Labor History in 2:00

On this day in labor history the year was 1940, in a hotel in New York City, Woody Guthrie penned the original lyrics of his song “This Land is Your Land.” 

On this day in labor history the year was 1968 and striking sanitation workers staged a sit in at the City Council meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. 

The striking workers were members of AFSCME Local 1733. They had been on strike for ten days.  

Across the United States, workers enjoy the first Monday of September as their holiday. 

Labor Day has become known as a day for family picnics and community parades—but do you know how Labor Day really started?

On this day in labor history the year was 1917, more than 400 Jewish mothers, many carrying their children, marched on City Hall in New York City. 

Their cry, which rang out in both Yiddish and English, was “We want food for our children.”  On the eve of the U.S. entry into World War I, inflation had sent the cost of food skyrocketing.  

If you are a member of union, you probably know that one of your most important protections as a worker is your “Weingarten Rights.” But do you know the story behind why union workers have those rights? 

It all started on this day in labor history the year was 1975. 

On this day in labor history, the year was 1946 is what is known as the Royal Indian Navy Revolt. 

The HMS Talwaar was in Bombay Harbor. Indian workers on ship went on strike.

They refused orders from the British naval officers. 

A current question is which workers are entitled to union representation?  Who really gets counted as a worker? Who decides wages, hours, and conditions?

These were the questions that divided the campus of Yale University

On this day in labor history, the year was 1992.  

On this day in labor history, the year was 1883 marking the deadliest day in Illinois mining history at the time.  74 men and boys lost their lives digging for coal in the Diamond Mine Disaster in Braidwood Illinois.  

“We need to spend money on health care, schools, housing--not a war budget.”  This was the statement of Fred Pecker, a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6,

On this day in labor history, the year was 2003. 

Fred, who was protesting in San Francisco, was just one of the estimated 10 million people in 800 cities across the globe that protested the U.S. War in Iraq that day.  

On this day in labor history, the year was 1913, James Riddle Hoffa was born to a coal miner in Brazil, Indiana.  Tragedy struck the Hoffa home in 1920 when at age 7 young Jimmy lost his father.  

In 1924, like many families in Brazil the Hoffa family moved to Detroit, Michigan in search of work.