For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor events, click on Calendar.
Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1882, striking New York longshoremen met to discuss ways to keep new immigrants from strikebreaking, or scabbing. They were successful, at least for a time. On July 14, 500 newly arrived Jews marched straight from their ship to the union hall. On July 15, 250 Italian immigrants stopped scabbing on the railroad and joined the union. In 1903, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones began "The March of the Mill Children," when, accompanied part of the way by children, she walked from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's home on Long Island to protest the plight of child laborers. One of her demands was to reduce the childrens' work week to 55 hours. And in 1998, some 500,000 people participated when a two-day general strike was called in Puerto Rico by more than 60 trade unions and many other organizations. They were protesting privatization of the island's telephone company. Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones Mother Jones, who said: "The employment of children is doing more to fill prisons, insane asylums, almshouses, reformatories, slums, and gin shops than all the efforts of reformers are doing to improve society."
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For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.
Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1892, two barges, loaded with Pinkerton thugs hired by the Carnegie Steel Company, landed on the south bank of the Monongahela River in Homestead, Pennsylvania, seeking to occupy Carnegie Steel Works and put down a strike by members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers. In 1894, rail union leader Eugene V. Debs was arrested during the Pullman strike, described by the New York Times as "a struggle between the greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital" that involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states at its peak. And in 1926, transit workers in New York began what was to be an unsuccessful 3-week strike against the then-privately owned IRT subway. Most transit workers labored seven days a week, up to 11 and a half hours a day. Today’s labor quote is by Eugene Debs "I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition; as it is now the capitalists use your heads and your hands." For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor events, click on Calendar.
Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1894, during a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which had drastically reduced wages, buildings constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago's Jackson Park were set ablaze, reducing seven to ashes. In 1934, the Battle of Rincon Hill took place in San Francisco, during a longshore strike. 5,000 strikers fought 1,000 police, scabs and national guardsmen. Two strikers were killed, 109 people were injured and the incident led to a General Strike. And in 1935, the National Labor Relations Act, providing workers rights to organize and bargain collectively, passed in Congress. Today’s labor quote is by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the National Labor Relations Act into law "A better relationship between labor and management is the high purpose of this Act. By assuring the employees the right of collective bargaining it fosters the development of the employment contract on a sound and equitable basis. By providing an orderly procedure for determining who is entitled to represent the employees, it aims to remove one of the chief causes of wasteful economic strife. By preventing practices which tend to destroy the independence of labor, it seeks, for every worker with its scope, that freedom of choice and action which is justly his." For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor events, just click on Calendar. The Metro Washington Council offices, like many in the metro area, are closed today in observance of the federal holiday today. Enjoy the day off! And for those of you working today, thank you!
Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1876, Albert Parsons joined the Knights of Labor. He later became an anarchist and was one of the Haymarket martyrs. In 1916, the American Federation of Labor dedicated its new Washington, D.C. headquarters building at 9th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest. The building later became headquarters for the Plumbers and Pipefitters and the facade has now been incorporated into the new Marriott Marquis Washington, a union hotel. In 1924, five newspaper boys from the Baltimore Evening Sun died when the steamer they were on caught fire. They are remembered every year at a West Baltimore cemetery, toasted by former staffers of the now-closed newspaper. Today’s labor quote is by Albert Parsons, the pioneer American socialist and later anarchist newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist. Albert Parsons, who said "Let the voice of the people be heard!" |
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