Today's Labor History

​On this week's Labor History Today podcast: John Sayles on “Matewan,” “Yellow Earth” and more
Writer, actor, and filmmaker John Sayles talks about his latest novel, “Yellow Earth,” and about his classic labor films Matewan and Eight Men Out. Plus, a reading from “Yellow Earth.” Also this week, Saul Schniderman on the arrest of Mother Jones while leading a protest of conditions in West Virginia mines, and Jacob Feinspan remembers the 1926 general strike by New York furriers.
Last week's show: Sisters, rebels and social justice in the Jim Crow South. photo by Bruce Guthrie
 
February 10
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) founds the Building and Construction Trades Department as a way to overcome the jurisdictional conflicts occurring in the building and construction unions - 1908


Forty workers are killed on Staten Island, NY when a huge storage tank filled with liquefied gas explodes - 1974

February 11
The Seattle General Strike ends after six days. Some 65,000 workers struck for higher pay after two years of World War I wage controls - 1919

“White Shirt Day” at UAW-represented GM plants. Union members are encouraged to wear white shirts, marking the anniversary of the 1937 sitdown strike that gave the union bargaining rights at the automaker. The mission: send a message that “blue collar” workers deserve the same respect as their management counterparts. One of the day’s traditional rules: Don’t get your shirt any dirtier than the boss gets his. The 44-day strike was won in 1937 but the tradition didn’t begin until 1948, at the suggestion of Local 598 member Bert Christenson - 1948

Some 1,300 sanitation workers begin what is to become a 64-day strike in Memphis, ultimately win union recognition and wage increases. The April 4 assassination in Memphis of Martin Luther King Jr., who had been taking an active role in mass meetings and street actions, brought pressure on the city to settle the strike - 1968
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announces he will call out the National Guard, if necessary, to deal with any "unrest" among state employees in the wake of his decision take unilaterally end nearly all collective bargaining rights for the workers - 2011

- David Prosten

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