Episodes
Friday Aug 21, 2020
August 21 - Emma Goldman’s Speech
Friday Aug 21, 2020
Friday Aug 21, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1893.
That was the day that workers-rights and women’s rights activist and anarchist Emma Goldman gave a speech in New York City.
Emma Goldman was born in what is today Lithuania.
She came to the New York in 1885, where she built a reputation as a powerful speaker.
In New York she addressed a crowd of between 3,000 to 4,000 unemployed workers in Union Square.
The country was at the beginning of a depression that would sweep the nation.
Working families were finding it harder and harder to put food on the table.
By the end of 1893 unemployment would soar to nearly twenty percent.
Undercover agents at the rally reported that Emma had urged the crowd to take bread from the capitalists “by force.”
Goldman recounted saying, “Well then, demonstrate before the palaces of the rich, demand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread.”
Ten days later Emma was arrested in Philadelphia for her comments at the New York rally.
She was sentenced to a year in prison.
After she was released, Emma traveled to Vienna to study medicine.
She returned to the United States to continue her lectures on workers’ and women’s rights.
She spoke out about the need for women to have access to contraception, an opinion that could arouse a backlash at that time.
Emma was arrested multiple times for daring to speak out on controversial issues.
In 1919, during the height of the Red-Scare anti-communist hysteria, Emma Goldman was deported to the Soviet Union.
Emma was courageous defender of free speech. Often called "the most dangerous woman in America
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
August 20 - The White Lion Docks in Jamestown
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1619.
That was the day that the first ship bearing enslaved people arrived in North America.
It was an English warship called the White Lion, that came to Jamestown in the colony of Virginia.
The ship was a privateer and had captured “twenty and odd” enslaved people from a Portuguese ship in a raid.
Virginian planters were interested in forced labor to work the tobacco fields in the colony.
The laws surrounding slavery in Virginia evolved over time.
Throughout the 1600s statutes replacing indentured servants to race-based slavery for life were written into the law books.
In 1654 John Casor became the first person enslaved under rule of law in North America.
By 1662 a law was passed that children would be considered enslaved or free based on the status of their mother in Virginia.
This meant that slavery could pass down from generation to generation.
This and similar laws ensured slavery would grow.
Historians estimate that 388,000 enslaved people came to what became the United States from Africa.
Due to laws passing down slavery to children, by the Civil War there were nearly 4 million enslaved people in the South.
By the early 1800s enslave people made up about one-third of the Southern population.
Initially enslaved labor worked predominantly to produce crops like tobacco, indigo and also rice.
Some West Africans had developed valuable skills in rice cultivation that white land owners exploited through slavery.
With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became increasingly important to the southern economy.
The South’s dependence on slave labor became more entrenched, and spread westward with the growing United States until the Civil War ended the brutality of slavery.
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
August 19 - Teamsters Fight and Win at UPS
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1997.
That was the day that a strike by the Teamsters Union against UPS ended with a victory for the union.
The strike had started fifteen days earlier.
More than 180,000 UPS workers participated in the action.
It was the first nationwide strike by UPS workers.
At the time UPS delivered eighty percent of all the packages in the United States.
The company known for its signature brown trucks delivered twelve million packages a day.
The key issue of the strike was that the company increasingly relied on part-time workers.
The insecurities of part time work were growing not just at UPS, but for workers in industries all across the country.
The strike settlement came with the union winning its core issues.
The company agreed to convert 10,000 part-time jobs to full-time positions over the course of the next five years.
The victory was significant for the US labor movement.
The 1980s and 1990s saw new attacks on labor unions and working people, starting with President Ronald Regan’s breaking of the air traffic controllers’ union strike in 1981.
The UPS victory in a national strike with broad rank-and-file support encouraged working people beyond the Teamsters Union.
Announcing the settlement of the strike, ABC news anchor Peter Jennings declared, “It’s been the most dramatic confrontation between industry and organized labor in two decades.”
Teamsters President Ron Carey said, “It is what this country needs, decent jobs, a chance for the dream, a chance to purchase a home, a chance to bring your children up properly, a chance to send them to college. Enough is enough and it’s about time that people start fighting back on this.”
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
August 18 - Kemi Bloody Thursday
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1949.
That was the day that is remembered as “Kemi Bloody Thursday” in Finland.
Two strikers were killed.
Kemi is a lumber town in northern Finland.
The lumber workers in the area went out on strike when the government proposed slashing their wages by more than thirty percent.
The strike was soon joined by sawmill and dock workers.
The walk out caused a massive log-jam on the Kemijoki River.
On the fateful day 3,000 strikers engaged in a peaceful march.
They encountered armed police, and a confrontation ensued.
The police had guns on their side.
The workers had only rocks and sticks.
One striker was shot and killed.
Another was hit by a truck.
Finnish army troops were called in to Kemi.
Twenty-two strike leaders were arrested.
In response to the violence, sympathy strikes were called by other unions, including the seaman’s union.
These strikes were seen by many as a fight between the Finnish elected government and Communists in the nation’s trade unions.
Officials in the United States worried the strikes were an attempt by Communists to open the door to intervention in Finland by the Soviet Union.
After World War II, Cold War politics shaped responses to labor struggles in many nations.
A song, Fly Black-Winged Bird, remembers the fallen workers.
The lyrics, translated to English, begin, “Fly, black-winged bird, with blood on your feathers across the lands. From village to village carry your message. Open up, Autumn sky for the sad news to spread. Shame on a country where an unarmed man gets shot. Shame on the one who calls the shots.”
Monday Aug 17, 2020
August 17 - The Era of Wage Cuts and Job Loss
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Monday Aug 17, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1985.
That was the day that workers at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota went out on strike.
They were members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local P-9.
Hormel had slashed workers’ wages by twenty-three percent during the early 1980s.
Benefits were also diminished and incentive programs rolled back.
These changes cut deeply into the Hormel workers’ earnings.
What had been considered a good job was changing drastically.
This was the story for many workers in Regan-Era America.
The 3,500 Hormel workers voted overwhelmingly to strike.
The national UFCW discouraged the action.
The strike lasted more than a year.
Strikebreakers were brought in, including some of the union members who crossed the picket line to return to work.
The National Guard was called in to keep the peace between strikers and scabs.
After a year, the strike went down in defeat.
Even after the strike, many were not called back to work.
They were put on waiting lists for a job to reopen.
Some never returned to the plant.
Twenty-five years after the strike the Austin Daily Herald staff wrote, “What resulted was a bitter, drawn-out labor dispute that drastically impacted the community, from workers who lost jobs to families that were torn apart by picket lines.”
The strike became the feature of a documentary by Barbara Kopple.
In 1990 the documentary, “American Dream” won the Academy Award. The
film tells the story of the Hormel strike as a window into the tragic experiences of many workers in during the 1980s.
The film was made on a shoestring budget.
Singer Bruce Springsteen provided $25,000 to help support this important film
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
August 16 - Congress Passes the National Apprenticeship Act
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.
That was the day that the U.S. Congress passed the National Apprenticeship Act.
It was also known as the Fitzgerald Act.
The purpose of the act was “to formulate and promote the furtherance of labor standards necessary to safeguard the welfare of apprentices.”
Apprentices are workers learning a skill set.
They are typically paid less than skilled workers or journeymen during the course of their training.
Apprenticeship programs are especially found in the building trades, where learning skills like plumbing or electrical work might take years of dedicated training.
But before the protection of the 1937 act, there was no national standard governing apprentice programs.
This led some apprentices to be exploited, earning lower wages even after they gained the skills they needed to do the job as journeymen.
In 1911, Wisconsin was the first state to pass legislation to structure the apprentice system.
In the 1920s multiple labor unions advocated for national apprentice standards to promote fairness and safety for workers.
Recognizing the need for national apprentice guidelines, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt commissioned a committee to study the issue.
They were tasked with developing training standards for apprenticeship programs.
The 1937 law gave the committee the authority to complete their job.
The committee on apprentice training became a permanent part of the Department of Labor.
The Bureau of Apprenticeship works with State governments to ensure the fair treatment of apprentices.
Today apprentice programs provide classroom and on-the-job training to help developed a skilled labor force.
In 2015, 52,500 participants graduated from the registered apprentice programs.
Nearly ½ a million workers participated in apprentice training programs, learning skills that will help build their financial security.
Saturday Aug 15, 2020
August 15 - Run Down Like A Dog
Saturday Aug 15, 2020
Saturday Aug 15, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1989.
That was the day that Gerry Horgan was killed while walking the picket line.
Gerry was a chief steward for the Communication Workers of America Local 1103.
The Communication Workers were on strike against the telecommunications giant NYNEX company, which became part of the present day Verizon company.
At issue was management’s proposal to shift a greater share of the health care costs to the workers.
The strike wore on for a total of seventeen weeks.
In total, nearly 60,000 telephone workers in the Northeast participated in the walk out.
These included both CWA members as well as workers who were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Gerry Horgan was part of the strike in the town of Valhalla,New York, about twenty-five miles north of New York City.
Gerry was struck by a vehicle driven by a strikebreaker while walking the picket line.
The driver was the daughter of one of the company managers.
She was never charged for hitting Gerry, although some at the scene claimed she accelerated after hitting him with her car.
One witness, Charles Pearce, recalled that “Gerry was rundown like a dog.”
The CWA honors Gerry’s memory by wearing red t-shirts.
In 2010, a CWA article titled “Why We Wear Red,” explained,“The idea started small, we asked our Members to wear red on Thursday to remind the company of the blood they had spilled and to show support for our fallen Brother. But it quickly spread nationwide as a sign of solidarity every Thursday at CWA locations.”
Gerry Horgan was killed standing up for the rights of workers and fighting for a better tomorrow for all workers.
Friday Aug 14, 2020
August 14 - A Little Security for Workers
Friday Aug 14, 2020
Friday Aug 14, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1936.
That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.
The act was a key piece of the President’s “New Deal” a series of federal programs responding to the ravages of the Great Depression.
Social Security would provide an income for retirees and the disabled, to ensure they did no slide into complete destitution.
On signing the bill, President Roosevelt, known for delivering memorable speeches, addressed the press.
He said, “Today, the hope of many years’ standing in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, had tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what will their lot when they come to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long that job will last. This Social Security measure gives at least some protection to 50 million of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old age pensions, and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.”
He went on to say, “The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and inflation. It is, in short, a law that will care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.”
Over the past few decades, politicians, have increasingly sounded the alarm that Social Security will not remain viable as the large baby boomer generation retires and draws benefits.
Yet despite those who seek to attack Social Security, it remains a bedrock of the social safety net for millions of Americans.
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
August 13 - Dies Committee Ramps Up Hysteria
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
”Communists!” “Reds!” Long have these been the cries of the press and politicians seeking to undermine the labor movement in the United States.
But sometimes even labor leaders themselves got caught up in the anti-Communist hysteria.
On this day in Labor History the year was 1938.
President of the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor, John P. Frey, gave testimony before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities.
It was also known as the “Dies Committee.”
Texas Congressman Martin Dies, Jr. founded the effort to root out an alleged Communist threat in the U.S.
In his testimony Frey alleged three hundred leaders of the Congress of Industrial Organization were Communists.
At the time the AFL and CIO were two separate organizations.
The CIO had split off from the AFL to pursue more organizing in industries like auto making and steel.
Even after his testimony, Frey maintained a network of operatives in the labor movement to identify suspected communists.
A few days after Frey spoke before Congress, the Chicago Tribune ran a story explaining the perceived communist-labor threat.
The article declared, “If the communists in the United States continued to operate as the communist party they would have no influence on American foreign policy in the foreseeable future. But by making themselves leaders of labor and therefore powerful in Democratic counsels they can be of immediate value to the soviets.”
The paper warned that the communists were hoping to march the US into another European war.
War-weary after World War I, the public had little appetite for another major conflict.
The charge that the CIO was infiltrated by communists who wanted war took its toll on the radical labor organization, dividing workers by playing into the fears and hysteria of the era.
Wednesday Aug 12, 2020
August 12 - Singing a Union Tune
Wednesday Aug 12, 2020
Wednesday Aug 12, 2020
On this day in Labor History the year was 1919.
That was the day that the chorus girls of the Ziegfeld Follies formed a union.
They called their organization the Chorus Equity Association.
The Ziegfeld Follies were the hottest ticket on Broadway during the early 1900s.
The show was most famous for their chorus girls in elaborate costumes, bedecked with feathers and sparkles.
In 1919 performers on Broadway as well as Chicago were standing up for fairer wages and better treatment on the job.
The Actors Equity Association’s contract had expired, and the actors demanded a fair contract.
The producers banded together into the Producing Managers Association. Actors and producers faced off.
The actors held a meeting and decided not to go on stage unless the contract was settled.
Membership in the union swelled. Twelve shows in New York were cancelled.
When Florenz Ziegfeld, the head of the Ziegfeld Follies joined the producers’ group, the chorus girls took this a bad sign.
They decided it was time that they too joined the union movement.
A former chorus girl named Marie Dressler was elected the first union president.
The chorus girls joined the striking actors for a march down Broadway.
The Ziegfeld performers formally went on strike, and the curtain fell on the Follies.
Chicago theaters also went dark. In all, 37 productions are shut down in the two cities.
Finally, on September 7 the strike is settled and the Follies returned.
In 1955 Chorus Equity merged with the Actors Equity Association.