Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1951. That was the day that the National Negro Labor Council held its founding convention. African American workers had made significant gains in the American workforce during World War II.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1825. That was the day the construction of the Erie Canal was completed. 

The 363 mile canal connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, by way of the Hudson River. The project was started in 1817. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1990. 

That was the day that eight of the ten unions at the New York Daily News went out on strike. 

The paper had had one of the highest daily circulations in the United States.

The New York Daily News was owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Company. 

The strike began when management demanded major concessions from the delivery drivers, essentially forcing them to strike. 

Seven more unions joined them on the picket line.

In retaliation management brought in scab labor. 

This caused a ninth union to join the walkout. 

The Newspaper Guild workers had planned to honor the picket lines, but not go on strike themselves. 

But according in an article in the Los Angeles Times, “said local Guild President Barry Lipton, the editorial employees decided almost immediately at an afternoon meeting to go on strike rather than to work with any “imported scabs and goons.” 

Well known journalist Juan Gonzalez, was a strike leader for the local.

By using replacement workers, Daily News management was able to keep the paper in production. 

But they found it much more difficult to get the paper distributed. 

Even where they could make delivery, many newsstands refused to sell the struck paper. 

The New York Times blamed this on intimidation from delivery drivers. 

But they also acknowledged that some refused distribution “either out of sympathy for strikers or an unwillingness to offend pro-union customers.”

To support the strike, the unions put on a concert headlined by Lou Reed, along with Pete Seeger, Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest and other musicians. 

The strike lasted for five months, prompting the Tribune to sell the paper. 

Under new management the strike was finally settled. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1934.  That was the day that the first minimum wage law went into effect in the United States. The minimum was twenty-five cents an hour. The wage law was part of the Fair Labor Standards Act passed earlier that year.   

On this day in Labor History the year was 1989.  At 1:05 in the afternoon a massive explosion rocked the town of Pasadena, Texas, near Houston. The explosion was so large it registered as a 3.5 on the Richter scale, used to measure earthquakes. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1981. The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority voted to decertify Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. The PATCO union had gone on strike earlier that year over wages, hours, and working conditions. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1999. That was the day that 270 workers from the Embassy Vacation Resorts in Maui voted to join Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees. Local 5 got its start in Hawaii in 1938.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1983. That was the day that musician Merle Travis died.  Known for his unique finger-picking guitar style, Travis wrote songs that captured the hard life of the coal miner.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1980. In what the Chicago Sun Times called it the “biggest labor management war of the last two decades.” The battle for union recognition at ten J.P. Stevens’s textile plants ended in victory.  

On this day in Labor History, and we are going all the way back to 1648. More than a hundred years before the American Revolution, an early trade organization was founded in the Colony of Massachusetts. They called themselves the “Company of Shoemakers.”