Labor History in 2:00

May 24 - The True Builders of America

On this day in Labor History the year was 1883. The “eighth wonder of the world, the Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic.  600 men worked on the project, which took 14 years to complete. Between twenty and thirty men died working on the bridge.  This included the bridge’s designer, German-born John. A. Roebling. 

May 23 - Solidarity in Toledo

How can unionized workers and unemployed workers stand together?  Perhaps we can look to the past for examples of the power of such solidarity. On this day in Labor History the year was 1934.  It was the height of the Great Depression.  

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 - “Little” Wagner

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 Rails

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 - How Much is Turning a Profit Really Worth It?

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 - You Can Burn a Building But...

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 - T. Bone Slim: The Voice of the Struggle

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.