Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1864, led by 23-year-old Kate Mullaney, the Collar Laundry Union formed in Troy, New York, and raised earnings for female laundry workers from $2 dollars a week to $14.
In 1913, some 25,000 Paterson, New Jersey silk workers struck for an 8-hour work day and improved working conditions. Eighteen hundred were arrested over the course of the six-month walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their employers’ terms., but eventually, after a wave of shop strikes, the Paterson silk workers won the eight hour day in 1919.
Today’s labor quote is by IWW organizer "Big Bill" Haywood, about the Paterson silk strikers:
"Your power is in your folded arms. You have killed the mills; you have stopped production; you have broken off the profits."
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