Today's Labor History

Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: Paul Shackel’s fascinating tale of “How a 1897 Massacre of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Morphed From a Galvanizing Crisis to Forgotten History.” And in this week’s “Cool Things from the Meany Labor Archives,” Ben, Allan and Chloe explore the efforts to hijack and rewrite the history of the 1912 “Bread & Roses” Lawrence textile strike.

IWW union Agricultural Workers Organization formed in Kansas City, Mo. - 1915
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Teacher unionists gather at the City Club on Plymouth Court in Chicago to form a new national union: the American Federation of Teachers – 1916

Start of ultimately successful six-day strike across New England by what has been described as the first women-led American union, the Telephone Operators Department of IBEW - 1919 photo of 1919 strikers courtesy WGBH

Transport Workers Union founded – 1934

The first McDonald’s Restaurant opens, in Des Plaines, Ill., setting the stage years later for sociologist Amitai Etzioni to coin the term "McJob." As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, a McJob is "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector." - 1955

Labor history courtesy Union Communication Services. 

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