Labor History in 2:00

September 25 - Lewis Hine is Born

Can a photograph bring about social reform? Lewis Hine believed it could.  On this day in Labor History the year was 1874, renowned photographer, Lewis Hine, was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Hine studied sociology at the University of Chicago, Columbia Universityand New York University.  

September 24 - The Build of the Supreme Court

On this day in Labor History the year was 1789.  Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789. This act established the plan for U.S. Supreme Court.  At first the Court was comprised of just six justices appointed by the President with Senate confirmation.  

September 23 - The Nixon Plan in Philadelphia

On this day in Labor History the year was 1969. President Richard Milhous Nixon issued the Philadelphia Plan. The goal of the plan was to require building trades unions to admit black members into their ranks. Nixon believed this would show him as a civil rights supporter without having to give in to the more radical demands of the civil rights movement.  

September 22 - A Pepperoni Pizza and a Union

On this day in Labor History the year was 2006. Eleven Domino’s pizza delivery drivers in Pensacola, Florida formed what is thought to be the first ever union of pizza delivery drivers. The American Union of Pizza Delivery Drivers won recognition from the National Labor Relations Board as the bargaining agent for drivers at the Pensacola franchise. 

September 21 - The March of Mother Jones

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That was the day that labor activist, Mother Jones, led a march of miners’ children through the streets of Charleston, West Virginia. Her aim was to illustrate the effects of poverty.  

September 20 - Upton Sinclair is Born

On this day in Labor History the year was 1878. That was the day that socialist author Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. A prolific writer, Sinclair wrote nearly 100 books and other publications. Upton Sinclair’s father and father’s relatives had been wealthy Southerners. 

September 19 - The Solidarity March

On this day in Labor History the year was 1981. More than 400,000 union members marched in labor’s first Solidarity Day demonstration in Washington, D.C. The demonstration was called by the AFL-CIO to protest the Reagan administration’s policies and the firing of striking air traffic controllers.  

September 18 - The Horse Race

On this day in Labor History the year was 1830. That was the day that “Tom Thumb,” the first locomotive built in the U.S. raced a horse on a nine-mile course in Maryland.  

September 17 - The Southern Differential

On this day in labor history, the year was 1947. 

That was the day workers at the International Harvester plant in Louisville, Kentucky had had enough. 

They had just rejected a pay scale lower than that of Harvester workers elsewhere.  

In her recent article for Leo Weekly, historian Toni Gilpin refers to the lower pay as the “Southern Differential.” 

Harvester workers walked off the job in a 40-day strike.

Black and white Louisville workers were united in a rare form of solidarity. 

International Harvester had had a long labor-hating history. 

Its forerunner had been the McCormick Reaper Works, the site that sparked the 1886 Haymarket incident in Chicago. 

Harvester had been able to keep the unions out until the Farm Equipment Workers/CIO finally organized there in 1941. 

And the FE followed Harvester as they attempted to escape to the union-free South. 

The FE successfully organized the new Louisville plant, just two months before the strike. 

Workers learned quickly that they were paid much less making the same equipment as their brothers in Chicago, Indianapolis and elsewhere. 

Gilpin adds that FE literature forthrightly stated, “Once the Negro and white workers were united, the low-wage system of the South would collapse.” 

Workers pressed for their demands, and appealed to area farmers for support. 

They stressed that farmers would not pay less for equipment, simply because local workers were paid less.

Black and white workers picketed together, ate together and planned their strike together at their new union hall.

Harvester initially tried to redbait FE leaders. 

When that failed, the company was forced to grant steep wage increases.

Gilpin cites FE News, which reported “two smashing victories in hand, one over International Harvester, the other over the Mason-Dixon, low-wage line.”

September 16 - Oil Workers Demand 52 for 40

On this day in labor history, the year was 1945. 

That was the day oil workers walked off the job. 

The strike soon spread to 20 states and involved more than 43,000 workers at 22 oil companies. 

After years of wartime wage freezes, the union’s demand was 52 for 40—fifty-two hours pay for 40 hours work. 

Workers demanded a 30% pay increase, shift differentials and an eventual return to the 36-hour workweek. 

The strike began in Michigan at the Socony-Vacuum refinery in Trenton. 

From there it spread to Gulf, Sinclair and Shell. 

By October 4, President Truman signed executive order 9639, allowing the Secretary of the Navy to seize petroleum operations.  

The Oil Workers International Union/CIO immediately called off the strike and ordered its members back to work.

A month later, the Navy had still not relinquished control of operations. 

The union considered Truman’s seizure a betrayal. 

There was no mechanism put in place to settle the dispute or consider workers demands. 

By January 1946, the Oil Panel, created by the Secretary of Labor, finally awarded oil workers an 18% wage increase.   

Though disappointed, the union considered it a victory.

They asserted the strike action was significant on a number of levels. 

The first nationwide industry strike had just forced the oil companies to meet with the union for the first time. 

The OWI believed the groundwork for industry-wide bargaining had finally been established.

It had been the first post-war strike and had forced the government to begin moving away from wartime wage controls. 

Of the post-war strikes, it won the largest pay increase. 

And importantly, it broke the power of Standard Oil to dictate wages to the industry through its dealings with its “independent union.”