Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History, we are going all the way back to the year 1786.  That was the day when what labor historians widely consider “America’s First Strike” occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A group of the city’s journeymen printers gathered to discuss proposed decreases to their wages. 

Would you be willing to risk your job to stand up for the rights that you believe in?  For postal worker Henry Gerber, the answer to that question was a resounding yes.  And so On this day in Labor History, the year was 2001.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1889. Nestled in western Pennsylvania was the community known as Johnstown. The town and surrounding area was home to 23,000 people, families of workers who labored in the regions’ booming steel mills. 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.  It was a day that would become known as the Memorial Day Massacre. Ten demonstrators were killed by police bullets, while protesting at Republic Steel, on the south east side of Chicago.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That was the day fifteen women lost their jobs for dancing on their lunch break.  The women worked for the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1946. That was the day the working people of New York stood up in true labor solidarity. It all started at stroke midnight on May 15^th as messengers delivered the following statement to 489 municipal employees: 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.