Labor History in 2:00

January 27 - Working Class Stamps

On this day in Labor History the year was 1950. The cost of a first-class stamp was three cents. 

And starting on this day, one of the options for first class postage bore the image of US labor leader Samuel Gompers. 

The British-born Gompers was a founder and long-time head of the American Federation of Labor. 

January 26 - TR Getting Money Out of Politics

On this day in Labor History the year was 1907. That was the day that President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law an effort to get corporate money out of national politics. The law was called the Tillman Act. The act was named after its sponsor, Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina.  

January 25 - Shays’ Rebellion

On this day in Labor History the year was 1787. That was the day known as Shays’ Rebellion.

The United States was a new nation, and the Constitution had not yet been written. 

The revolutionary army had won the war with Britain, but the young nation was mired in debt. 

January 24 - The Boycott

On this day in Labor History the year was 1984. That was the day that Nestle agreed to terms in order to end a seven year international boycott against the company. The boycott was over the unsafe and dangerous ways that Nestle marketed and sold its baby formula in third world countries.  

January 23 -More Labor Than They Planned

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936. That was the day when twenty laborers who were part of the Civilian Conservation Corps got involved in a type of “labor” they probably never expected. The Civilian Conservation Corps was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt to get young men back to work during the Great Depression.  

January 22 - Knights of Labor Leader Terrance Powderly is Born

On this day in Labor History the year was 1849. That was the birthday of U.S. labor leader Terence Powderly. 

Powderly was born the second youngest of twelve children to Irish immigrants in Carbondale, Pennsylvania.  

January 21 - The Charleston Five

On this day in Labor History the year was 2000. Just after midnight six hundred police officers clashed with picketing longshoreman in Charleston, South Carolina. The port in Charleston ranked the fourth largest in the United States.  

January 20 - The First MLK Day

On this day in Labor History the year was 1986.  That was the first time Dr. Martin Luther King Day was observed as a national holiday.  A powerful voice for Civil Rights, Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on the second floor of the Lorraine Motel.  

January 19 - Shot Down in Cold Blood

On this day in Labor History the year was 1915.  That was the day that two striking workers were shot and killed by gunmen hired by a fertilizer plant in New Jersey.  In addition to the 2 killed many more were injured by the hired guns.

January 18 - Showing the Union Pride

Have you ever worn a union button or t-shirt to work? On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. 

Members of the Australian Tramways Association in Brisbane, Queensland decided to put on their union badges at work.