News: Few postal workers were surprised by a recent Gallup Poll that found that Americans rate the Postal Service highest among 13 government agencies – after all, the Postal Service routinely ranks at the top of such surveys. But many people were surprised to learn that young people gave the Postal Service the highest rating: 81 percent of 18-29 year olds gave the Postal Service “excellent or good” marks. “Pundits have convinced many people that the future of the Postal Service is bleak because young people consider it irrelevant,” Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said, “but this poll shows the opposite is true.”
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1811, the largest slave revolt in U.S. history began on Louisiana sugar plantations. Slaves armed with hand tools marched toward New Orleans, setting plantations and crops on fire, building their numbers to as many as 500 as they went. The uprising lasted for two days before being brutally suppressed by the military. Today’s the birthday of Mary Kenney O’Sullivan, the first woman organizer for the American Federation of Labor. Born on this date in 1864, she organized the Woman’s Bookbinder Union in 1880 and in 1903 was a founder of the National Women’s Trade Union League. In 1920, the AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee ended the “Great Steel Strike.” Some 400,000 steelworkers had been striking for more than three months, demanding union recognition. The strike failed. Today’s labor quote is by American labor historian Paul Clark: “The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining-it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process.”
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