Today's Labor History

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: A journey down the Working River The UnionDues podcast takes a trip down the River Thames, finding struggles and strikes, insurrection and inspiration. And, on this week’s Labor History in 2: Striking against privatization in Alberta, Canada.
Last week’s show: One Day More


November 20
Norman Thomas born, American socialist leader - 1884

The time clock is invented by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, N.Y. Bundy’s brother Harlow starts mass producing them a year later - 1888
Mine fire in Telluride, Colo., kills 28 miners, prompts union call for safer work conditions - 1901

78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, W. Va. - 1968

Six miners striking for better working conditions under the IWW banner were killed and many wounded in the Columbine Massacre at Lafayette, Colo. Out of this struggle Colorado coal miners gained lasting union contracts - 1927

November 21
The United Auto Workers Union strikes 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30 percent raise. 200,000 workers are out - 1945

Staten Island and Brooklyn are linked by the new Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time and still the longest in the U.S. Joseph Farrell, an apprentice Ironworker on the project, told radio station WNYC: "The way the wind blows over this water it would blow you right off the iron. That was to me and still is the most treacherous part of this business. When the wind grabs you on the open iron, it can be very dangerous." Three workers died over the course of the five year project - 1964

A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas kills 85 hotel employees and guests and sends 650 injured persons, including 14 firefighters, to the hospital. Most of the deaths and injuries were caused by smoke inhalation - 1980

Flight attendants celebrate the signing into law a smoking ban on all U.S. domestic flights - 1989

Congress approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to take effect Jan. 1 of the following year - 1993

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act takes effect in the nation’s workplaces. It prohibits employers from requesting genetic testing or considering someone’s genetic background in hiring, firing or promotions - 2009

November 22
20,000 female garment workers are on strike in New York; Judge tells arrested pickets: “You are on strike against God” - 1909

The district president of the American Federation of Labor and two other white men are shot and killed in Bogalusa, Ala. as they attempt to assist an African-American organizer working to unionize African-American workers at the Great Southern Lumber Co. - 1919


- David Prosten

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