Labor History in 2:00

May 27 - Unconstitutional

On this day in Labor History the year was 1935. That was the day the United States Supreme Court unanimously declared the National Industrial Relations Act unconstitutional.  The act had been passed just two years before, as the centerpiece of President Franklin Roosevelt’s plan to combat the Great Depression. 

May 26 - Battle of the Overpass

Did you know that sometimes photographs have the power to help change the course of a labor struggle?  That is what happened on this day in Labor History, the year was 1937.  Detroit News photographer James “Scotty” Kilpatrick came with his camera to the River Rouge Ford plant.

May 25 - Philip Murray is Born

Unions were created to make living conditions just a little better than they were before they were created, and the union that does not manifest that kind of interest in human beings cannot endure.” 

Those were the words of Philip Murray, born on this day in Labor History, the year was 1886.  Philip Murray was born in Blantyre, Scotland, the son of a union coal miner. 

May 24 - The Eighth Wonder of the World

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 - 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.