 This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Haymarket Martyrs Monument: Past, Present, Future; Last week's show: We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day.
May 9 Japanese workers strike at Oahu, Hawaii’s Aiea Plantation, demanding the same pay as Portugese and Puerto Rican workers. Ultimately 7,000 workers and their families remained out until August, when the strike was broken - 1909 Longshoremen’s strike to gain control of hiring leads to general work stoppage, San Francisco Bay area - 1934 Hollywood studio mogul Louis B. Mayer recognizes the Screen Actors Guild. SAG leaders reportedly were bluffing when they told Mayer that 99 percent of all actors would walk out the next morning unless he dealt with the union. Some 5,000 actors attended a victory gathering the following day at Hollywood Legion Stadium; a day later, SAG membership increased 400 percent - 1937 May 10 Thanks to an army of thousands of Chinese and Irish immigrants, who laid 2,000 miles of track, the nation’s first transcontinental railway line was finished by the joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines at Promontory Point, Utah – 1869 U.S. & Canadian workers form Western Labor Union. It favors industrial organization and independent labor party politics - 1898 A federal bankruptcy judge frees United Airlines from responsibility for pensions covering 120,000 employees - 2005 - David Prosten  This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Industrial murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; Last week's show: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver.
April 1 Players begin the first strike in the 75-year history of the National Hockey League. They win major improvements in the free agency system and other areas of conflict, and end the walkout after 10 days - 1992 Longest newspaper strike in U.S. history, 114 days, ends in New York City. Workers at nine newspapers were involved - 1963 More than 2,000 workers strike the Draper Corp. power loom manufacturing plant in Hopedale, Mass., seeking higher wages and a nine-hour workday. Eben S. Draper, president of the firm -- and a former state governor -- declares: "We will spend $1 million to break this strike" and refuses to negotiate. The strike ended in a stalemate 13 weeks later - 1913 April 2 The Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a 1918 Washington, D.C. law establishing a minimum wage for women - 1923 Major league baseball players end a 232-day strike, which began the prior August 12 and led to the cancellation of the 1994 postseason and the World Series - 1995 April 3 20,000 textile mill strikers in Paterson, NJ gather on the green in front of the house of Pietro Botto, the socialist mayor of nearby Haledon, to receive encouragement by novelist Upton Sinclair, journalist John Reed and speakers from the Wobblies. Today, the Botto House is home to the American Labor Museum - 1913 Martin Luther King Jr. returns to Memphis to stand with striking AFSCME sanitation workers. This evening, he delivers his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech in a church packed with union members and others. He is assassinated the following day - 1968 - David Prosten  This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Industrial murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Last week's episode: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver.
March 30 Chicago stockyard workers win 8-hour day - 1918 At the height of the Great Depression, 35,000 unemployed march in New York’s Union Square. Police beat many demonstrators, injuring 100 - 1930 Harry Bridges, Australian-born dock union leader, dies at age 88. He helped form and lead the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) for 40 years. A Bridges quote: “The most important word in the language of the working class is ‘solidarity’” - 1990. March 31 President Martin Van Buren issues a broadly-applicable executive order granting the 10 hour day to all government employees engaged in manual labor - 1840 Cesar Chavez born in Yuma, AZ.- 1927 Wisconsin state troopers fail to get scabs across the picket line to break a 76-day Allis-Chalmers strike in Milwaukee led by UAW Local 248. The plant remained closed until the government negotiated a compromise - 1941 - David Prosten.  This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Industrial murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; Last week's show: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver.
March 28 Members of Gas House Workers’ Union Local 18799 begin what is to become a four-month recognition strike against the Laclede Gas Light Co. in St. Louis. The union later said the strike was the first ever against a public utility in the U.S. - 1935 Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. Violence during the march persuades him to return the following week to Memphis, where he was assassinated - 1968 March 29 Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day - 1852 “Battle of Wall Street,” police charge strikers lying down in front of stock exchange doors, 43 arrested - 1948 - David Prosten |
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