Here’s today’s labor history:
The Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, was founded on this date in Chicago in 1905
In 1928, Alabama outlawed the leasing of convicts to mine coal, a practice that had been in place since 1848.
The Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, a union whose roots traced back to the militant Western Federation of Miners, and which helped found the Industrial Workers of the World, merged into the United Steelworkers of America on this date in 1967
And in 1998, up to 40,000 New York construction workers demonstrated in midtown Manhattan, protesting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s awarding of a $33 million contract to a nonunion company.
Today’s labor quote is by organizer Saul Alinsky:
“Power goes to two poles – to those who’ve got the money and those who’ve got people.”