Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1979.  That was the day we lost one of the giants of the US Labor Movement, A Philip Randolph.  A Philip Randolph spent his life working for black workers and the cause of labor.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1917.  That was the day of the founding that the Library Employees Union of Greater New York.  This was the first public library workers’ union in the United States.  From its beginning, one of the key efforts of the union was to fight for “equal rights of women and men in the library field.”  

Do you ever enjoy a cold beer after a long day’s work? Well if you were worker in the United States from 1920 to 1933, you would have to break the law to down a brew. On this day in Labor History the year was 1932.  That was the day that massive demonstrations for the re-legalization of beer were held in New York City and Detroit. Prohibition had lasted for more than a decade. 

On this day in Labor History the year was the 1968. That was the day at the workers across Paris joined students in a city-wide general strike.  College students had begun an occupation at the famed Sorbonne University earlier that May.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1856 workers of Melbourne, Australia marched to celebrate a victory in the campaign to win the eight-hour day. At the time it was common to work as long as twelve or fourteen hour days. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894.  That was the first day of the Pullman Strike.  The strike started in the company of town of Pullman, on the south side of Chicago, where workers made luxury sleeping cars for passenger trains.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1980.  That was the day that as many as ninety thousand people rallied for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1972.  That was the day that employees at the Farah Manufacturing Company went out on strike.  The company was one of the top producers of men and boy’s pants in the country, and the second largest employer in El Paso.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1863. That was the day that Division One of the Brotherhood of the Footboards was founded in Detroit, Michigan.  By the next year they had changed their name to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1907.  That was the day known in the San Francisco labor movement as “Bloody Tuesday”  In the early twentieth century, San Francisco was a city with a strong union movement.  In early May, the Carmen’s Union called a strike against United Railroads, the company that ran the city’s transit system.