Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1997. 

That was the day that Union Square in New York City was named a National Historic Landmark. 

Republican Governor George Pataki explained the importance of the park in a press release. 

“It is only fitting that the National Parks Service should recognize Union Square Park’s long history as a focal point for political expression.  New York is proud that the first Labor Day Parade took place here in Union Square Park more than a hundred years ago, establishing a tradition that spread across the nation.” 

Although the park was very important to the labor movement—that is not why it is known as “Union Square.” 

The park got its name because it was the place of intersection, or union, of two busy New York roads—what are today Broadway and Fourth Avenue. 

In 1831 the open space at the intersection was declared a public space.  

The space became an important location for labor rallies and political demonstrations.

In 1882, the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history marched through the square. 

10,000 workers waiving their banners high.  In 1911, Union workers again gathered in Union Square to protest after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146 mostly young women and girls, some garment worker as young as 11 and 14 years old. 

In the later 1920s the park was demolished for the construction of the New York Subway. 

But the space continued be important to the city’s union movement. 

In 2002, a series of twenty-two bronze plaques were dedicated at the park to tell the history of Union Square. 

One of those plaques tells of the first Labor Day parade. 

Another is a collage of images of labor demonstrations and sheet music of labor songs.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1851.  

 

That was the day that a Maryland planter named Edward Gorsuch was killed in Christiana, Pennsylvania.  

 

Gorsuch had come to Pennsylvania to try and recapture three black men that had escaped from slavery on his farm outside of Baltimore two years earlier.  

 

A year after the men escaped, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act.  

 

This penalized helping those who had escaped slavery, with a $1,000 fine and up to six months’ jail time.  

 

Emboldened by the law, slave catchers chased those who had made the journey to freedom in the north. 

 

Gorsuch received news that the men he was looking for were in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  

 

Two of the escaped slaves were at the farm of William Parker, a black man who had also escaped slavery in Maryland.  

 

Located just north of the Mason-Dixon line, Lancaster had a well-established underground railroad network.  

 

An armed black self-defense group had developed to stand against the slave catchers.  

 

Gorsuch and his son gathered a group of men and headed north.  

 

At the Parker farm they were confronted by a group of at least fifty black men armed with guns and pitchforks.  

 

Gorsuch refused to leave, and a gun battle erupted.  

 

Gorsuch was shot and killed in the exchange of fire.  

 

Parker, his family, and the three formerly enslaved men fled to Canada.  

 

Thirty-eight others who were there that day were charged with treason for taking part in the confrontation. 

 

This included Castner Hanway a white man who had tried to defuse the standoff. 

 

None of the charged were ever convicted.  

 

In the south, slave owners were outraged that no one was punished.  

 

Tensions between the North and South sharpened.  

 

As a result, the country moved closer to Civil War, the bloody conflict that finally ended slave labor.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1859.  

 

That was the day that the St. Anthony and Minneapolis Typographical Union Number 42 was founded in Minnesota.  

 

It was one of the oldest unions on record in the state.  

 

Three years’ earlier, printers in St. Paul had formed a union, Local 30, with a dinner to honor Benjamin Franklin’s birthday.  

 

At the time just over 6,000 white people lived in Minnesota. 

 

Typographical workers were very important to the early labor movement in the United States.  

 

These printers were vital to spreading the word about the cause of labor to other workers in the era before radio, television or computers. 

 

In Minnesota, eight journeymen printers joined together to form Local 42. 

 

According the “History of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis” published in 1881, “The Union was prosperous, having at one time on its list every journeyman printer within its jurisdiction. 

The war of the rebellion practically dissolved the organization, five of its members entering the Union Army.”  

 

Like it did for many fledgling unions, the Civil War took its toll on the typographical union local Number 42.  

 

One member H.M. Metcalfe was killed in battle.  

 

The union was disbanded during the Civil War, reforming a decade later.  

 

Although the Civil War had disrupted labor organizing across the north, the years following the conflict saw a surge in labor activity.  

 

Wages stagnated during the war, while prices for goods soared.  

 

Workers banded together to demand fair pay and against the exploitation that grew along with increasing industrialization.  

 

These early labor unions were predominantly made up of skilled workers like the printers.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1924.  Sixteen striking Filipino sugar workers on the Hawaiian island of Kauaiwere killed by police.  This incident is known as the Hanapepe Massacre.  Filipinos began immigrating to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations in 1906. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1941.  

The ravages of World War II had swept across Europe.  

German troops had invaded Norway in April of 1940.  

The conditions of the Nazi occupation grew increasingly harsher.  

The Nazis began rationing milk, and important part of the diet of Norwegian children and workers.  

The rationing however did not apply to the German occupiers.  

Angered shipyard workers in Oslo walked off the docks in protest.  

Workers from other industries joined them.  

20,000 workers from 50 factories and work sites participated in the strike.  

The Nazi response to the uprising was predictably swift and brutal.  

200 labor leaders were arrested and new Nazi chosen leaders put in their places.  

Twenty-seven of the arrested labor leaders and strikers were brought before a court-martial trial.  

Rolf Wickstrom, a welder and union steward and Harald Viggo Hansteeen a labor lawyer were sentenced to death for their involvement in the strike and executed. 

The remaining twenty-five were convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences. 

Ludvik Buland, a union railway worker died while serving his sentence in prison. 

So did Harry Vestli, a factory worker.  

Journalists were fired or arrested.  

Even groups like the Boy Scouts were banned.  

Listening to foreign broadcasts on the radio was expressly forbidden.  

Then radios were confiscated. 

In Sweden, Trade Unionists issued a statement in support of their fellow Scandinavian workers.  

“Norwegian trade unionists have fallen in the battle for Norway’s Freedoms and for the right of the Norwegian working class to decide for itself its own action with the limits of Norwegian law.  We honor their memory.” 

In 1948 a memorial was placed to honor the deaths of Wickstrom and Hansteen and the workers who stood up for their country.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1916. 

That was the day that the Federal Employees Compensation Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. 

The act was sponsored by Senator John Kern, a Democrat from Indiana, and Daniel McGillicuddy, a Democratic Congressman from Maine. 

The act provided compensation for federal civil service employees that lost wages because they were hurt or killed on the job.  

There was great debate at the time over whether employees injured at work deserved to be compensated.  

Before the turn of the twentieth century, those who sustained workplace injuries had little recourse. 

Employers blamed workers for accidents and typically refused compensation leaving families destitute.  

Edward Gainor, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers explained the debate around the 1916 proposal saying, “The only question, the fundamental question, involved in this discussion is whether or not society should bear the burden of the injured worker in any industry.” 

Increasingly, some lawmakers were beginning to make the case that society should indeed bear that burden. 

Workers and labor leaders organized around issues of work place safety and demanded a compensation if they were injured on the job. 

The law providing such a safety net for federal employees passed through the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin of 288 to 6. 

Although the Act only applied to federal employees, it was an important step forward in recognizing that all workers deserved to be compensated for workplace injuries.    

The federal Office of Workers Compensation Programs that operates today traces its history directly back to the 1916 act. 

And because of this 1916 act some Three million federal employees and their families are covered under the acts protections. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1860. 

That was the day that Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois. 

Her family was wealthy and her father served as a state senator. 

In 1881, Jane Adams visited London with her friend Ellen Gates Starr. 

There the two women were inspired by Toynbee Hall, a settlement house which worked with the poor and working class in the city. 

They decided to establish a similar effort in Chicago. 

They founded Hull House in an immigrant neighborhood of Italian, Greek and Jewish workers. 

Hull House grew to become a complex of facilities that offered kindergarten, day care, lectures and cultural programs, and an important space for women trade unionists to hold meetings.

The women of Hull house became oneof the leading proponents for workplace safety in the nation, pushing for laws and reforms to help workers.  

During the 1894 Pullman workers strike, Jane Addams visited the community and had meals with the women workers.  

She was able to convince the workers’ strike committee to agree to sit down to arbitration, but the Pullman company officials staunchly refused to negotiate.

The refusal of the company to bargain, and the rising anger of the workers was an eye-opener for Jane.  

Later she reflected, “During all those dark days of the Pullman strike, the growth of class bitterness was most obvious.”

Before the strike, she wrote, “there had been nothing in my experience [that had]reveal[ed] that distinct cleavage of society which a general strike at least momentarily affords.” 

In 1931 Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her life-long advocacy for working class women and children and her strong stand for peace during World War I. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1882. That was the day the first Labor Day celebration and parade took place in New York City. The New York Sun printed a vivid report of the parade of 10,000 marching workers.

The paper described “men wearing regalia, men with society aprons, and men with flags, musical instruments, badges and all the other paraphernalia of a procession.”

The article went on, “As far ahead as one could see and as far down the side streets as forms and faces could be distinguished the windows and roofs and even the lamp posts and awning frames were occupied by persons anxious to get a good view of the first parade in New York of workingmen of all trades united in one organization.  All along the line cheers were sent up.” 

The reporter described the colorful banners carried by each trade union, and noted that following the bricklayers came “two decorated wagons containing brick arches.  On each side of one of the wagons were the inscriptions: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for recreation,” and “Get on to it the Union will never surrender.”

From New York the idea of setting aside a holiday for workers spread. 

Oregon became the first state to officially recognize the holiday in 1897. 

Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York established a Labor Day that year as well. 

By 1894 twenty-three more states celebrated the workers holiday.

It was that year, that President Grover Cleveland declared it a national holiday, in response to the Pullman Strike and Boycott that began in Chicago. 

Labor Day is day to honor the sacrifices made by labor fighting for safe and fair workplaces.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1949. 

That was the day known in New York as the Peekskill Riots. 

Internationally renowned African American Paul Robeson was scheduled to give an open-air concert.  

He was known for his deep, moving voice singing iconic songs like Shenandoah and the Ballad of Joe Hill.

Robeson was active in the causes of civil and labor rights. 

In the Cold War hysteria after World War II, Robeson had been labeled a dangerous Communist. 

The New York concert was originally planned to benefit the Civil Rights Congress.

The group had been defending the “Trenton 6” a group of six black young men sentenced to die in New Jersey for allegedly killing a white shop keeper.

The case was rife with legal abuses.  

But protests over the concert led to its cancellation. 

It was rescheduled, and the tickets were distributed to trade unionists in New York City. 

On the day of the concert 2,500 union members made a human wall around the field to protect against protesters. 

Protesters gathered hurling anti-black and anti-Jewish racial epithets.

Pete Seeger opened the concert followed by Robeson. 

The real trouble came when the concert ended and people tried to leave. 

The protesters threw rocks at the passing cars, while policeman stood by and watched. 

145 people were injured.

 Other concerts were cancelled. 

Paul Robeson would continue to be harassed by the FBI. 

He was denied a passport due to his stance against anti-black discrimination in the United States and against colonialism in Africa.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1991.

That was the day that a fire killed twenty-five workers are the Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. 

More than fifty workers were injured. 

The plant made chicken products for fast food restaurants and grocery stores. 

According to an article in the New York Times, the plant was “a warren of ramshackle buildings.”

The fire “started with hydraulic fluid from a ruptured line spraying in to gas flames that heated large, oil-filled cooking vats.”

Ninety workers were inside when the fire began. 

Some were able to escape out the main entrance or a loading bay. 

But the emergency exits of the plant were locked from the outside. 

A worker said that this was on the order of company owner Emmett J Roe, to stop workers from stealing chicken. 

A passerby, Sam Breeden was interviewed by the Associated Press.

He described the tragic scene “They were screaming: ‘let me out.” They were beating on the door.  The people could not force the door open.”

At the time of the fire, the company had not had a fire inspection in eleven years.

An inspection after the fire found 54 “willful” violations.

The company was fined more than $800,000.

Although this was the highest fine in the history of North Carolina, it was far less than federal fines for similar workplace disasters. 

That is because North Carolina has a state-run occupational health and safety program. 

At the time of the fire nearly half of the states in the country had state-run safety inspections. 

And for the company owner Emmett Roe?

He was convicted on twenty-five counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Serving just four years.