Today in Labor History

Radical labor organizer and anarchist Lucy Parsons leads hunger march in Chicago; IWW songwriter Ralph Chaplin wrote "Solidarity Forever" for the march - 1915
 
President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 10988 (below), guaranteeing federal workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. "At the time Kennedy acted, very few workers at any level of government had won the right to bargain collectively with their employers," notes labor historian Joe McCartin. "Federal action helped inspire many states and localities to follow suit, allowing their own workers to organize. This triggered a huge wave of unionization in the public sector that saw firefighters, teachers, sanitation workers, social workers and many others form unions in the 1960s and '70s." - 1962
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services 

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