Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1975.  That was the day the AFL-CIO held a “Jobs Now” rally in Washington, D.C. A painful recession had pushed unemployment in United States to nine percent. Many workers across the nation thought that the Ford administration was not doing enough to address the problems facing working families. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1978. That was the day of an important victory for any woman in the United States with a pension. The Supreme Court handed down its decision in a case known as Los Angeles Water Department versus Manhart. Manhart and a group of current and past female employees at the department had sued.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1999.  A headline from the Los Angeles Times declared, “Dock Crews to Halt Work in Support of Death Row Inmate.”  Up and down the west coast the ports stood silent.  The International Longshoreman and Warehouseman’s Union had called their members off the job for a one-day strike.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1956. That was the day of the founding of the Canadian Labour Congress.  Today the Canadian Labour Congress is the largest labor organization in Canada representing some 3.3 million workers.  During the early 1950s, labor leaders in Canada were becoming increasingly uneasy about the rising influence of big business in the country.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1970. That was the first observation of Earth Day.  Across the United States, millions took to the streets and parks to demonstrate for clean air, water, a reduction in pollution and care for nature and the environment. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1920.  That was the day remembered in Butte, Montana as “Bloody Wednesday” or the “Anaconda Road Massacre.”  Butte was in the heart of copper mining country.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1853.  That was the day that Harriet Tubman led her first trip on the underground railroad, the clandestine network that helped enslaved people escape slavery and move north to freedom.  One of the most remembered ‘conductors’ on the railroad, Tubman had herself escaped slavery in eastern Maryland.  

This marks the day one of the most horrendous acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. History occurred in Oklahoma City. 

A truck bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 168 people. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1857. That was the day that Clarence Darrow was born in Kinsman, Ohio.  Darrow was perhaps the original U.S. labor lawyer.  Known to be a friend to underdogs, Darrow once supposedly said, “Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.” 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That a day of tragedy for workers in the goldfields of Siberia.  Gold miners by the Lena River in Southeast Siberia worked under brutal conditions. The Lena Gold Mining Joint Stock Company ran the mining operation. The lucrative gold fields lined the pockets of shareholders, including Russian aristocracy and British industrialists.