Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1963. That was the day President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. 

The goal of the act was to end wage discrimination against women.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1865. Labor leader Helen Marot was born to a wealthy Quaker family in Philadelphia. 

Helen grew up around the written word, as her father was a book binder and seller.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1966. That was the day that the roaring of the jet age grew quiet across the United States. 

35,000 members of the International Association of Mechanics went out on strike.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1937. The leader of Lansing, Michigan’s United Auto Workers union, Lester Washburn, returned home, in the wee hours of the morning. He had been to Detroit for a meeting.  At his home he found a disturbing scene. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1988.  That was the day that between two and three million black workers went on strike in South Africa. The Congress of South African Trade Unions had called for three days of “national peaceful protest.”  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1979. That was the day that leaders from the Retail Clerks and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters unions began two-day special conventions to discuss merging their organizations. The result was the forming of the United Food and Commercial Workers.  

In the past few years you may have seen news stories about efforts to raise the minimum wage.  

From the “Fight for Fifteen,” to various state-based campaigns, raising the minimum wage has become an important campaign for workers.  

But do you know where in the United States the minimum wage started?  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1900. That was the day that the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union was formed. Eleven delegates attended the founding meeting. They represented the major garment making cities of the east coast.  

On this day in Labor History, we are going all the way back to the year 1786.  That was the day when what labor historians widely consider “America’s First Strike” occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A group of the city’s journeymen printers gathered to discuss proposed decreases to their wages.  

Would you be willing to risk your job to stand up for the rights that you believe in?  For postal worker Henry Gerber, the answer to that question was a resounding yes.  And so On this day in Labor History, the year was 2001.