Labor History in 2:00

May 22 - Have You Been to Jail for Justice?

On this day Labor History the year was 1895. Labor organizer Eugene V. Debs began a six month prison sentence in Woodstock, Illinois. Debs was the leader of the American Railway Union that had led a nationwide boycott and strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894.  

May 21 - The Little Wagner Act

On this day Labor History the year was 1945. That was a very important day for workers on the islands of Hawaii. 

It marked the passage of the federal Hawaii Employment Relations Act, more popular known as the “Little Wagner Act.”  

May 20 - Rights on the Rail

On this day Labor History the year was 1926. That was the day President Calvin Coolidge signed the Railway Labor Act. 

For decades railroad labor disputes had often become bloody affairs.  

May 19 - Matewan

On this day Labor History the year was 1920.  That year a national coal strike had won unionized miners a twenty-seven percent pay raise. But the miners in West Virginia were not in the union

May 18 - The Estate of Karen Silkwood

On this day in labor history, the year was 1979. That was the day an Oklahoma City jury found in favor of the estate of Karen Silkwood. Karen worked as a lab tech at the Cimarron nuclear plant, operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation. 

May 17 - Women Abolitionists Fearless in the Face of Race Terror

On this day in Labor History the year was 1838. The Second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For a while, a group of anti-slavery abolitionists had had difficulty finding a venue in the city willing to host their convention.  

May 16 - Remembering A. Philip Randolph

On this day in Labor History the year was 1979. That was the day that A Philip Randolph, perhaps the most significant African American figure in the US Labor Movement, passed away.

May 15 - Remembering T-Bone Slim

On this day in labor history the year was 1942. The Labor Movement lost one of its prolific voices. T Bone Slim was born Matti Valentinpoika Huhta in Ashtabula Ohio.  

May 14 - The Day the Beer Stopped Flowing

One could say that brewing beer is important to the identity of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Even the city’s baseball team goes by the name the “Brewers.” And so on this day in Labor History the year was 1953. The beer brewers in Milwaukee walked off the job in what came to be a ten week strike.  

May 13 - Driving Toward a Better Life

On this day in Labor History the year was 1998 and if you tried catch a cab in New York City on that particular day you probably did not have much luck. The city’s yellow cab drivers held a one day strike to protest Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s new taxi cab regulations.