Today in Labor History

On this date in 1933, a sit-down strike began at the Austin, Minnesota Hormel plant with the help of a Wobbly organizer, leading to the creation of the Independent Union of All Workers. Labor historians believe this may have been the first sit-down strike of the 1930s. Workers held the plant for three days, demanding a wage increase. Some 400 men crashed through the plant entrance and chased out nonunion workers. One group rushed through the doors of a conference room where Jay Hormel and five company executives were meeting and declared: “We’re taking possession. So move out.” Within four days the company agreed to binding arbitration.
 
In 1975, the ship Edmund Fitzgerald—the biggest carrier on the Great Lakes—and crew of 29 were lost in a storm on Lake Superior while carrying ore from Superior, Wisconsin to Detroit. The cause of the sinking was never established.
…Read more; compiled/edited by David Prosten at Union Communication Services. ​​​

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