Labor History in 2:00

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.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1909.  That was the day that a committee of the Industrial Workers of the World in Spokane, Washington published the first edition of the “Little Red Song Book.” The collection were “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent.” 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1927.  That was the day that a new radio station began to broadcast on the New York dial. The station’s call letters were WEVD.  It stood for Eugene V. Debs.  The radio station was founded to honor the recently deceased Socialist and labor leader.  

On this day in Labor History the year 1918. That was the day that 101 leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies were convicted in a Chicago Federal Court.  Their alleged crime? 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. That was the birthday of the long-time leader of the AFL-CIO. 

George Meany grew up in the Bronx, with his Irish Catholic family. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1971. That Sunday, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation in a speech that preempted the popular television show, Bonanza.  His subject? The state of the economy. The speech was timed before the stock markets opened on Monday morning.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936.

That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. 

The act was a key piece of the President’s “New Deal” a series of federal programs responding to the ravages of the Great Depression. 

Social Security would provide an income for retirees and the disabled, to ensure they did no slide into complete destitution. 

On signing the bill, President Roosevelt, known for delivering memorable speeches, addressed the press. 

He said, “Today, the hope of many years’ standing in large part fulfilled.  The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, had tended more and more to make life insecure.  Young people have come to wonder what will their lot when they come to old age.  The man with a job has wondered how long that job will last.  This Social Security measure gives at least some protection to 50 million of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old age pensions, and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.” 

He went on to say, “The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and inflation. It is, in short, a law that will care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.” 

Over the past few decades, politicians, have increasingly sounded the alarm that Social Security will not remain viable as the large baby boomer generation retires and draws benefits. 

Yet despite those who seek to attack Social Security, it remains a bedrock of the social safety net for millions of Americans.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936. That was the day that thirty-five journalists of the Seattle Post-Intelligencerwalked off the job.  They represented about half of the paper’s news room staff at the time.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1881.  That was the day that the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners passed their first constitution at a meeting in Chicago. The meeting was organized by Peter J. McGuire. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 2013. That was the day a somewhat unexpected new union formed in Bangor, Maine.  Local 207 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers represents lobster fisherman.  Lobster fisherman are known for being fiercely independent.