Labor History in 2:00

August 28 - Filipino Lettuce Workers Strike

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934. 

That was the day 7,000 white and Filipino lettuce workers in California’s Salinas Valley walked out on strike. 

Salinas was the lettuce capital of the world. 

The division of labor in the Valley was largely ethnically based. 

Filipinos did much of the field labor, while whites worked in the packing sheds. 

At the time, Filipinos made up 40% of the total agricultural workforce in the Salinas Valley. 

They had founded the Filipino Labor Union a year earlier.

White packing shed workers had organized into the AFL’s Vegetable Packers Association.

While the VPA had been reluctant to work with the FLU, they now sought to join forces in strike action. 

Both unions agreed neither would return to work until both had achieved victory. 

Together, they demanded wage increases, union recognition and better working conditions. 

Losing $100,000 a day, the growers soon imported scabs of all races. 

They enlisted California Highway Patrols to arrest striking Filipinos on incitement and vagrancy charges. 

Soon the VPA agreed to arbitration, leaving the FLU to continue the strike alone. 

Some speculated the members were threatened with the loss of their charter if they refused to return to work. 

The striking Filipino workers continued to organize job actions and experienced increased retaliation as a result. 

VPA leaders publicly distanced themselves from the Filipino strikers and racially charged vigilante violence intensified. 

It culminated in the burning down of the labor camp where hundreds of Filipino workers lived a month after the strike began. 

Vigilantes then drove as many as 800 Filipinos from the Valley at gunpoint. 

The strike was officially called off and those that remained returned to work.

By October, both unions had won wage increases.

August 27 - Truman Seizes the Railroads

On this day in Labor History the year was 1950.  At 4 pm that day the US Army completed its take-over of the country’s railroads. 

They were acting on the orders of President Truman.  

August 26 - Fannie Sellins Martyred

On this day in Labor History the year was 1919.  That was the day that Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski were murdered while standing up for workers’ rights.  Fannie was born in New Orleans, and then married a garment worker in St. Louis.  

August 25 - The Georges Fight Back

On this day in Labor History the year was 1925.  500 African American sleeping car porters gathered at the Elks Hall at 129^th Street in Harlem.  The meeting was called by A. Philip Randolph.  

August 24 - Weaponizing the War Against Labor

The year was 1877. 

That summer during what came to be known as “The Great Upheaval,” police, the US Army, and the National Guard brutally crushed a national railroad strike.  The simmering anger of working people had many elected officials and industrialists on edge. 

August 23 - The Commission on Industrial Relations

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912.  That was the day the US Congress approved the formation of the Commission on Industrial Relations.  In the early 1900s the terrible work conditions and entrenched resistance to union organizing had led to increasing labor unrest.  

August 22 - Making the Skies Friendlier

On this day in Labor History the year was 1945. That was the day five women working for United Airlines formed the first union for airline stewardess.  Those women were Ada Brown, Frances Hall, Edith Lauterbach, Sally Thometz and Sally Watt.  

August 22 - Making the Skies Friendlier

On this day in Labor History the year was 1945. That was the day five women working for United Airlines formed the first union for airline stewardess.  Those women were Ada Brown, Frances Hall, Edith Lauterbach, Sally Thometz and Sally Watt.  

August 21 - Nat Turner’s Insurrection

On this day in Labor History the year was 1831. That was the year Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southhampton, Virginia. 

From a young age Turner believed he had a purpose ordained by God.  Turner had learned to read from one of his master’s sons.  

August 20 - The War on Poverty

On this day in Labor History the year was 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a mid-morning address in the Rose Garden of the White House.  He was there to sign the Economic Opportunity Act that launched what became known as Johnson’s War on Poverty.