 This week’s Labor History Today podcast: MLK: All Labor Has Dignity
On today’s show, historian Michael Honey on “Wisconsin to Memphis: King's gospel of labor rights on the rebound,” from the Michigan State University School of Human Resources and Labor Relations’ "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" Brown Bag series. Also this week, Linda Donahue on the strike by 10,000 clothing workers in Rochester, NY. Last week's show: (1/12): UAW’s Punch Press strike daily January 24 Federal minimum wage increases to 75¢ an hour - 1952 January 25 200 miners are killed in an horrific explosion at the Harwick mine in Cheswick, Pa., Allegheny County. Many of the dead lay entombed in the sealed mine to this day - 1904 The Supreme Court upholds “Yellow Dog” employment contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions. Yellow Dog contracts remained legal until 1932 - 1915 16,000 textile workers strike in Passaic, N.J. - 1926 January 26 In what could be considered the first workers’ compensation agreement in America, pirate Henry Morgan pledges his underlings 600 pieces of eight or six slaves to compensate for a lost arm or leg. Also part of the pirate’s code, reports Roger Newell: shares of the booty were equal regardless of race or sex, and shipboard decisions were made collectively. - 1695 Samuel Gompers, first AFL president, born in London, England. He emigrated to the U.S. as a youth - 1850 The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America is chartered by the American Federation of Labor to organize "every wage earner from the man who takes the bullock at the house until it goes into the hands of the consumer." - 1987 - David Prosten; photo courtesy MOMA Comments are closed.
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