 This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Vancouver Island Coal Strike; Skyscraper Labor
The story of the 1912 Vancouver Island Coal Strike -- the most protracted, violent and hard-fought strike in British Columbia's long labour history -- from the On The Line podcast. In Part 1 of her online talk for The Skyscraper Museum last November, architectural historian Joanna Merwood-Salisbury traces labor protests in the construction industry in Chicago in the 1880s and examines the formation of unions uniting trades-based groups with ethnic organizations, as well as the public spaces of their protest movements. And on Labor History in 2:00, Rick Smith tells us about The Rise of Settlement Houses. Last week’s show: Cutting along the Color Line The IWW-organized “Bread & Roses” textile strike of 32,000 women and children begins in Lawrence, Mass. It lasted 10 weeks and ended in victory. The first millworkers to walk out were Polish women who, upon collecting their pay, exclaimed that they had been cheated and promptly abandoned their looms - 1912 Nearly two weeks into a sit-down strike at GM’s Fisher Body Plant No. 2 in Flint, Mi., workers battle police when they try to prevent the strikers from receiving food deliveries from thousands of supporters on the outside. Sixteen strikers and spectators and 11 police were injured. Most of the strikers were hit by buckshot fired by police riot guns; the police were injured principally by thrown nuts, bolts, door hinges and other auto parts. The incident became known as the “Battle of the Running Bulls.” - 1936 Ford Motor Co. announces it will eliminate 35,000 jobs while discontinuing four models and closing five plants - 2002 - David Prosten. photo: Ladysmith Miners march in support of striking coal miners during the great Vancouver coal strike of 1912-1914 (see Labor History Today, above). Credit to Ladysmith Historical Society. Comments are closed.
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