This week in Union History

[moosesteaks]

May 12
Laundry & Dry Cleaning International Union granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1958

International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots merges with Longshoremens’ Association - 1971

May 13
Western Federation of Miners formed in Butte, Mont. - 1893

The Canadian government establishes the Department of Labour. It took the U.S. another four years - 1909

10,000 IWW dock workers strike in Philadelphia - 1913

May 15
The first labor bank opens in Washington, D.C., launched by officers of the Machinists. The Locomotive Engineers opened a bank in Cleveland later that year - 1920

Death of IWW song writer T-Bone Slim, New York City - 1942

May 16
Minneapolis general strike backs Teamsters, who are striking most of the city’s trucking companies - 1934

U.S. Supreme Court issues Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers. The decision had little impact until Ronald Regan’s replacement of striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) in 1981, a move that signalled antiunion private sector employers that it was OK to do likewise - 1938

Black labor leader and peace activist A. Philip Randolph dies. He was president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and first black on the AFL-CIO executive board, and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington - 1979

May 17
First women’s anti-slavery conference, Philadelphia - 1838

Supreme Court outlaws segregation in public schools - 1954

May 18
Amalgamated Meat Cutters union organizers launch a campaign in the nation’s packinghouses, a campaign that was to bring representation to 100,000 workers over the following two years - 1917

Big Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), dies in exile in the Soviet Union - 1928

Insurance Agents International Union and Insurance Workers of America merge to become Insurance Workers International Union (later to merge into the UFCW) - 1959

Oklahoma jury finds for the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood, orders Kerr-McGee Nuclear Co. to pay $505,000 in actual damages, $10 million in punitive damages for negligence leading to Silkwood’s plutonium contamination - 1979

[moosesteaks]

May 19
Explosion in Coal Creek, Tenn. kills 184 miners - 1902

Shootout in Matewan, W. Va. between striking union miners (led by Police Chief Sid Hatfield) and coal company agents. Ten died, including seven agents - 1920

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, formed by the Congress of Industrial Organizations, formally becomes the United Steelworkers of America - 1942

May 20
The Railway Labor Act took effect today. It was the first federal legislation protecting workers’ rights to form unions - 1926

9,000 rubber workers strike in Akron, Ohio - 1933

May 21
Italian activists and anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, widely believed to have been framed for murder, go on trial today. They eventually are executed as part of a government campaign against dissidents – 1921

Nearly 100,000 unionized SBC Communications Inc. workers begin a four-day strike to protest the local phone giant’s latest contract offer - 2004

May 22
Eugene V. Debs imprisoned for role in Pullman strike - 1895

Civil Service Retirement Act of 1920 gives federal workers a pension - 1920

May 23
Ten thousand strikers at Toledo, Ohio’s Auto-Lite plant repel police who have come to break up their strike for union recognition. The next day, two strikers are killed and 15 wounded when National Guard machine gun units open fire. Two weeks later the company recognized the union and agreed to a 5 percent raise - 1934

U.S. railroad strike starts, later crushed when President Truman threatens to draft strikers – 1946

The Granite Cutters International Association of America merges with Tile, Marble, Terrazzo,
Finishers & Shopmen – 1983

May 24
After 14 years of construction and the deaths of 27 workers, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River opens. Newspapers call it “the eighth wonder of the world” - 1883

May 25
Philip Murray is born in Scotland. He went on to emigrate to the U.S., become founder and first president of the United Steelworkers of America, and head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1940 until his death in 1952 - 1886

Two company houses occupied by non-union coal miners were blown up and destroyed during a strike against the Glendale Gas & Coal Co. in Wheeling, W. Va. – 1925

[moosesteaks]

May 26
Men and women weavers in Pawtucket, R.I. stage nation’s first “co-ed” strike - 1824

Western Federation of Miners members strike for eight-hour day, Cripple Creek, Colo. – 1894

The Actors Equity Association founded in New York City - 1913

IWW Marine Transport Workers strike, Philadelphia – 1920

One hundred thousand steel workers and miners in mines owned by steel companies strike in seven states. The Memorial Day Massacre, in which ten strikers were killed by police at Republic Steel in Chicago, took place five days later, on May 31 - 1937

Battle of the Overpass, Ford thugs beat United Auto Workers organizers – 1937

May 28
The Ladies Shoe Binders Society formed in New York - 1835

At least 30,000 workers in Rochester, N.Y. participate in a general strike in support of municipal workers who had been fired for forming a union - 1946

May 29
Animators working for Walt Disney begin what was to become a successful five-week strike for recognition of their union, the Screen Cartoonists’ Guild. The animated feature “Dumbo” was being created at the time and, according to Wikipedia, a number of strikers are caricatured in the feature as clowns who go to “hit the big boss for a raise” - 1941

A contract between the United Mine Workers and the U.S. government establishes one of the nation’s first union medical and pension plans, the multi-employer UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund - 1946

May 30
Police open fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing ten and wounding more than 160 - 1937

The Ground Zero cleanup at the site of the World Trade Center is completed 3 months ahead of schedule due to the heroic efforts of more than 3,000 building tradesmen & women who had worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for the previous 8 months – 2002

May 31
Rose Will Monroe, popularly known as Rosie the Riveter, dies in Clarksville, Ind. During WWII she helped bring women into the labor force - 1997

June 01
The Ladies Federal Labor Union Number 2703, based in Illinois, was granted a charter from the American Federation of Labor. Women from a wide range of occupations were among the members, who ultimately were successful in coalescing women’s groups interested in suffrage, temperance, health, housing, and child labor reform to win state legislation in these areas - 1888

Union Carpenters win a 25-cents-per-day raise, bringing wages for a nine-hour day to $2.50 - 1898

3,500 immigrant miners begin Clifton-Morenci, Ariz. copper strike – 1903

As many as 60,000 railroad shopmen strike to protest cuts in wages – 1922

Dakota Beef meatpackers win 7-hour sit-down strike over speed-ups, St. Paul, Minn. – 2000

[moosesteaks]

June 02
Twenty-six journeymen printers in Philadelphia stage the trade’s first strike in America over wages: a cut in their $6 weekly pay - 1786.

Supreme Court overturns laws limiting child labor – 1924

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President Harry Truman acted illegally when he ordered the Army to seize the nation’s steel mills to avert a strike - 1952

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and Textile Workers Union of America merge to form Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union – 1976

June 03
International Ladies Garment Workers Union founded – 1900

A Federal child labor law, enacted two years earlier, was declared unconstitutional – 1918

June 04
The AFL-CIO opens its new headquarters building, in view of the White House - 1956

June 06
Speculator mine disaster. 164 killed at Butte, Mont. – 1917

A general strike by some 12,000 autoworkers and others in Lansing, Mich. shuts down the city for a month in what was to become known as the city’s “Labor Holiday.” The strike was precipitated by the arrest of nine workers, including the wife of the auto workers local union president: the arrest left three children in the couple’s home unattended - 1937

Labor Party founding convention opens in Cleveland, Ohio – 1996

June 07
Militia sent to Cripple Creek, Colo., to suppress Western Federation of Miners strike – 1904

Sole performance of Pageant of the Patterson Strike, created and performed by 1,000 mill workers from the silk industry strike, New York City – 1913

Founding convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers. The merger brought together the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen of North America - 1979

June 08
A battle between the Militia and striking miners at Dunnville, Colo. ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Seventy-nine of the strikers were deported to Kansas two days later – 1904

[IBTshirts]

Originally Posted by moosesteaks

June 02

June 08
A battle between the Militia and striking miners at Dunnville, Colo. ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Seventy-nine of the strikers were deported to Kansas two days later – 1904

Isnt that "cruel and unusual punishment"???

[egambino]

Back then it was tantamount to being sent to Guantanamo. Some think it still is...