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The Metro Council’s offices are closed this week for the holidays, but you can check dclabor.org for the latest local labor news updates.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1931, sixty thousand unemployed workers rallied at a Pittsburgh stadium. In 1969, United Mine Workers reformer Joseph "Jock" Yablonski, his wife and daughter were murdered by hit men hired by union president Tony Boyle, who was convicted of the crime and eventually died in prison. And in 1987, OSHA adopted new safety standards to protect 155,000 workers at nearly 24,000 grain elevators from the risk of fire and explosion from highly combustible grain dust. Today’s labor quote is by Jock Yablonski, from the 1986 film "Act of Vengeance." Jablonski, played by Charles Bronson, is speaking to mine workers president Tony Boyle, played by Wilford Brimley: "You knew that mine was unsafe; but you turned your back for a couple of bucks."
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The Metro Council’s offices are closed this week for the holidays, but you can check dclabor.org for the latest local labor news updates.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1899, 33 railroad clerks gathered in the back room of a cigar shop in Sedalia, Missouri to form Local Lodge Number 1 of a union they named the Order of the Railroad Clerks of America. In 1905, Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg, who had brutally suppressed the state’s miners, was killed by an assassin's bomb. Legendary Western Federation of Miners and IWW leader William "Big Bill" Haywood and two other men were put on trial for the death but were ultimately declared innocent. And in 1936, a GM sit-down strike spread to Flint, Michigan. The strike lasted 44 days before ending in union victory. Today’s labor quote is by William "Big Bill" Haywood: "We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working class movement. The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working class in possession of economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution without regard to capitalist masters." The Metro Council’s offices are closed this week for the holidays, but you can check dclabor.org for the latest local labor news updates.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1970, after years of intensive lobbying by the labor movement, a comprehensive national safety law is enacted as President Nixon signs the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970, creating the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, or OSHA. In 2006, more than 15,000 United Steel Workers members at 16 Goodyear Tire and Rubber plants ended an 86-day strike, ratifying a 3-year contract. Today’s labor quote is by Richard Trumka: “Time after time we're told corporations should have freedom from pesky job safety regulations, environmental protections and labor standards - giving working people the freedom to be crushed in collapsing mines, choke on filthy air and get paid too little to live on.” Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, is the former president of the United Mine Workers of America. The Metro Council’s offices are closed this week for the holidays, but you can check dclabor.org for the latest local labor news updates.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1865, the coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason of Franklin, Massachusetts, placing himself forever in the debt of millions of caffeine-dependent working people. In 1936, auto workers began a sit-down strike for union recognition at GM’s Fisher Body plant in Cleveland. And in 1952, country music legend Hank Williams attended what was to be his last musicians’ union meeting, at the Elite café in Montgomery, Alabama Williams died of apparent heart failure three days later in the back seat of a car driving north; he was just 29 years old. Today’s labor quote is by Hank Williams: [The country singer] sings more sincere than most entertainers, because the hillbilly was raised tougher than most entertainers. The people who has been raised something like the way the hillbilly has, knows what he is singing about and appreciates it. For what he is singing, is the hopes, and prayers, and dreams and experiences of what some call the "common people." I call them the "best people," because they are the ones that the world is made up most of. They're really the ones who make things tick, wherever they are in this country, or in any other country. |
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