City Desk
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“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” -Upton Sinclair, Iconic American Author, Journalist, Social Justice Activist, Pulitzer Prize winner
October 2 – 8
Wednesday, Oct 2:
American Federation of Labor officially endorses campaign for a 6-hour day, 5-day workweek. -1934
Starbucks Workers Union baristas in East Grand Rapids, Mich., organized by the IWW, win their grievances after the National Labor Relations Board cites the company for labor law violations, including threats against union activists. -2007
Thursday, Oct 3:
President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coal field operators in an attempt to settle the anthracite coal strike, then in its fifth month. It marked the first time a president had personally intervened in a labor-management dispute. Three weeks later, the miners agreed to settle and accept recommendations made by a commission appointed by Roosevelt. -1902
The state militia is called in to protect the corporate interest after 164 high school students in Kincaid, Ill., go on strike when the school board buys coal from the scab anti-union Peabody Coal Co. -1932
Friday, Oct 4:
Louisiana sugar workers strike, 37 peaceful strikers are murdered. Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders in order to protect company profits and greed. -1887
President Truman orders the U.S. Navy to seize oil refineries, breaking a 20-state post-war strike. Men returning from the war were demanding fair wages and were unionizing at levels never seen before. -1945
Saturday, Oct 5:
The UAW ends a 3-week strike against Ford Motor Co. when the company agrees to a contract that includes more vacation days and better retirement and unemployment benefits. -1976
Polish Solidarity Union founder Lech Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize. The union movement was the leading force that brought down Communist rule in Poland. -1983
Sunday, Oct 6:
First national conference of Trade Union Women. -1918
1,700 female flight attendants win 18-year, $37 million suit against United Airlines. They had been fired for getting married. Flight attendants formed a union to fight discriminatory policies. They succeeded in changing policies such as forced retirement at age 32, sexual harassment and unofficial "girdle checks." They also fought to increase airline safety and promote improvements for both passengers and workers. -1986
Monday, Oct 7:
Labor organizer and song writer Joe Hill was born in Gavle, Sweden. Hill was an organizer for the IWW. He was arrested and convicted on false charges and executed by firing squad in Utah, his real “crime” was organizing the workers. His famous last words were “Don’t mourn. Organize!” Some of Hill’s most famous songs were “The Preacher and the Slaver”, “Rebel Girl” and “There is Power in the Union”. Joe Hill coined the term “pie in the sky” first using it in his song “The Preacher and the Slave”. -1879
Under the leadership of John L. Lewis the United Mine Workers withdrew from the CIO. The UMWA’s efforts through the first half of the 20th century made American miners among the best-paid and best-insured miners in the world. -1942
Tuesday, Oct 8:
A nationwide General Strike was called to demand the release of Tom Mooney and amnesty for all other political prisoners. Mooney was a labor organizer who was falsely convicted of the fatal Preparedness Day bombing to the benefit of the corporate interest. -1919
Poland: The union Solidarność (Solidarity) and all other democratic labor organizations are banned by the Communist government. The labor unions would later lead the way in crushing Communism in Poland and bringing democracy to the people using worker solidarity. -1982
This Week in Labor History is compiled by Kevin D. Curtis
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“The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.” -Thomas R. Donahue, AFL-CIO
Wednesday, July 3:
Children employed in the silk mills in Paterson, N.J., go on strike for 11-hour day and 6-day week. A compromise settlement resulted in a 69-hour work week for children laborers. -1835
Butte Montana: Mayor Lewis Duncan (Socialist) is attacked and stabbed in his office. Duncan shoots his attacker in self-defense. Elected twice as a Socialist Mayor, Duncan's socialist policies ended corruption, increased public services, improved the city streets and sanitation, lowered infant mortality rates by fifty percent, and brought Butte out of bankruptcy. -1914
Thursday, July 4:
AFL dedicates its new Washington, D.C., headquarters building at 9th St. and Massachusetts Ave. NW. The building, still standing, later became headquarters for the Plumbers and Pipefitters. -1916
Madison, Wisconsin: The Capital Times reporter John Patrick Hunter asks people on the street to sign a "petition", (actually the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, 6 amendments from the Bill of Rights and the 15th amendment of the U.S. Constitution). Only 1 in 112 does. 20 accuse Hunter of being a “Communist”. Many feared McCarthy could use it against them. The rest find the words in the petition “too subversive”. The journalist's actions demonstrated that an ignorant fearful populace incited by McCarthyism can and do threaten the very foundations of our democracy. -1951
Friday, July 5:
The Pullman Strike: Federal Government interferes with a peaceful labor strike, led by Eugene Debs, against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which has drastically reduced wages. Federal troops kill 34 American Railway Union members in the Chicago area. Debs and several others are imprisoned. -1894
Battle of Rincon Hill, San Francisco, Longshoremen’s Strike. Strikers fought 1,000 police, scabs and national guardsmen. 2 strikers were murdered, 109 injured, 30 from bullet wounds. The incident led to a General Strike. Chemical companies capitalized on the unrest by testing new products. Federal Laboratories’ Joseph Roush proudly told his company, “I might mention that during one of the riots, I shot a long-range projectile into a group, a shell hitting one man and causing a fracture of the skull, from which he has since died. As he was a Communist, I have had no feeling in the matter, and I am sorry that I did not get more.” -1934
Saturday, July 6:
2 barges with Pinkertons hired by Carnegie Steel, land in Homestead, Pa., seeking to occupy Carnegie Steel Works and put down a strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. They opened fire and 11 unarmed union members were murdered in cold blood for profit. Court injunctions eventually crush the union, protecting the steel industry for decades from organized labor. -1892
Transit workers in New York begin a 3-week strike against the then-privately owned IRT subway. Most transit workers labored 7 days a week, up to 11.5 hours a day. -1926
Sunday, July 7:
During Homestead Strike Henry Bauer is arrested and sent to prison for 5 years for distributing union supporting leaflets. At the time “Free Market” Capitalist profiteers owned and controlled all "Free Speech." -1892
Butte Montana: Railroad strike of BA&P and Pullman workers closes Anaconda, Syndicate, and Parrot mines. -1894
Mother Jones begins "The March of the Mill Children”. Accompanied by children, she walked from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's home on Long Island to protest the plight of child laborers. One of her demands: reduce the children’s work week to 55 hours. -1903
Monday, July 8:
First anthracite coal strike in the nation. Over 2,000 miners take part. -1842
Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) founding convention (Chicago, June 27-July 8) concludes. Charles O. Sherman, a former AFL organizer, is elected president. The IWW, advocates of “One Big Union”, organized all workers regardless of race or gender. Notable IWW members include Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, Joe Hill, Frank Little, Dorothy Day, Helen Keller, Utah Phillips, and Noam Chomsky. -1905
Tuesday, July 9:
Federal troops raided the IWW Hall in Yakima Washington arresting 24 IWW union members for their anti-war/peace advocacy. The IWW opposed the U.S. entering WWI, considering it a Capitalist war that wasted the lives of workers while allowing big business to profit. -1917
First Transport Workers Union (TWU) strike, protesting dismissals of 6 car cleaners at IRT Jerome Avenue barn who refused a work speed-up without an increase in pay. The strike was won and all were reinstated. -1935
This Week in Labor History is compiled by Kevin D. Curtis
