Labor History in 2:00

December 29 - Pushing Back Against Plant Closures

On this day in labor history the year was 2006. That was the day that United Steelworker members ended a nearly three-month strike against the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The strike involved nearly 15,000 workers from sixteen different plants across the United States and Canada. 

December 28 - Sit-Down Solidarity

On this day in labor history the year was 1936. That was the day that at 2pm  in the afternoon, 200 workers at the Fisher Body Ohio Company on the East side of Cleveland sat down on the job. Fisher was located in Cleveland’s Collinwoodneighborhood. 

December 27 - FDR Takes Over the Rails

On this day in labor history the year was 1943. That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt seized control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike. The nation was in the midst of World War II.  

December 26 - A Rude Awakening

On this day in labor history the year was 1996. That was the day that working people of South Korea awoke to some alarming news. That morning the country’s new ruling party had passed a new set of labor laws.  The new policies had been implemented at an unscheduled morning meeting.  

December 25 - And So This is Christmas?

On this day in labor history the year was 2001. That was the year that the spirit of Christmas must have seemed very far away from some of the workers who harvested Christmas Trees in the United States. Many of these workers come from Mexico and Central American countries. They come for the harvest as guest workers. 

December 24 - A Very Tragic Christmas

On this day in labor history the year was 1913. That tragic Christmas Eve, came to be known as the Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan. A Christmas party was being held for children of striking copper miners.  

December 23 - The Right to Boycott

On this day in labor history the year was 1908. That was the day that three leaders of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison, were sentenced to jail terms for calling for a Boycott against Bucks Stove & Range.

December 22 - The Big Apple Comes to a Standstill

On this day in labor history the year was 2005. At 2:35 that afternoon the Transport Workers Union in New York City called an end to their three-day strike. The union represented 34,000 workers who kept the cities buses and subways running. 

December 21 - The Santa Maria School Massacre

On this day in labor history the year was 1907. At 3:45 that afternoon the Chilean military opened machine gun fire on a school occupied by striking workers. It is estimated that between one and three thousand people died that day in what came to be known as the Santa Maria School Massacre. 

December 20 - The Father of American Manufacturing

On this day in labor history the year was 1790. That was the day that work for many living in the new country of the United States began to change in a significant way. Samuel Slater operated the first cotton spindle machine to spin yarn in the U.S in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The 48-spindle machine ran on the water power of Pawtucket Falls.