Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1909. That was the day the International Ladies Garment Workers Union began a strike against the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.  Eventually, female workers struck at 339 of the 352 shirtwaist manufacturing firms in New York City. The strike was referred to as the “Uprising of the 20,000.”  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1786.  Daniel Shays led a group of farmers in an armed uprising.  They were angry about taxes levied by the State of Massachusetts.  Shays had been a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. 

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 University and New York University.  

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.  

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.  

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. 

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.  

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. 

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.  

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.