Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1968. That was the first day of a new U.S. labor partnership, the Alliance for Labor Action.  The Alliance was forged by President of the United Automobile Workers, Walter Reuter and the President of the Teamsters, Frank Fitzsimmons.  The UAW had left the AFL-CIO over differences in how to approach labor organizing.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1877. That was the day that a mob began an attack on Chinese workers in San Francisco that killed four people.  During the mid-1870s a depression swept across the nation.  White workers from the east coast headed west, many to San Francisco, hoping to find a job.  Skilled Chinese workers who had completed their labor on the Transcontinental Railroad also came to the city.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1877. A group of labor leaders and members of the Workingmen’s Party met in St. Louis.  They were there because of the labor strike that had swept the nation.  The United States was in the grip of a terrible depression.  Railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia had walked off the job, after their wages were slashed.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1878. That was the day that a new song was introduced to the US labor movement. Reverend Jesse H. Jones set the lyrics of a poem that had been written by I. G. Blanchard more than a decade earlier. The song was called the “Eight Hour Day.”  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1971. It was an historic day for the men and women who deliver the US Mail. It was the day that the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers signed their first ever union contract. Although there had been earlier postal unions they did not have formal bargaining rights.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1993. That was the day that President Bill Clinton announced his “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He had campaigned for President promising to allow all citizens to serve in the military regardless of sexual orientation.  Once he was elected there was a great deal of opposition to his proposal.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1919. That Friday thousands of workers in the Chicago Stockyards walked off the job. A serious union organizing drive had been underway in the yards since June.  One of the organizers of the butchers was John Kikulski.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1934. The Teamster members of Local 574, in Minneapolis were back out on strike. Their strike had begun two months prior on May 16. The striking Teamsters had effectively shut down much of the commercial transportation in the city.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1862. That was the day that black-rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She was the oldest of eight children. Wells went to college, and then became a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee.  In Memphis, Ida B. Wells became active in speaking out against black oppression in the Jim Crow South.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1931. That was the day that Ralph Gray was attacked for trying to organize black farmers. Gray was a born to a large African American family in Alabama. Living in the Jim Crow South, he became a tenant farmer. He joined the Communist Party.