Labor History in 2:00

August 29 - Defense Industry Workers Strike on the Eve of WWII

On this day in labor history, the year was 1941. 

That was the day 2500 steel workers at the Pressed Steel Car Company near McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania walked off the job. 

It was the second walkout in two weeks. 

Workers effectively shut down production of armor plate for the Navy, shell forgings for the Army and railroad cars used to transport military materiel. 

The company had gone back on promises of holding a collective bargaining election. 

Steelworkers Organizing Committee sub-regional director, Abe Martin told The Pittsburgh Press that while the union had not called the strike, workers had “walked out themselves because they are fed up with the company’s discrimination against them.” 

SWOC had been trying to organize the plant for years. 

But the company had engineered an election for a so-called, independent union 18 months earlier, when the complex was only operating at half capacity. 

Workers walked out at the beginning of the month and ended their strike on the guarantee that negotiations for a new election would begin. 

But when they returned, they found that some were stripped of seniority while others were forcibly transferred to new departments.

The day before, machine shop workers on the afternoon shift were fed up and dropped their tools. 

Word spread throughout the evening and by early morning, picket lines were solid and production had come to a complete standstill. 

When the company tried to force reopening of the plant after Labor Day, 1500 workers formed picket lines at the gates to stop scabbing. 

They returned to work 10 days later in compliance with a request by the National Defense Mediation Board. 

The NLRB rejected SWOC’s election petition two months later, but SWOC persisted and won exclusive bargaining rights the following June.

August 28 - Filipino Lettuce Workers Strike

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934. 

That was the day 7,000 white and Filipino lettuce workers in California’s Salinas Valley walked out on strike. 

Salinas was the lettuce capital of the world. 

The division of labor in the Valley was largely ethnically based. 

Filipinos did much of the field labor, while whites worked in the packing sheds. 

At the time, Filipinos made up 40% of the total agricultural workforce in the Salinas Valley. 

They had founded the Filipino Labor Union a year earlier.

White packing shed workers had organized into the AFL’s Vegetable Packers Association.

While the VPA had been reluctant to work with the FLU, they now sought to join forces in strike action. 

Both unions agreed neither would return to work until both had achieved victory. 

Together, they demanded wage increases, union recognition and better working conditions. 

Losing $100,000 a day, the growers soon imported scabs of all races. 

They enlisted California Highway Patrols to arrest striking Filipinos on incitement and vagrancy charges. 

Soon the VPA agreed to arbitration, leaving the FLU to continue the strike alone. 

Some speculated the members were threatened with the loss of their charter if they refused to return to work. 

The striking Filipino workers continued to organize job actions and experienced increased retaliation as a result. 

VPA leaders publicly distanced themselves from the Filipino strikers and racially charged vigilante violence intensified. 

It culminated in the burning down of the labor camp where hundreds of Filipino workers lived a month after the strike began. 

Vigilantes then drove as many as 800 Filipinos from the Valley at gunpoint. 

The strike was officially called off and those that remained returned to work.

By October, both unions had won wage increases.

August 27 - Truman Seizes the Railroads

On this day in Labor History the year was 1950.  At 4 pm that day the US Army completed its take-over of the country’s railroads. 

They were acting on the orders of President Truman.  

August 26 - Fannie Sellins Martyred

On this day in Labor History the year was 1919.  That was the day that Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski were murdered while standing up for workers’ rights.  Fannie was born in New Orleans, and then married a garment worker in St. Louis.  

August 25 - The Georges Fight Back

On this day in Labor History the year was 1925.  500 African American sleeping car porters gathered at the Elks Hall at 129^th Street in Harlem.  The meeting was called by A. Philip Randolph.  

August 24 - Weaponizing the War Against Labor

The year was 1877. 

That summer during what came to be known as “The Great Upheaval,” police, the US Army, and the National Guard brutally crushed a national railroad strike.  The simmering anger of working people had many elected officials and industrialists on edge. 

August 23 - The Commission on Industrial Relations

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912.  That was the day the US Congress approved the formation of the Commission on Industrial Relations.  In the early 1900s the terrible work conditions and entrenched resistance to union organizing had led to increasing labor unrest.  

August 22 - Making the Skies Friendlier

On this day in Labor History the year was 1945. That was the day five women working for United Airlines formed the first union for airline stewardess.  Those women were Ada Brown, Frances Hall, Edith Lauterbach, Sally Thometz and Sally Watt.  

August 22 - Making the Skies Friendlier

On this day in Labor History the year was 1945. That was the day five women working for United Airlines formed the first union for airline stewardess.  Those women were Ada Brown, Frances Hall, Edith Lauterbach, Sally Thometz and Sally Watt.  

August 21 - Nat Turner’s Insurrection

On this day in Labor History the year was 1831. That was the year Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southhampton, Virginia. 

From a young age Turner believed he had a purpose ordained by God.  Turner had learned to read from one of his master’s sons.