Combination Act outlawed trade unionism and collective bargaining by workers.[2]
1800-1829
1805 (United States)
Journeymen Cordwainers union includes a closed-shop clause in its constitution in New York City.[1]
1806 (United States)
Commonwealth v. Pullis was the first known court case arising from a labor strike in the United States. After a three-day trial, the jury found the defendants guilty of "a combination to raise their wages" and fined.[1]
1816 (England)
Food riots broke out in East Anglia. Workers demanded a double wage and for the setting of triple prices for food.[3]
Committee of Fifty, a group of prominent trade unionists in New York City, organized to resist efforts by business owners to revoke the 10-hour workday and reinstate the 11-hour workday.[5] Their efforts lead directly to the forming of the Workingmen's Party of New York.[5]
New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics, and other Workingmen formed.[6]
9 January 1831 (England)
Twenty-three workers from Buckingham were sentenced to death for destruction of a paper machine by one of a number of Special Commissions sent to East Anglia to suppress insurgent workers by the Whig Ministry.[7]
11 January 1831 (England)
Three workers in Dorset were sentenced to death for extorting money and two workers were sentenced to death for robbery by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.[7]
Fifty-five workers in Norwich were convicted of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.[7]
Three workers in Ipswich were convicted of extorting money by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.[7]
In Petworth, 26 workers were found guilty of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions the Whig Ministry sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.[7]
"Upwards of thirty" workers in Gloucester were convicted of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.[7]
Twenty-nine workers in Oxford were convicted of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.[7]
National Trades' Union formed in New York when the New York General Trades' Union solicited labor organizations from around the country to send delegates to a national convention.[8] This union was the first attempt to create a national labor federation.[6]
Carpenters, masons, and stone-cutters began a strike as part of the Ten-Hour Movement among skilled workers.[6] They drafted a strike circular in Boston outlining their demands and seeking assistance from other tradespeople. Wherever this circular was distributed, a strike in favor of the ten-hour workday erupted. The 1835 Philadelphia general strike, in which workers successfully struck for shorter working hours and higher wages, was influenced by the Boston circular.[9]
Ten-hour day for federal employees on federal public works projects without loss of pay established by President Martin Van Buren by executive order.[6][10]
1842 (United States)
Ten-hour Republican Association was formed by New England mechanics to pressure the Massachusetts legislature to establish a ten-hour workday throughout the state.[11]
March 1842 (United States)
Commonwealth v. Hunt was a landmark legal decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of labor unions. Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that unions were legal organizations and had the right to organize and strike. Before this decision, labor unions which attempted to 'close' or create a unionized workplace could be charged with conspiracy.[6] See Commonwealth v. Pullis
1836 Constitution of the Lowell Factory Girls Association
Fall River Mechanics' Association established 'The Mechanic', a weekly paper dedicated "to advocate the cause of the oppressed Mechanic and Laborer in all its bearings."[12]
Stonemasons and building workers in Melbourne achieve an eight-hour day, the first organized workers in the world to achieve an 8-hour day, with no loss of pay.[citation needed][15]
February 6, 1869 Illustration from Harper's Weekly of the Colored National Labor Union convention in Washington, D.C. Store Web page states: "from Harper's Weekly magazine with 6 × 9 [inch] wood-engraved illustration of the National Colored Convention in Session at Washington, D.C."
Uriah Stephens, pre-1882. Stephens (1821 - 1882) was a U.S. labor leader. He led nine Philadelphia garment workers to found the Knights of Labor in 1869, a more successful early national union.
In 1873 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was established. In 1906 it became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen.
13 January 1874 (United States)
The original Tompkins Square Riot occurs in New York City.[18] As unemployed workers demonstrated in New York City's Tompkins Square Park, a detachment of mounted police charged into the crowd, beating men, women and children indiscriminately with billy clubs and leaving hundreds of casualties in their wake.
A general strike halted the movement of U.S. railroads. In the following days, strike riots spread across the United States. The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the nationwide strike. At the "Battle of the Viaduct" in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, between protesting members of the Chicago German Furniture Workers Union, now Local 1784 of the Carpenters Union, and federal troops killed 30 workers and wounded over 100.
The Socialist Labor Party of America does not seem to have used its distinctive arm-and-hammer logo until it appeared on the front page of The Workmen's Advocate in 1885.
Workers protested in the streets to demand the universal adoption of the eight-hour day. Hundreds of thousands of American workers had joined the Knights of Labor. The movement ultimately failed.[20]
Representative Jeremiah M. Rusk
1 May 1886 (United States)
Bay View Tragedy: About 2,000 Polish workers walked off their jobs and gathered at St. Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, angrily denouncing the ten-hour workday. The protesters marched through the city, calling on other workers to join them. All but one factory was closed down as sixteen thousand protesters gathered at Rolling Mills. Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk called the state militia. The militia camped out at the mill while workers slept in nearby fields. On the morning of 5 May, as protesters chanted for the eight-hour workday, General Treaumer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, some of whom were carrying sticks, bricks, and scythes, leaving seven dead at the scene, including a child.[21][22]
The Milwaukee Journal reported that eight more would die within twenty-four hours, adding that Governor Rusk was to be commended for his quick action in the matter.
In the Thibodaux massacre in Thibodaux, Louisiana a local militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders.
1887 (United States)
Seven of the Haymarket Riot bombing defendants sentenced to death, of which five are executed.[20]
1887 (United States)
Port of New York Longshoremen's Strike occurred.[20]
New York garment workers won the right to unionize after a seven-month strike. They secured agreements for a closed shop, and firing of all strikebreakers.
1891 (United States)
Savannah, Georgia, Black Labourers' Strike occurred.[20]
Homestead Strike:[20]Pinkerton Guards, trying to pave the way for the introduction of strikebreakers, opened fire on striking Carnegie mill steel-workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania. In the ensuing battle, three Pinkertons surrendered and were set upon and beaten by a mob of townspeople, most of them women. Seven guards and eleven strikers and spectators were shot to death.[23]
Buffalo Switchmen's Strike collapses after two weeks when 8,000 New York State militia enter the city and peer unions fail to come to the strikers' aid.
Unions helped win the passage of the Safety Appliance Act. Among other things, the Act outlawed the "old man-killer link and pin coupler" by railroads.
In Cripple Creek, Colorado, miners went on strike when mine owners announced an increase from eight to ten hours per day, with no increase in wages.[20] This strike marked perhaps the only time in American history that a state militia was called out to protect miners from sheriff's deputies.
Pullman strikers outside Arcade Building in Pullman, Chicago. The Illinois National Guard can be seen guarding the building during the Pullman Railroad Strike in 1894.
11 May – 10 July 1894 (United States)
Pullman Strike: A nation-wide strike against the Pullman Company begins with a wildcat walkout[20] on 11 May after wages are drastically reduced. On 5 July, the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago's Jackson Park was set ablaze, and seven buildings were burned to the ground. The mobs burned and looted railroad cars and fought police in the streets, until 10 July, when 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeeded in putting down the strike, killing 34 American Railway Union members. Leaders of the strike, including Eugene Debs, were imprisoned for violating injunctions, causing disintegration of the union.[23]
American Industrial Union established by former American Railway Union Vice President George W. Howard. The union proves to be short-lived, disappearing in the second half of 1896.[24]
June 1895 (United States)
U.S. Supreme Court rules in In re Debs to uphold an injunction against the Pullman Strikers on the grounds that the federal government is empowered to regulate interstate commerce.[20]
Lattimer massacre: Mine workers began their protest march near Harwood and many were eventually killed by the Luzerne County sheriff in Lattimer.
10 September 1897 (United States)
Lattimer massacre: 19 unarmed striking coal miners and mine workers were killed and 36 wounded by a posse organized by the Luzerne County sheriff for refusing to disperse near Hazleton, Pennsylvania.[20] The strikers, most of whom were shot in the back, were originally brought in as strike-breakers, but later organized themselves.
1898 (United States)
The Erdman Act was passed providing for mediation and voluntary arbitration on the railroads.[20] It made it a criminal offense for railroads to dismiss employees or to discriminate against prospective employees because of their union membership or activity. It provided legal protection of employees' rights to membership in a labor union, a limit on the use of injunctions in labor disputes, lawful status of picketing and other union activities, and requirement of employers to bargain collectively. Subsequently, a portion of the Erdman Act, which would have made it a criminal offense for railroads to dismiss employees or discriminate against prospective employees based on their union activities, was declared invalid by the United States Supreme Court.
Coal miners in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 1902Anthracite Coal Strike Commission Appointed 1902 by President Roosevelt, a stereo card of the commission appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to resolve the Coal Strike of 1902.
Colorado Labor Wars: Troops were dispatched to Cripple Creek, Colorado to defeat a strike by the Western Federation of Miners,[25] with the specific purpose of driving the union out of the district. The strike had begun in the ore mills earlier in 1903, and then spread to the mines.
A battle between the Colorado Militia and striking miners at Dunnville ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Seventy-nine of the strikers were deported to Kansas two days later.
The Supreme Court held in Lochner v. New York that a maximum hours law for New York bakery workers was unconstitutional under the due process clause of the 14th amendment.[25]
1906 (United States)
An eight-hour workday is widely adopted in the printing industry.[25]
Labor Day Parade, float of Women's Trade Union League, New York, 1908 September 7
1908 (United States)
The Federal Employers' Liability Act was passed. Also that year, the Erdman Act was further weakened by the Supreme Court when Section 10, related to use of "yellow dog" contracts, was declared unconstitutional (see 1898).[25]
1908 (United States)
U.S. Supreme Court rules in Danbury Hatters Case that a boycott launched by the United Hatters Union is a conspiracy in restraint of trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act.[25]
1908 (United States)
U.S. Supreme Court rules in Muller vs. Oregon that an Oregon law that limited the working hours for women was unconstitutional.[25]
Watertown, Connecticut, Arsenal Strike occurred.[26]
Two women strikers on picket line during the "Uprising of the 20,000", garment workers strike, New York City. Strikes, ladies tailors, N.Y., Feb. 1910, picket girls on duty
22 November 1909 (United States)
The New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 (Uprising of the 20,000) began. Female garment workers went on strike in New York; many were arrested. A judge told those arrested: "You are on strike against God".[26]
The 1910 Accident Reports Act was passed and a 10-hour work day and standardization of rates of pay and working conditions were won by the Railway Brotherhoods.
Union membership topped 8 million workers in 1910.
Rubble of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910
1 October 1910 (United States)
The Los Angeles Times bombing killed twenty people and destroyed the building. Calling it "the crime of the century," the newspaper's owner Harrison Gray Otis blamed the bombing on the unions, a charge denied by unionists.
A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Iron works in Los Angeles, where a strike was in progress. In April 1911 James B. McNamara and his older brother John F. McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, were charged with the two crimes. James McNamara pleaded guilty to murder and John McNamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the dynamiting of the Llewellyn Iron Works.[27]
1911 (United States)
The Locomotive Inspection Act passed. Four years later, the Hours of Service Act passed. The Railroad Brotherhoods had won an eight-hour day.
The Supreme Court in Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co. (221 U.S. 418) affirmed a lower court order for the AFL to stop interfering with Buck's Stove and Range Company's business or boycotting its products or distributors.[26]
On 24 June 1912 in the second contempt trial, the defendants (Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison) were again found guilty and sentenced to prison. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions because the new proceedings had not been instituted within the three-year statute of limitations (233 U.S. 604 1914).[27]
1911 (United States)
Illinois Central and Harriman Line Rail Strike occurred.[26]
Two men are shot dead by police during the Llanelli railway strike of August 1911, leading to rioting.
Image of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on 25 March 1911
25 March 1911 (United States)
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire -- The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, occupying the top three floors of a ten-story building in New York City, was consumed by fire. One hundred and forty-six people, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions, died.[26]
1912 (United States)
Massachusetts passes the first minimum wage law for women and minors.[26]
Lawrence Textile Strike, 1912Flyer distributed in Lawrence, September 1912. The Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World.
January–March 1912 (United States)
Lawrence Textile Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, often known as the "Bread and Roses" Strike. Dozens of different immigrant communities united under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in a largely successful strike led to a large extent by women. The strike is credited with inventing the moving picket line, a tactic devised to keep strikers from being arrested for loitering.[26]
It also adopted a tactic used before in Europe, but never in the United States, of sending children to sympathizers in other cities when they could not be cared for by strike funds. On 24 February, women attempting to put their children on a train out of town were beaten by police, shocking the nation.[23][28]
18 April 1912 (United States)
The National Guard was called out against striking West Virginia coal miners at the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, West Virginia mines.[26]
7 July 1912 (United States)
Striking members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers and supporters are involved in an armed confrontation with the Galloway Lumber Company and supporters in the Grabow Riot, resulting in four deaths and 40 to 50 wounded.[26]
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) demonstration in New York, 11 April 1914
1914 (United States)
According to a report by the Commission on Industrial Relations, approximately 35,000 workers were killed in industrial accidents and 700,000 workers were injured in the U.S.
1914 (United States)
U.S. Congress passes the Clayton Antitrust Act limiting the use of injunctions in labor disputes.[26]
Labor leader Joe Hill was arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was convicted on murder charges, and was executed 21 months later despite worldwide protests and two attempts to intervene by President Woodrow Wilson. In a letter to Bill Haywood shortly before his death he penned the famous words, "Don't mourn - organize!"
The Ludlow Massacre Memorial, 20 April 1914, Colorado Coal Miners on Strike (3453614459)A "Sympathy Labor Parade" in New York during the Minnesota Iron Range Strike, 1916
20 April 1914 (United States)
The "Ludlow Massacre." In an attempt to persuade strikers at Colorado's Ludlow Mine Field to return to work, company "guards," engaged by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and other mine operators and sworn into the State Militia just for the occasion, attacked a union tent camp with machine guns, then set it afire. Five men, two women and 12 children died as a result.[2][3]
A bomb was set off during a "Preparedness Day" parade in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring 40 more. Thomas J. Mooney, a labor organizer and Warren K. Billings, a shoe worker, were convicted, but were both pardoned in 1939.[26]
19 August 1916 (United States)
Strikebreakers hired by the Everett Mills owner Neil Jamison attacked and beat picketing strikers in Everett, Washington.[26] Local police watched and refused to intervene.
Three days later, twenty-two union men attempted to speak out at a local crossroads, but each was arrested; arrests and beatings of strikebreakers became common throughout the following months, and on 30 October vigilantes forced IWW speakers to run the gauntlet, subjecting them to whipping, tripping kicking, and impalement against a spiked cattle guard at the end of the gauntlet. In response, the IWW called for a meeting on 5 November. When the union men arrived, they were fired on; seven people were killed, 50 were wounded, and an indeterminate number wound up missing.
The Everett Massacre (also known as Bloody Sunday) was an armed confrontation between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, commonly called "Wobblies", which took place in Everett, Washington on Sunday, 5 November 1916. The tragic event marked a time of rising tensions in Pacific Northwest labor history.
1917 (United States)
In "Hitchman Coal and Coke vs. Mitchell", U.S. Supreme Court upholds the legality of yellow-dog contracts.[30]
The Supreme Court approved the Eight-Hour Act under the threat of a national railway strike.
Deportation of striking miners from Bisbee, Arizona, on 12 July 1917. Striking miners and others are marched from Warren Ballpark along railroad tracks toward cattle cars belonging to the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad.
12 July 1917 (United States)
The Bisbee Deportation:[30] After seizing the local Western Union telegraph office in order to cut off outside communication, several thousand armed vigilantes forced 1,185 men in Bisbee, Arizona into manure-laden boxcars and "deported" them to the New Mexico desert. The action was precipitated by a strike when workers' demands (including improvements to safety and working conditions at the local copper mines, an end to discrimination against labor organizations and unequal treatment of foreign and minority workers, and the institution of a fair wage system) went unmet. The "deportation" was organized by Sheriff Harry Wheeler. The incident was investigated months later by a Federal Mediation Commission set up by President Woodrow Wilson; the Commission found that no federal law applied, and referred the case to the State of Arizona, which failed to take any action, citing patriotism and support for the war as justification for the vigilantes' action.
A Federal child labor law, enacted two years earlier, was declared unconstitutional. A new law was enacted 24 February 1919, but this one too was declared unconstitutional (on 2 June 1924).
The Battle of the Barn
James B. Duke and Southern Company break strike by local streetcar motormen and conductors by calling in troops. Five dead. Youngest 17 years old. Nearly two dozen wounded.
Looting, rioting and sporadic violence broke out in downtown Boston and South Boston for days after 1,117 Boston policemen declared a work stoppage due to their thwarted attempts to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor.[30] Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge put down the strike by calling out the entire state militia.
Coming out of the smoke : newspaper cartoon depicting the steel strike, New York World, 1919 October 11
22 September 1919 – 8 January 1920 (United States)
The "Great Steel Strike" began.[30] Ultimately, 350,000 steel workers walked off their jobs to demand union recognition. The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee called off the strike on 8 January 1920, their goals unmet.[5]
Amid a strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers (ultimately unsuccessful), approximately 250 "anarchists," "communists," and "labor agitators" were deported to Russia, marking the beginning of the so-called "Red Scare."
The U.S. Bureau of Investigation began carrying out the nationwide Palmer Raids.
View of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, was the site of the Battle of Matewan in May 1920 during a coal miners' strike.
19 May 1920 (United States)
The Battle of Matewan. Despite efforts by police chief (and former miner) Sid Hatfield and Mayor Cabel Testerman to protect miners from interference in their union drive in Matewan, West Virginia, Baldwin-Felts detectives hired by the local mining company arrived to evict miners and their families from the Stone Mountain Mine camp. A gun battle ensued, resulting in the deaths of 7 detectives, Mayor Testerman, and 2 miners. The movie Matewan is based on the event.
Baldwin-Felts detectives assassinated Sid Hatfield 15 months later, sparking off an armed rebellion of 10,000 West Virginia coal miners at the "Battle of Blair Mountain," dubbed the "redneck war" and "the largest insurrection this country has had since the Civil War." Army troops later intervened against the striking mineworkers in West Virginia.[32]
1921 (United States)
U.S. Supreme Court rules in Duplex Printing Press vs. Deering that federal courts could enjoin unions for actions in restraint of trade despite the Clayton Act.[30]
President John L. Lewis, of the United Mine Workers of America (right) photographed today at the Capitol, talking over the coal situation with Representative Nolan, Chairman of the Labor Committee of the House of Representatives, 1922 April 3
Federal judge James Herbert Wilkerson issues a sweeping injunction against striking, assembling, picketing, and a variety of other union activities, known as the "Daugherty Injunction."
A Dominion Coal Company colliery in Reserve Mines, Nova Scotia, ca. 1900. This mine would become one of numerous assets of the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation upon its founding in 1928 through corporate acquisitions.
11 June 1925 (Canada)
1 coal miner was killed and many injured during a protest as a result of a major strike at the British Empire Steel and Coal Company (BESCO) in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. Davis Day was established in the memory of Bill Davis, the miner who was murdered by company police. The labor dispute resulted in the deployment of 2,000 soldiers during the largest peacetime deployment of the Canadian Army for an internal conflict since the North-West Rebellion of 1885.
1926 (United States)
The Railway Labor Act passed. It required employers, for the first time and under penalty of law, to bargain collectively and not to discriminate against their employees for joining a union.[30] It provided also for mediation, voluntary arbitration, fact-finding boards, cooling off periods and adjustment boards.
Violent and relatively unsuccessful Loray Mill Strike during which the National Guard was called, and 100+ masked men destroyed the National Textile Workers Union (NTWU) building. Crushing Southern textile worker's collective bargaining efforts made a furor in US national news, giving momentum and urgency to the more successful labor movement of the 1930s[6][7]
Gastonia, North Carolina, Textile Strike occurred.[30]
1929 (Australia)
The 1929 Timber Workers strike was the first large strike after the onset of the Great Depression in Australia arising from a new timber industry award that increased the working week from 44 to 48 hours and reduced wages. A fifteen-month lockout during 1929-1930 of miners on the Northern New South Wales Coalfields was particularly bitter with police shooting at miners, killing Norman Brown and seriously injuring many more at the Rothbury Riot.
"Chicagorillas" -- labor racketeers -- shot and killed contractor William Healy, with whom the Chicago Marble Setters Union had been having difficulties.
Five persons were killed by bullets fired by Swedish military troops called in as reinforcements by the police during a protest later known as Ådalen shootings.
National Industrial Recovery Act passed by the U.S. Congress. The Act guaranteed the rights of employees to organize and enter into collective bargaining.[36]
The Electric Auto-Lite Strike. In Toledo, Ohio,[36] two strikers were killed and over two hundred wounded by National Guardsmen. Some 1,300 National Guard troops, including included eight rifle companies and three machine gun companies, were called in to disperse as many as 10,000 strikers and protestors.
Honea Path massacre occurred with 6 striking textile worker shot in the back running from a picket line. This event is featured in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary on the POV series called "The Uprising of '34".[39] An historical photo essay entitled "Mill Town Murder" is online at Beacham Journal .
Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 occurred. Police attacked and fired upon striking Teamster truck drivers in Minneapolis who were demanding recognition of their union, wage increases, and shorter working hours. As violence escalated, Governor Olson went so far as to declare martial law in Minneapolis, deploying 4,000 National Guardsmen. The strike ended on 21 August when company owners finally accepted union demands.
A strike in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, part of a national movement to obtain a minimum wage for textile workers, resulted in the deaths of three workers. Over 420,000 workers ultimately went on strike.
Francis Perkins looks on as Franklin Roosevelt signs the Wagner-Peyser Bill creating the US Employment Service, 6 June 1935
1935 (United States)
The National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, was passed.[36] It clearly established the right of all workers to organize and to elect their representative for collective bargaining purposes.
The Wages and Hours (later Fair Labor Standards) Act is passed, banning child labor and setting the 40-hour work week.[40] The Act went into effect in October 1940, and was upheld in the Supreme Court on 3 February 1941.
The AFL pledges that there will be no strikes in defense-related industry plants for the duration of the war.[40]
1942 (United States)
National War Labor Board was established; the NWLB established formula for wartime wage adjustments.[40]Western Union A Labor Day Telegram to All Goodyearites from Forrestal Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Patterson Under Secretary of War, 3 September 1942
War Labor Board anthracite hearing. John L. Lewis (right), President of the United Mine Workers (UMW), confers with Thomas Kennedy (left), Secretary-Treasurer of the UMW, and Perry Tetlow (center), president of UMW District 17, at the War Labor Board conference 15 January 1943, about the anthracite coal miners' strike, 1943 January 15
President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army to seize the executive offices of Montgomery Ward and Company after the corporation failed to comply with a National War Labor Board directive regarding union shops.
Workers in packinghouses nation-wide went on strike.
Doctor's office. The doctor for this camp is hired by Dr. Anderson, head doctor for the Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, locally. Since the strike Dr. Anderson has cut off all funds for cleaning of this office. Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, Exeter Mine, Welch, McDowell County, West Virginia, 10 August 1946
United Auto Workers and General Motors reached agreement on a contract that provided pensions and wage increases over the duration of the signed contract.[41]
President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize all the nation's railroads to prevent a general strike. The railroads were not returned to their owners until two years later.
Photograph of President Truman in the Oval Office, conferring with labor leader Walter Reuther, president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1952 December 12.
President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize the nation's steel mills to avert a strike. The act was ruled to be illegal by the Supreme Court on 2 June.[41]
Textile workers strike of 1955, in both New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts. Strike over a nickel raise was led and negotiated by Union President Manuel "Manny" Fernandes Jr., who resolved the strike and got the workers a nickel raise.
5 December 1955 (United States)
The two largest labor organizations in the U.S. merged to form the AFL–CIO, with a membership estimated at 15 million. George Meany served as the first president of the combined organization.[41]
President John F Kennedy issues Executive Order 10988 establishing limited collective bargaining rights for federal employees and widely regarded as the impetus for the expansion of public sector bargaining rights at state and local levels in the years to come.[42]
The 1962 New York City newspaper strike, longest newspaper strike in U.S. history ended. The 9 major newspapers in New York City had ceased publication over 114 days before.
Members of four railroad unions voted overwhelmingly for the largest union merger ever in the railroad industry. The merger created a powerful new union called the United Transportation Union (UTU).
West Virginia miners went on strike the following day in protest.
18 March 1970 (United States)
The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the United States Post Office Department began with a walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan,[42] soon involving 210,000 of the nation's 750,000 postal employees. With mail service virtually paralyzed in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia, President Nixon declared a state of national emergency and assigned military units to New York City post offices. The stand-off culminated two weeks later.
The film Norma Rae, based on a real life character trying to unionize a textile mill, is released. It wins an Academy Award for best actress.
1980s
September 1980 (Poland)
The trade union Solidarity (Solidarność) is established at the Gdańsk Shipyard, and originally led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa. Within the year the government implements martial law in an attempt to quell nationwide civil unrest and protest.
1980 (United States)
Joyce Miller joined the AFL–CIO executive board as the first female board member.[49]
Reagan speaks on air traffic controllers strike 1981
3 August 1981 (United States)
Federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide strike after their union rejected the government's final offer for a new contract. Most of the 13,000 striking controllers defied the back-to-work order, and were dismissed by President Reagan on 5 August.[49] Reagan ordered them to leave.
Largest labor rally in United States history broke out in protest of Reagan's order.[49]
The Association of Vatican Lay Workers was formed, but was not recognized by the Vatican authorities until 1993. It is the sole trade union in Vatican City and represents the majority of the 3000 employees who work in the city state.
1986 (United States)
Trans World Airlines Flight Attendants' Strike occurred.[49]
Female flight attendants won an 18-year lawsuit against United Airlines, which had fired them for getting married. The lawsuit was resolved when a U.S. district court approved the reinstatement of 475 attendants and $37 million back-pay settlement for 1,725 flight attendants. (United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385 (1977))[51][52]
Round table negotiations between Solidarity and the then-Communist government result in semi-free parliamentary elections in Poland, a pivotal moment in fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa is elected President in August of that year.[53]
20,000 employees at 48 plants in 33 states struck against General Electric, the first strike against GE in 33 years, over a plan to shift more health care costs to employees and retirees.[54]
Jasic incident occurred. Workers led by Maoist students made several walkouts, many were arrested thereafter.[57]
2019 (United States)
2019 General Motors Strike occurred.[58] 48,000 United Auto Workers representing Detroit GM factory employees went on strike from 15 September to 25 October to demand healthcare coverage, higher wages, increased job security, and gateway for temporary workers to become permanent.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxFilippelli, Ronald L. (1990). Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. pp. xix. ISBN082407968X.
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic. New York: International Publishers. pp. 127–129. ISBN0717803767.
^ abcFoner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic. New York: International Publishers. p. 130. ISBN0717803767.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaFilippelli, Ronald L. (1990). Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing Co. pp. xx. ISBN082407968X.
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic. New York: International Publishers. p. 114. ISBN0717803767.
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the labor movement in the United States. Vol. 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor. New York: International Publishers Co. p. 116. ISBN0717803767.
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic. New York: International Publishers. p. 163. ISBN0717803767.
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic. New York: International Publishers. p. 202. ISBN0717803767.
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic. New York: International Publishers. p. 203. ISBN0717803767.
^Roland Roth, Dieter Rucht (edt), Die Sozialen Bewegungn in Deutschland seit 1945, Ein Handbuch (Frankfurt/New York, Campus Verlag, 2009), Page 159
^Foner, Philip S. (1978) [1947]. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor. New York: International Publishers. p. 560. ISBN0717803767.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuFilippelli, Ronald L. (1990). Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing Co. pp. xxx. ISBN0-8240-7968-X.
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