Today's Labor History

​This week’s Labor History Today podcast: A travel guide to labor landmarks
Saul Schniderman takes us on a road trip to discover the markers, memorials and monuments commemorating the history and heritage of America's workers. Saul directs the Inventory of American Labor Landmarks, a project of the Labor Heritage Foundation. Plus this week’s Labor History in 2: Breaking the Glass Ceiling.
Last week’s show: “The Flintstones” and class struggle; The Ford Hunger March

August 28
The march for jobs and freedom—the Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have A Dream" speech march—is held in Washington, D.C. with 250,000 participating - 1963

August 29
Dancers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady Club vote 57-15 to be represented by SEIU Local 790. Their first union contract, ratified eight months later, guaranteed work shifts, protection against arbitrary discipline and termination, automatic hourly wage increases, sick days, a grievance procedure, and removal of one-way mirrors from peep show booths - 1996

Northwest Airlines pilots, after years of concessions to help the airline, begin what is to become a two-week strike for higher pay - 1998

August 30
Delegates to the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention approve the launching of workdayminnesota.org. It was the first web-based daily labor news service by a state labor federation - 2000

The CEOs of large American companies made an average of $10.8 million in 2006, more than 364 times the average pay of American workers, reported the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy - 2007

Delegates from several East Coast cities meet in convention to form the National Trades' Union, uniting craft unions to oppose "the most unequal and unjustifiable distribution of the wealth of society in the hands of a few individuals." The union faded after a few years - 1834
President Franklin Roosevelt's Wealth Tax Act increases taxes on rich citizens and big business, lowers taxes for small businesses - 1935

OSHA publishes scaffold safety standard, designed to protect 2.3 million construction workers and prevent 50 deaths and 4,500 injuries annually - 1996

- David Prosten

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