Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO
  • Home
  • Union City Radio
  • Programs
    • Community Services >
      • Espanol
      • Mission
      • Donate Now
      • Programs
      • Funders
      • Archives
    • Political Action >
      • DC Voting Info
      • MD Voting Info
      • Legislative Updates
      • Archive
      • Mission
      • Elected Officials
      • Endorsements
      • Candidate Questionnaires: Archive 2006-2014 >
        • 2018
        • 2016
        • 2015
        • 2014
        • Other
        • 2012
        • 2010
        • 2008
        • 2007
        • 2006
    • Unemployment Help
    • Hiring Hall >
      • ADMINISTRATIVE
      • COMMUNICATIONS
      • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
      • INTERNSHIPS
      • LEGAL
      • MISC
      • ORGANIZING
      • POLITICAL
      • RESEARCH
  • About Us
    • Leaders & Staff
  • Calendar
  • Union City News
  • Affiliates
  • DC LaborFest
    • Archive >
      • 2021 Films
      • 2020 Films
      • 2019
      • Films (AFI) 2019
      • Films (other) 2019
      • Music 2019
      • History (2019)
      • Art (2019)
      • Other: Fashion show, Soccer, Solidarity Awards, Trivia (2019)
      • Radio/Podcasts
      • 2018
      • Other events
      • Films (AFI) 2018
      • Films (other) 2018
      • Music (2018)
      • History (2018)
      • Art (2018)
      • Other: Marx, whiskey, pub trivia & radio (2018)
      • 2017 >
        • Films (AFI)
        • Films (other)
        • Music
        • History
        • Art
        • Other: Soccer, Whiskey, Theater
      • 2016 >
        • Films (AFI)
        • Films (other)
        • Music
        • History & Art
        • Soccer, Poetry
      • 2015
      • 2014
  • Affiliate Social Media
  • Allies Social Media
  • Constituency Group Social Media
  • Union Shop
  • Evening With Labor
    • Archive
    • 2019 Evening With Labor
    • 2018 Evening With Labor
    • 2017 Evening With Labor
    • 2016 Evening With Labor
    • 2015 Evening With Labor
  • Council Minutes, Archives, Photo Albums
    • Council meeting reports and documents
    • Union City & photo archives
    • 2020 MWC Directory
    • 2020 Election Documents >
      • 2020 Election Appeal
      • 2020 Election ARCHIVE

Metro Washington Council afl-cio

Bringing DC Labor Together since 1896

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

3/2/2021

 
Picture
​This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Singing About Food Labor; Bill Lucy on the ’68 Memphis strike. Last week’s show: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly.

Postal workers granted 8 hour day - 1913

More than 6,000 drivers strike Greyhound Lines, most lose jobs to strikebreakers after company declares “impasse” in negotiations - 1990

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

3/1/2021

 
Picture
​This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Singing About Food Labor; Bill Lucy on the ’68 Memphis strike. Last week’s show: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly.

The Granite Cutters National Union begins what is to be a successful nationwide strike for the 8-hour day. Also won: union recognition, wage increases, a grievance procedure and a minimum wage scale - 1900

Joseph Curren is born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. At age 16 he joined the Merchant Marines and in 1937 went on to lead the formation of the National Maritime Union. He was the union’s founding president and held the post until 1973, when he resigned amidst corruption charges. He died in 1981 - 1906

IWW strikes Portland, Ore. sawmills - 1907

After five years of labor by 21,000 workers, 112 of whom were killed on the job, the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) is completed and turned over to the government. Citizens were so mad at Pres. Herbert Hoover, for whom the dam had been named, that it was later changed to Boulder Dam, being located near Boulder City, Nev - 1936 photo: Hoover Dam "publicity" photo by Ben Glaha. It was never used in official government publications. It is believed that the photo was taken in the event that the government had to prove fair hiring practices. Read more here.

CIO president John L. Lewis and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor sign a landmark contract in which the bitterly anti-union company officially recognized the CIO as sole negotiator for the company's unionized workers. Included: the adoption of overtime pay, the 40-hour work week, and a big pay hike - 1937

Screen Actors Guild member Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award, honored for her portrayal of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind” (Actually leap year Feb. 29) - 1940

The federal minimum wage increases to $1.00 per hour - 1956

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

2/26/2021

 
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Last week’s show: Remembering John Sweeney and Anne Feeney  

February 26
Congress okays the Contract Labor Law, designed to clamp down on "business agents" who contracted abroad for immigrant labor. One of the reasons unions supported the measure: employers were using foreign workers to fight against the growing U.S. labor movement, primarily by deploying immigrant labor to break strikes - 1885

Bethlehem Steel workers strike for union recognition, Bethlehem, Penn. - 1941

A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapsed, flooding the 17-mile long valley. 118 died, 5,000 were left homeless. The Pittston Coal Co. said it was "an Act of God." - 1972

A 20-week strike by 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers ends, with both sides claiming victory - 2004

February 27
Birth of John Steinbeck in Salinas, Calif. Steinbeck is best known for writing “The Grapes of Wrath,” which exposed the mistreatment of migrant farm workers during the Depression and led to some reforms - 1902

Thirty-eight miners die in a coal mine explosion in Boissevain, Va. - 1932

Legendary labor leader and socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs becomes charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Five years later he is leading the national union and in 1893 helps found the nation’s first industrial union, the American Railway Union - 1875

450 Woolworth’s workers and customers occupy store for eight days in support of Waiters and Waitresses Union, Detroit - 1937
The Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes, a major organizing tool for industrial unions, are illegal - 1939

Mine disaster kills 75 at Red Lodge, Mont. - 1943

February 28
U.S. Supreme Court finds that a Utah state law limiting mine and smelter workers to an eight-hour workday is constitutional - 1898
The minimum age allowed by law for workers in mills, factories, and mines in South Carolina is raised from twelve to fourteen - (Actually Leap Year Feb. 29) 1915

Members of the Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in San Francisco’s Chinatown begin what is to be a successful four-month strike for better wages and conditions at the National Dollar Stores factory and three retail outlets - 1938

In response to the layoff of 450 union members at a 3M factory in New Jersey, every worker at a 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, walks off the job in sympathy - 1986.

Today's Labor History

2/25/2021

 
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Last week’s show: Remembering John Sweeney and Anne Feeney  

Labor organizer and civil rights activist Edgar Daniel Nixon dies. While working as a Pullman porter, Nixon organized the Montgomery local of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and served as its president for many years. He was a key organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and co-founder of the Montgomery Improvement Association. 1987

Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employees of America change name to Amalgamated Transit Union - 1965
 
- David Prosten
<<Previous

    Calendar

    Subscribe to "Union City"
    Tweets by @DCLabor

    COVID RESOURCES

    COMMUNITY SERVICES

    en espanol

    UNEMPLOYMENT HELP

    Legislative updates

    MWC STAFF

    UNION City Radio

    mwc ELECTION 2020

    Evening with Labor

    DC LABORFest

    HIRING HALL

    Union City News

    AFFILIATES

    AFFILIATE Social media

    UNION SHOP

    DC LABOR MAP

    Documents

    ​Leaders & Staff

    Labor 411-DC

    Categories

    All
    Cap Files
    Cool Labor Site
    Dclaborfest
    Labor Book
    Labor Humor
    Labor Song
    Labor Video
    Quote Of The Day
    Today In Labor History
    Todays Labor Calendar
    Year-in-review-2015

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

NEW! Share any story to your Facebook or Twitter page or via email! Just click on the story and then click on the appropriate social media icon at right!

COPYRIGHT METRO COUNCIL AFL-CIO 2021
202-974-8150; [email protected]