Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1971.  At 12:51 am Battalion 12 Chief Leo Najarian of Los Angeles heard that there had been a tunnel explosion. That February a 6.5 earthquake had killed 65 people in the area.  Now it seemed tragedy had struck again.  Just the night before Chief Najarian had been called out to the same address. 

 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1947.  That was the day that many labor historians mark as the beginning of a long decline of the US labor movement.  The United States Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act.  The bill was named after Republican Senator Robert A. Taft from Ohio. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1969.  That was the day that the Cuyahoga River, which winds its way through Cleveland, Ohio caught on fire. Cleveland was once the sixth largest city in the nation. During the early twentieth century the city had a booming steel industry. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1877.  That was the day that ten Irish miners were hung in Pennsylvania. They were part of a group of twenty who had been sentenced to death for allegedly being part of the Molly Maguires, a group of alleged radical Irish miners. Miners were on strike in the Schuylkill County anthracite coal region.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1943. That was the day that would go down in the history books as the 1943 Detroit Race Riot. The violence started on Belle Isle, a large island park in the Detroit River. Both white and black Detroiters were visiting the park on that hot sunny summer Sunday afternoon.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1865.  That was the day that 2,000 Union soldiers marched into Galveston, Texas.  They carried with them the news that those enslaved were now free.  The Confederate General, Robert E. Lee had actually surrendered more than two months earlier.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1918. That was the day that the Saint Paul Federation of Women Teachers Local 28 received their charter from the American Federation of Teachers. The next February, the Minnesota Women’s Union was joined by the Saint Paul Federation of Men Teachers Local 42.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1972. That was the day that nine fire fighters gave their lives is Boston, Massachusetts. The tragedy occurred at the historic Hotel Vendome. Built 100 years earlier, the hotel stood in Boston’s Back Bay, one of the most historic neighborhoods in the city.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1836. That was the day that the London Working Men’s Association was founded.  Skilled craftsman started the organization. William Lovett a Cabinet Maker and a publisher by the name of Henry Hetherington were two of the original founders.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1908. That was the day that the Executive Board of the American Federation of Labor established its Metal Trades Department.  The goal was to coordinate the organizing and legislative efforts of those in the many metal trades.