Today's Labor History

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Minneapolis general strike; “Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property”
Political scientist and historian Michael Munk connects what’s going on in Minneapolis today with the general strike that took place there in 1934. Plus: Steve Fraser, author of the new book “Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American History”; With the AFL-CIO car caravans originally planned for this Wednesday (now postponed) to demand swift action on the pending Heroes bill in Congress to help American workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Meany Archives Ben Blake reveals that the labor movement has used this technique effectively in the past. The latest episode of the “En Masse” podcast takes us inside the New England quarries nearly a century ago, and we celebrate the life of Rosie the Riveter.
Last week’s show: “Politics of the Pantry”; “We Just Come to Work Here”

June 5
U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization, upholding several lower courts’ rulings that Jersey City mayor Frank Hague’s ordinance banning labor meetings in public places and prohibiting the distribution of CIO literature violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly and was therefore unconstitutional -1939

June 6
Speculator mine disaster. 164 killed at Butte, Mont. – 1917

A general strike by some 12,000 autoworkers and others in Lansing, Mich. shuts down the city for a month in what was to become known as the city’s “Labor Holiday.” The strike was precipitated by the arrest of nine workers, including the wife of the auto workers local union president: The arrest left three children in the couple’s home unattended - 1937

Labor Party founding convention opens in Cleveland, Ohio – 1996

June 7
Militia sent to Cripple Creek, Colo., to suppress Western Federation of Miners strike – 1904

Sole performance of Pageant of the Paterson (NJ) Strike, created and performed by 1,000 mill workers from the silk industry strike, New York City – 1913

Striking textile workers battle police in Gastonia, N.C. Police Chief O.F. Aderholt is accidentally killed by one of his own officers. Six strike leaders are convicted of “conspiracy to murder” and are sentenced to jail for from 5 to 20 years - 1929

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, later to become the United Steel Workers of America, is formed in Pittsburgh - 1936

Founding convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers. The merger brought together the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen of North America - 1979

The United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club announce the formation of a strategic alliance to pursue a joint public policy agenda under the banner of Good Jobs, A Clean Environment, and A Safer World - 2006
 
- David Prosten

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