over what some considered a near insurrection and called the strike off 54 hours later. The retail workers were left to fight on their own for another five months. But for a few days, workers got a taste of their own power.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1859. That was the day John Brown was hanged in Charles Town, Virginia in what is now West Virginia. He had been sentenced to death on charges of treason, murder and insurrection for his role in the raid on the United States Federal Armory at Harper’s Ferry. Brown and twenty-one abolitionists intended to seize the arsenal there, then build a free settlement in the Appalachian Mountains. From there, abolitionists and free people of color would wage a guerrilla war against the slave labor system throughout the South. Convicted on November 2, Brown resisted plans for rescue and prepared to die a martyr. On this day, John Brown wrote his last statement: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.” He was marched out of the Jefferson County Jail through a crowd of onlookers that included Stonewall Jackson and John Wilkes Booth to the gallows, where he was hanged. While many abolitionists distanced themselves from his actions, they defended him and memorialized him after his death. Fredrick Douglass remarked many years later, “His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine-it was as the burning sun to my taper light-mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the boundless shores of eternity. I could live for the slave, but he could die for him.”…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1912. That was the day the Anaconda Copper Company instituted its rustling card system at its copper mines in Butte, Montana. The company used the rustling card in two ways: as a work permit and as way to keep track of miners. A miner looking for work would first have to apply for a card. Miners had to present information about citizenship status, English literacy skills, work history and two years of employer references. Once the card was approved, the miner would then be allowed to apply for work. The Butte Miners’ Union charged it was the company’s way of blacklisting those who had quit, been fired or known as a union militant. By 1917, the Metal Mine Workers Union and the IWW added that the company was looking to “nip agitation in the bud.” They alleged employers were holding on to cards or denying them altogether for no reason. According to historian Paul Brissenden, both unions maintained the company was looking “to punish those who were at one time active in the socialist administration of Butte Mayor Lewis J. Duncan, to prevent the Socialist Party from again securing a foothold in Butte, to strengthen the hands of the more conservative unions and to curb the industrial unionism of the IWW and Metal Mine Workers Union.” The company asserted its right to keep its enemies out of the mines, alleging they presented a danger to mine safety. But the unions shot back, stating the blacklist meant the hiring of untrained, inexperienced workers who presented the real danger. Brissenden notes that many union radicals continued to work in the mines despite the card system.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1930. That was the day the world lost the miners’ angel, Mother Jones. She had crossed the country many times over, been involved in practically every strike that built the labor movement; stood with miners and steel workers and mill children everywhere. Mother Jones had asked to be buried with the Virden Martyrs, killed in the Massacre of 1898, at Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois. Dozens of labor leaders including AFL president William Green, attended her funeral in Maryland, where she had been living. Then, AFL representatives, several Illinois miners and others boarded the Baltimore and Ohio train to accompany her body to Mt. Olive. Historian Dale Fetherling describes the scene as her body arrived. A band played “Nearer, My God, To Thee” as onlookers bowed their heads and wept. Survivors of the Virden Riot bore the casket to the Odd Fellows’ Hall where it lay in state… The town of 3,500 with its strong and violent heritage, was thronged by thousands of coal diggers.” At least 15,000 turned out for the funeral, broadcast on WCFL, the Chicago Federation of Labor’s radio station. The labor priest, Reverend John Maguire gave the memorial address and officiated at the funeral in Mt. Olive’s Roman Catholic Church of the Ascension. He asked: “What weapons had she to fight the fight against oppression of working men? Only a great and burning conviction that oppression must end. Only an eloquent and flaming tongue that won men to her cause. Only a mother’s heart torn by the suffering of the poor. Only a towering courage that made her carry on in the face of insuperable odds. Only a consuming love for the poor.”…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1937. That was the day the National Labor Relations Board began hearings on an unfair labor practice brought by the International Union Mine, Mill and Smelters. Mine, Mill had been fighting the union busting tactics at Eagle-Picher Lead Company. The union had been organizing lead and zinc miners in the Tri-State area of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. During the Great Depression, they built the union by emphasizing safer working conditions, stressing the hazards of silicosis and tuberculosis. In their book, Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease, Gerald Markowitz and David Rosmer note that one of Mine Mill’s demands included the elimination of the company clinic. They argued it was used to target and fire diseased workers, rather than provide a safe work environment. Mine Mill also organized other area industries, to counteract the near total power of the mine owners in the region. When the union called a strike at area mines in May 1935, the area’s largest producer, Eagle Picher Lead moved quickly to force a lockout and establish a company union. During the hearings, the union was limited in its ability to raise health and safety issues. They did win reinstatement and back pay for workers fired during the strike. But the case brought national attention to silicosis in the Tri-State area. In a letter to Francis Perkins the following year, the head of the Cherokee County Central Labor Body hoped to secure legislation to compel the companies to install ventilation systems and safety devices. He noted the average life of a miner was 7-10 years, with many dying in 2 or 3 years. But a federal standard on silica was still decades away.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1953. That was the day 400 photo-engravers at six New York City newspapers walked off the job. Members of the AFL’s International Photo-Engravers Union had just voted down arbitration. All but one local newspaper, The New York Herald Tribune were idled as 20,000 newspaper workers refused to cross the engravers picket lines. Six days into the strike, that newspaper suspended operations as well. Writers at The New Yorker magazine remarked they were “curled up with the Wall Street Journal , The Daily Worker and a two-day old copy of La Prense.” In the decades before digital images, photoengraving was a labor-intensive process. Highly skilled workers made metal plates from which newspaper images were printed. Photo-Engravers had been working without a contract since the end of October. They demanded a $15 a week raise. The Newspapers Association was only willing to grant $3.75. The other newspaper unions had been offered similar wage and benefit packages, far below their demands. They knew that whatever they won or lost depended on the victory of the Photo-Engravers strike. So they walked out in solidarity. Federal mediators intervened in an attempt to settle the strike. Hysteric newspaper editors across the country shrieked that the union had accomplished what the government would never dare to do: subvert the freedom of the press! They sulked that the strike had broken 35 years of industrial harmony and peace; adding that the ungrateful workers didn’t appreciate just how good they had it. After eleven days, members voted to end the walkout and let a fact-finding board solve the dispute. Three months later, that board upheld the Newspaper’s Association original offer of $3.75 a week plus benefits.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1936. That was the day 1200 production workers at Detroit’s Midland Steel sat-down for higher wages, an end to piecework and union recognition. The strike was called just before noon. When 800 on the second shift arrived for work, they readily handed their lunches, cigarettes and newspapers through the windows to the sit-downers. The UAW had embarked on a massive organizing drive throughout the country. Days earlier, the GM sit-down strike had begun in Atlanta, spread to Kansas City and would eventually reach Flint, Michigan. But the UAW was also organizing parts suppliers like Midland, who produced car body frames for the industry. The UAW first used the tactic of the sit-down strike ten days earlier at the Bendix Products brake plant in South Bend, Indiana. There, workers had just organized with the UAW. They braved eight days in an unheated factory during winter, demanding the company union be dismantled. At Midland, workers stayed in the plant, stating they would hold out till Christmas if they had to. Within a week, the Midland strike had idled 72,000 workers at Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, Desoto, Briggs and Ford’s Lincoln-Zephyr plants. Stakes were so high at Midland that strikers threw a suspected company spy out a second story plant window. Just as Midland workers returned victorious to their job ten days later, thousands of others began sitting down at their jobs. Rubber workers in Akron, glass workers in Ottawa, Illinois, bus drivers in Flint, Kelsey Hayes brake workers and aluminum workers just two blocks from Midland were all sitting down for union recognition, wage increases and better working conditions. The massive strike wave had begun.…
On this day in Labor History the year was 1867. That was the day that J.B. Sutherland of Detroit patented the first specialized refrigerated railroad car. Southerland’s design included ice tanks at both ends of the car and ventilation flaps on the floor, which used gravity to send a draft of cold air flowing throughout the car.…
On this day in Labor History the year was 1946. That was the day that teachers in St. Paul, Minnesota went on strike. It was the first ever organized walkout of teachers in the United States. The strike was organized by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28.
On this day in Labor History the year was 1875. That was the day that Samuel Gompers founded the Cigar Makers’ International Union Local 144 in New York City. The very first Cigar Marker’s Union local had been established in Baltimore in 1851 by craftsmen who opposed importation of lower-paid laborers from Germany.…
On this day in labor history, we are going way, way, way back. The year was 1170 B.C. So the exact date is a bit of an estimate. Egyptian workers initiated what just might be the first recorded strike in world history. The workers were toiling on public works projects, including building tombs of the pharaohs, in the Valley of the Kings.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1919. That was the day four leaders of the Carpenters union were shot dead in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and the International Union of Timber Workers had embarked on an organizing drive of white and black workers at Great Southern Lumber Company. Bogalusa functioned as a company town. Lumber bosses controlled company housing, local politicians and ruled the town with an iron fist. By 1919, the two unions began organizing among loggers and sawmill workers in the region. The UBC initially organized among white skilled workers, while the IUTW organized among unskilled, mostly black workers. They soon stepped up efforts to organize jointly. Historian Stephen Norwood notes that when Great Southern threatened to forcibly break up a union meeting among black workers, armed white union men arrived to defend the meeting. By September, 95% of the workforce was organized when the company instituted a lockout. On November 21, a posse of local businessmen fired on the home of leading black organizer, Sol Dacus, who narrowly escaped. The following day, armed white union carpenter leaders, Stanley O’Rourke and J.P. Bouchillon escorted Dacus to the Central Trades and Labor Council offices. 150 special policemen were immediately dispatched. They began firing upon union headquarters, killing O’Rourke, Bouchillon and two other union leaders, Thomas Gaines and Lem Williams. Dacus was nearly lynched and escaped with his life to New Orleans. Norwood concludes the gun battle “represents probably the most dramatic display of interracial labor solidarity in the Deep South during the first half of the twentieth century.” For historian William P. Jones, the anti-union violence and racial terror would culminate in 1923 with a massacre of the Florida lumber town of Rosewood.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1942. That was the day the completion of the Alaskan Highway or Alcan, was celebrated at Soldier’s Summit. There had been proposals for a highway connecting the United States to Alaska since the early 1920s. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt moved quickly to organize its approval and construction. By March 1942, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground on the $138 million project. More than 10,000 troops were assigned to highway construction. Over a third were comprised of newly formed black regiments. Thousands of pieces of construction equipment were moved through the railroads, including steam shovels, blade graders, tractors, trucks, bulldozers, snowplows, cranes and generators. In a matter of eight months, workers carved out 1700 miles of road between Dawson Creek, British Columbia, through the Yukon to Delta Junction in Alaska, under the most treacherous environmental conditions. Workers arrived in wintery Dawson Creek, pitching their sleeping quarters in snowdrifts. By spring , workers battled flooding rivers, equipment sinking into thick mud and fears of Japanese bombers. By summer, mosquitoes, dubbed “bush bombers,” were so bad workers had to eat under netting. Black workers also battled relentless racism. The Army was still segregated. Black troops faced racist presumptions about their capacity to carry out hard labor. They were determined to break down stereotypes. By fall, white and black bulldozer drivers coordinating the work together were celebrated in the pages of the Army’s Yank magazine, Time and the New York Times. Some historians consider the integrated work crews a factor in President Truman’s later move to desegregate the armed forces. According to The New York Times, the Federal Highway Administration calls the Alcan “the road to civil rights.”…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1896. That was the day anarchist and labor activist Rose Pesotta was born. Her name, Rakhel Peisoty, was changed, like so many others’, at Ellis Island. She had fled tsarist Russia in 1913 as a teenager and soon found work in New York City’s garment shops. She readily joined the ILGWU, becoming a national organizer by 1920. In the late 1920s, Rose went to Los Angeles in an attempt to organize Latina sweatshop workers. There she helped women workers establish a bilingual labor journal and assisted them in winning a key strike for recognition and higher wages in 1933. She soon ascended to the position of union vice president and worked closely with the newly formed CIO. Rose traveled far and wide to organize garment workers. She led successful strikes throughout the United States and in Montreal and Puerto Rico. By 1936, she was on the picket lines with striking rubber workers in Akron, Ohio and autoworkers in Flint, Michigan. She increasingly found herself at odds with ILGWU head, David Dubinsky and other top male union officials over persistent sexism, her radical politics and her opposition to the no-strike pledge during World War II. Rose resented the fact that though women comprised the overwhelming majority of the union’s membership, she continued to be the only woman union officer. Frustrated by the chauvinism she experienced, Rose resigned from her post as vice president and later from the ILGWU executive board in 1944. She continued as a sewing machine operator, remained active at the local level and published two memoirs. Later in life, she aligned herself with the Civil Rights Movement. Rose Pesotta died of cancer in 1965.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1863. That was the day President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. It is considered one of Lincoln’s greatest speeches. Generations of students have been assigned to commit it to memory. The two-minute speech carries a deep significance in our country’s history. Lincoln delivered the speech at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Four months earlier, the Union had defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Casualties on both sides totaled nearly 50,000 over the course of the three-day battle. This battle, coupled with the fall of Vicksburg, is often considered a turning point in the war to end the slave labor system. Lincoln’s speech served to redefine the war’s purpose. Originally, the emphasis had been one of preserving the Union. Now, Lincoln drew upon the Declaration of Independence to also highlight the national struggle for human equality. Lincoln began his speech with the acknowledgment that the nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He ended the Gettysburg Address stating, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” Most Republicans praised the speech. But historian Eric Foner notes in his biography of Lincoln, that “many Democrats denounced Lincoln for unilaterally redefining the war’s purpose, which they insisted, had nothing to do with equality.” In 2015, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation published an edited volume, Gettysburg Replies. It features 272-word essays by presidents, historians, poets, actors, scientists and others about the lasting influence of the Gettysburg Address.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1993. That was the day 21,000 attendants, mostly women, caught American Airlines by surprise in their first strike ever against the company. 80% of all fights were cancelled a week before Thanksgiving as solid picket lines formed at forty airports across the country. CEO Robert Crandell, who commanded a $ million a year salary and preferred the nickname “fang,” was at a loss when flight attendants refused to be bullied by threats of scab replacements. Hoping to smash seniority and scheduling rights, he cancelled all vacations for months. Crandall’s claims to company losses could hardly be believed after the company reported third-quarter profits of $118 million. Attendants were fed up with years of concessionary contracts that reduced their wages by as much as 40%. One woman picketer summed up the company’s attitude: “We’re just a bunch of skirts.” The strike was so popular that pilots and Teamsters often joined picketers. In New York City, 200 members of Local 1199 hospital workers walked the picket line in solidarity. Fed up machinists at United Airlines in Denver were so inspired, they staged a solidarity sickout the first day of the strike. Four days later, President Clinton intervened to end the strike and force binding arbitration. While many saw this as a victory, workers returned to their jobs under the same conditions that forced them to strike while they waited for arbitrators to render a decision. Two years later, arbitrators finally rendered a decision. They awarded American the right to reduce staffing on some flights. But attendants would win a 17% wage increase and retain most work rules.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1785. That was the day the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York was founded. Twenty-two skilled craftsmen, with the motto, “By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand,” met on Pine Street to form a benevolent organization that could provide cultural, educational and social services to craftsmen and their families. Two months later, founders met for their annual meeting. They represented many of the city’s trades including hatters, butchers, sail makers, bolters and comb makers. In his book, Chants Democratic, historian Sean Wilentz states, the General Society was “intended to be a semi-political umbrella organization for all of the city’s independent mechanics, to help oversee the trades and secure favorable legislation from local and national government. The group captured the ideal of mutuality and craft pride essential to artisan fraternities since the Middle Ages.” The General Society opened one of the city’s first free schools at a time when there were no public schools. It established a tuition-free Mechanics Institute, the General Society Library and Lecture Series. The Mechanics Institute, founded in 1858, continues to provide free evening trades-related instruction. The Library, established in 1820 is the second oldest library in New York City. It is also one of the few remaining membership circulating libraries. Its collections and archives span two centuries. The General Society continues its tradition of public lectures in the form of The Labor, Literature and Landmarks Series. More recently, it has added the Artisan Lecture Series that features lectures by master artisans. The series also promotes the work and art of skilled craftsmen. The General Society has been at its current location at 20 west 44th Street since 1885.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 2006. That was the day mounted police charged 50 janitors and their supporters during a protest in Houston. SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign had been organizing for years throughout the South and Southwest. Modeled on success achieved in California, SEIU broadened their campaign to Houston and Miami. The union called a month long strike against the cities’ largest cleaning companies. Protests and civil disobedience actions continued throughout the strike. Hundreds of strikers routinely marched through the streets of Houston, beating drums and hauling bags of garbage into the middle of intersections to highlight the key services they provided to the city. They were subject to repeated threats of firings and arrests. When police charged at the janitors, it served to turn public support in favor of the strikers. By the end of the month, Tom Balanoff and SEIU Local 1 in Chicago claimed victory for 5300 Houston janitors. The Chicago local had been central to the three-year campaign in Houston. Incomes doubled and janitors finally had health insurance, paid vacations and holidays. The Chicago Tribune detailed the campaign in a November 25 article. The union lobbied building owners and major corporations who held contracts with the cleaning companies. The union worked to gain a foothold among the janitors, sending in seasoned Latino janitors from Chicago to help with organizing. The SEIU also committed millions of dollars to the organizing drive, setting aside $1 million alone in strike funds. At a victory rally, union leader Flor Aguilar proclaimed, “No one thought that a group of poor Latinos form Houston would be able to win anything, but today we can lift our heads up very high.”…
On this day in labor history, the year was 2014. That was the day four workers were killed and a fifth injured during a chemical leak at a DuPont insecticide plant near Houston. The plant used methyl mercaptan in its production of insecticides. 24,000 pounds of the deadly chemical were released through two valves in a poorly ventilated building onsite. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board found numerous flawed safety procedures, design problems and inadequate planning. Days earlier, liquid methyl mercaptan had solidified in piping, causing a blockage. Workers attempted to clear it by spraying the pipes with hot water. They didn’t realize they had cleared the blockage, which then created high-pressure buildup of the chemical in other piping. When two workers went to drain those pipes in a routine procedure, they were overcome by toxic vapor. Another two workers answering the subsequent distress call were also killed. DuPont blamed workers for the release of the toxic gas. But the CSB found a number of violations. The building where the release occurred had an inadequate toxic gas detection system, ventilation fans were not working and workers were not required to wear additional breathing protection for tasks they performed there. Line-clearing procedures were faulty, routinely exposing workers to toxic fumes. The Board also found that DuPont worked to conceal from environmental regulators, as many as four major releases of methyl mercaptan two days before workers were killed. The CSB asserted that design flaws prompted months of clogs before the deadly incident. More generally, they noted the design of the building that housed the pesticide unit inherently increased the threat of exposure to workers and the public. DuPont opted to close the plant in 2016 rather than meet recommendations of federal regulators.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1978. That was the day OSHA published its lead standard. The standard reduced permissible exposure by 75% to protect nearly a million workers from damage to nervous, urinary and reproductive systems. As early as 1908, Alice Hamilton, the mother of occupational medicine, noted that lead had endangered workers as far back as “the first half-century after Christ.” In their book, Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, historians Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner add that “throughout her distinguished career, Hamilton was deeply involved in uncovering the relationship between lead and disease in the American workforce.” Hamilton’s groundbreaking research on the effects of lead paved the way for a growing uproar against its continued use. After the Occupational Safety and Health Act passed in 1970, occupational and public health activists pushed hard for a lead standard. A new generation of industrial hygienists emphasized how unsound, industry-driven conclusions regarding “safe lead levels” impacted women workers and workers of color. Industry had long asserted that women and African-Americans were simply more susceptible to lead poison, which served to justify discrimination in hiring. Some unions accepted these terms, if only to demand a stringent lead standard that included immediate implementation of engineering controls. But leading hygienists like Jeanne Stellman blasted these arguments. Stellman insisted such conclusions reflected racial and gender bias rather than any credible scientific evidence. She added that men, women and children, regardless of race or ethnicity, were all adversely affected by lead exposure. The final standard adopted was considered a compromise. Discrimination in hiring has continued and enforcement proves difficult. But even a watered-down standard was too much for the lead industry. They have been fighting it ever since.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1974. That was the day Karen Silkwood was killed in a mysterious car crash. Though her death was ruled a one car accident, some maintain she was forced off the road. Silkwood was a union activist and representative for Local 5-283 of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers. She worked at Kerr McGee’s Cimarron plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets for nuclear reactor fuel rods. Meryl Streep popularized her life in the 1983 film, Silkwood. Karen’s union loyalty only grew after the company crushed a strike in 1972. She was elected to the union bargaining committee just as the company moved to force a decertification election. She also served as a union health and safety rep. Silkwood found a number of apparent violations: routine contamination exposure, faulty respiratory equipment, falsified inspection records, and improper storage of radioactive material. She met with OCAW leader, Tony Mazzocchi to highlight safety issues in a campaign to beat back decertification. It worked. Then Karen testified before the Atomic Energy Commission, worried about her own contamination. It was clear her home was contaminated too. She worked tirelessly to gather the documentation and the evidence, detailing the company’s life-threatening negligence. And on this day, Karen Silkwood was headed to Oklahoma City to meet Mazzocchi’s assistant, Steve Wodka and a New York Times reporter to present evidence she collected. She never made it. Her car was found with rear end damage, near skid marks, in a ditch along Route 74. While the company attempted to smear her as a drug addicted lesbian who deliberately contaminated herself, they would eventually settle with her family for nearly $1.4 million. Karen Silkwood became a model and a hero for women workers and all those who fight for safe workplaces.…
On this day in labor history, the year was 1954. That was the day Ellis Island closed its doors. More than 12 million immigrants had passed through its gates since its opening in 1892. Those steerage and third-class passengers coming to America were processed at the island between 1892 and 1924. They were routinely subject to medical inspections to determine they were free of disease. Legal inspections included questions regarding birth, occupation, destination, finances and criminal record. Its busiest year was 1907 with more than a million arriving to enter the United States. During World War I, the Island was used as a detention center for presumed enemies and those considered foreign-born subversives. After Congress passed the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924, arrivals entering the country slowed to a trickle. Then Ellis Island became primarily a detention and deportation center. During World War II, thousands of Germans, Italians and Japanese made up the majority of those detained, awaiting deportation. It also served as a military hospital for returning servicemen and training center for the Coast Guard. By 1950, Ellis Island served as a holding center for arriving Communists and Fascists, who were prevented entrance under the recently passed Internal Security Act. A Norwegian seaman who had overstayed his leave was released the day the Island closed and told to catch the next ship back to Norway. In 1965, President Johnson made Ellis Island part of the National Park Service. A massive restoration of the Island began in 1984, organized by Lee Iacocca’s Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. It reopened as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in 1990, featuring numerous exhibits, publicly accessible immigration records and the award-winning film documentary, “Island of Hope, Island of Tears.”…
On this day in Labor History the year was 1887. That was a tragic day for the labor movement. Four men were hung in Chicago for their alleged role in the bombing at a labor rally at the city’s Haymarket Square a year earlier. In a sensational trial a total of eight men were convicted for Haymarket.
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