Labor History in 2:00

October 5 - Labor Candidates Step Up

On this day in labor history, the year was 1886. 

That was the day Henry George accepted the nomination to run for mayor of New York on the United Labor Party ticket. 

In cities across the country, trade unionists met to found state labor parties and to hammer out political platforms for local and state elections.

In New York City, ULP advocates issued the Clarendon Hall platform and nominated Henry George as the ULP candidate for the mayoral race. 

George had gained prominence with the 1879 publishing of his book, Progress & Poverty.  

In it, he addressed private land ownership as the basis for inequality and advocated for a single tax system. 

At New York’s Cooper Union that evening, where thousands of supporters gathered, George addressed the crowd. 

He presented the ULP platform: higher pay, shorter hours, better working conditions, government ownership of railroads and communications and an end to police repression. 

Burrows and Wallace describe the scene that night in their book, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.  

During his speech, George declared that, “this government of New York City—our whole political system is rotten to the core.” 

He argued that “politicians had made a trade out of assembling votes and selling them to powerful interests; what business got in return was police protection, lax enforcement of housing and health codes, friendly judges and fat franchises. To purify the political order, working class voters had to sever ties to all the established parties and choose from their own ranks.” 

For a party that had just been founded weeks before, George came in second. 

But like its sister organization in Chicago, the New York ULP would split over the issue of socialism within a year.

October 4 - Truman Seizes the Nation’s Oil Refineries

On this day in Labor History the year was 1945.  That was the day President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9639.  It ordered the US Navy to seize control of more than four dozen oil refineries across the country.  As World War II was drawing to a close, workers in many industries were growing increasingly restless. They had seen company owners rake in record profits, and the workers felt they had not received their fair share. 

October 3 - The Father-Son Strike

On this day in labor history, the year was 1932. 

That was the day the State Militia was called into Kincaid, Illinois. 

164 high school students had just walked out of the classroom, declaring themselves on strike.

They were protesting the school board’s use of coal from the Peabody Coal Company.

The students walked out in solidarity with their fathers, who were on strike against the Peabody Coal mine in nearby Langleyville over wage concessions. 

The father-son strike, as it was referred to, was one more in a series of protest actions that came on the heels of the founding of the Progressive Miners of America a month earlier.

Thousands of Illinois miners had just voted with their feet to repudiate John L. Lewis’ UMWA over wage concessions.

After their founding conference, new PMA leaders began aggressively organizing non-union mines.

They marched into mining towns and ordered non-union diggers out of the mines. 

They also struck UMW mines, picketing against the industry standard of $5 a day that had been set by the latest concessionary contract. 

At some mines, the PMA was able to win the old $6.10 a day wage. 

Throughout the month, the State National Guard had been called out to a number of mining towns to quell armed conflicts between PMA and UMW supporters. 

The Peabody Coal mine at Langleyville had been shut down for months by ongoing PMA/UMW conflict. 

Now it had reopened under heavy National Guard protection and was the only mine operating in Christian County. 

The striking fathers were PMA miners picketing the continued mine operations under the UMW concessionary contract.

The years-long Illinois mine wars had just begun.

October 2 - Striking for a Future

On this day in labor history, the year was 1949.

That was the day Americans awoke to fears the nationwide steel strike would spread rapidly to include key fabrication plants.

Half a million steel workers had joined 400,000 coal miners on strike the morning before.

 The miners’ resolve to defend their $100-a month pensions, instituting what John L. Lewis called the “no-day work week,” emboldened the steel workers to walk out of the mills.

Within 24 hours, 96% of all steel production in the country was completely shut down. 

USW contracts were due to expire on the 15^th, But the writing was on the wall. 

The mill owners decried anything close to mine pensions as nothing short of socialistic and refused to budge in negotiations. 

USW president Phil Murray thundered that those companies that failed to agree to demands for non-contributory pensions and insurance would be shut down. 

But militants warned that President Truman’s Fact-Finding Board had already watered down strike demands. 

The President’s Board had been established to put off two previous strike deadlines. 

The ‘guidelines’ it issued only encouraged steel magnates to stand tough against USW demands.

These included a 30-cent raise plus increased company insurance and pension contributions.

Now it had become a defensive struggle over whether steel workers would have to begin contributing to health and pension plans through wage cuts.

By the time steelworkers ended their strike forty-two days later, they had won the $100 a month pension, minus what they would receive from social security. 

And they had to begin contributing to a health insurance plan with no wage increase at all.

Still, workers celebrated that they had successfully defended the USW against the all out union-busting drive.

October 1 - Molding the Future

On this day in Labor History the year was 1991. That was the day that the Pattern Makers League of North America merged with International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Have you ever heard of the Pattern Makers union? The Pattern Makers can trace their history all the way back to 1887.  

September 30 - Homestead Strikers Tried for Treason

On this day in Labor History the year was 1892.  That was the day that 29 leaders of the Homestead Steel Strike in Pennsylvania were charged with treason against the state.  If you are a regular listener to this broadcast, you have heard about this strike before.  

September 29 - Murdered in Estevan

On this day in Labor History the year was 1931. Canadian Coal miners, their wives, and children marched through the streets of Estevan, Saskatchewan. The miners were on strike for union recognition, and better pay and working conditions. Safety was a major concern for the 600 men and boys who worked in the mines.

September 27 - Uprising of the 20,000

On this day in Labor History the year was 1909. That was the day the International Ladies Garment Workers Union began a strike against the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.  Eventually, female workers struck at 339 of the 352 shirtwaist manufacturing firms in New York City. The strike was referred to as the “Uprising of the 20,000.”  

September 28 - The Journey Toward Equal Treatment

On this day in Labor History the year was 1904. A woman was arrested for smoking a cigarette in a car on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Women in the United States are no longer likely to be arrested for smoking cigarettes in public. They continue to face unequal treatment in the labor force.  

September 26 - Shays’ Rebellion

On this day in Labor History the year was 1786.  Daniel Shays led a group of farmers in an armed uprising.  They were angry about taxes levied by the State of Massachusetts.  Shays had been a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.