 Father Thomas Hagerty and the IWW: Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: The largely unknown story of Father Thomas Hagerty, the “May Day Saint” who helped found the IWW. Plus: the recent Uber and Lyft strikes inspire a search for photos of the 1965 taxi strike in New York City.
May 31 The Johnstown Flood. More than 2,200 die when a dam holding back a private resort lake burst upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The resort was owned by wealthy industrialists including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Neither they nor any other members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club were found guilty of fault, despite the fact the group had created the lake out of an abandoned reservoir – 1889 Some 25,000 White autoworkers walk off the job at a Detroit Packard Motor Car Co. plant, heavily involved in wartime production, when three Black workers are promoted to work on a previously all-White assembly line. The Black workers were relocated and the Whites returned - 1943 June 01 The Ladies Federal Labor Union Number 2703, based in Illinois, was granted a charter from the American Federation of Labor. Women from a wide range of occupations were among the members, who ultimately were successful in coalescing women’s groups interested in suffrage, temperance, health, housing and child labor reform to win state legislation in these areas - 1888 Extinguishing the light of hope in the hearts and aspirations of workers around the world, the Mexican government abolishes siestas—a mid-afternoon nap and work break which lengthened the work day but got people through brutally hot summer days - 1944 Farm workers under the banner of the new United Farm Workers Organizing Committee strike at Texas’s La Casita Farms (photo), demand $1.25 as a minimum hourly wage - 1966 June 02 Twenty-six journeymen printers in Philadelphia stage the trade’s first strike in America over wages: a cut in their $6 weekly pay - 1786. A constitutional amendment declaring that "Congress shall have power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age" was approved by the Senate today, following the lead of the House five weeks earlier. But only 28 state legislatures ever ratified the amendment—the last three in 1937—so it has never taken effect - 1924 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President Harry Truman acted illegally when he ordered the Army to seize the nation’s steel mills to avert a strike - 1952 Labor history courtesy Union Communication Services click here for latest listings Union City Radio: 7:15a; WPFW-FM 89.3 Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, May 30, 1pm – 3pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online 5/40: 2019 Labor 411 DC release party/Norma Rae Reception: Thu, May 30, 5:30pm – 6:45pm McGinty's Public House, 911 Ellsworth Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910 Sponsored by Labor411; FREE; RSVP here NORMA RAE (Film): Thu, May 30, 7:15pm – 9:15pm AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20910 Click here for tickets OR email [email protected] to enter our last free pass raffle! UPCOMING CALL ME INTERN (film): Fri, May 31, 12pm – 1pm AFL-CIO, 815 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20005; FREE but you must RSVP online here The Incredible Life & Death of IBEW Founder Henry Miller: Sat, June 1, 11am – 12pm 2219 Lincoln Rd NE, Washington, DC; FREE; RSVP here  “It’s a mess,” said one local bus driver yesterday on the first work day after Metro shut down six Blue and Yellow line stations south of National Airport. ATU Local 689 blamed poor management by General Manager Paul Wiedefeld for stranded passengers and delayed shuttle buses, saying that “We believe that issues like this are the inevitable result of attempts to privatize and contract out work that would be best handled by the hardworking, well-trained workers of Local 689.” The union says WMATA assured them that the shutdown would cause minimal disruptions and would not involve reassigning operators from regular routes, but with contractor-driven buses late or lost, “WMATA buses and operators are being pulled off of their regular routes to work on lines for the Yellow and Blue Line shutdowns.” Saying “It puts passengers and our operators at risk,” ATU 689 president Raymond Jackson called on WMATA to return all operators to their regular routes immediately.
 Yesterday was Firefighters’ Memorial Day in DC, when "We honor all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to this great city," said Fire Fighters Local 36 on its Facebook page. To mark the occasion, Local 36 dedicated the fire box where firefighter “Big John” Williams was killed while working to put out the Casino Royale Theatre fire in 1984.
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