Labor History in 2:00

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.  

August 20 - The War on Poverty

On this day in Labor History the year was 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a mid-morning address in the Rose Garden of the White House.  He was there to sign the Economic Opportunity Act that launched what became known as Johnson’s War on Poverty.  

August 19 - Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent

On this day in Labor History the year was 1909.  That was the day that a committee of the Industrial Workers of the World in Spokane, Washington published the first edition of the “Little Red Song Book.” The collection were “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent.” 

August 18 - WEVD Radio New York

On this day in Labor History the year was 1927.  That was the day that a new radio station began to broadcast on the New York dial. The station’s call letters were WEVD.  It stood for Eugene V. Debs.  The radio station was founded to honor the recently deceased Socialist and labor leader.  

August 17 - Jailed for Having an Idea

On this day in Labor History the year 1918. That was the day that 101 leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies were convicted in a Chicago Federal Court.  Their alleged crime? 

August 16 - George Meany is Born

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. That was the birthday of the long-time leader of the AFL-CIO. 

George Meany grew up in the Bronx, with his Irish Catholic family. 

August 15 - The End of Bretton Woods

On this day in Labor History the year was 1971. That Sunday, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation in a speech that preempted the popular television show, Bonanza.  His subject? The state of the economy. The speech was timed before the stock markets opened on Monday morning.  

August 14 - A Little Security for Workers

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936.

That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. 

The act was a key piece of the President’s “New Deal” a series of federal programs responding to the ravages of the Great Depression. 

Social Security would provide an income for retirees and the disabled, to ensure they did no slide into complete destitution. 

On signing the bill, President Roosevelt, known for delivering memorable speeches, addressed the press. 

He said, “Today, the hope of many years’ standing in large part fulfilled.  The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, had tended more and more to make life insecure.  Young people have come to wonder what will their lot when they come to old age.  The man with a job has wondered how long that job will last.  This Social Security measure gives at least some protection to 50 million of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old age pensions, and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.” 

He went on to say, “The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and inflation. It is, in short, a law that will care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.” 

Over the past few decades, politicians, have increasingly sounded the alarm that Social Security will not remain viable as the large baby boomer generation retires and draws benefits. 

Yet despite those who seek to attack Social Security, it remains a bedrock of the social safety net for millions of Americans.

August 13 - Miners Rebel Against Convict Labor System

On this day in labor history, the year was 1892.

That was the day miners in Tracy City, Tennessee rebelled against the state’s convict lease system.

Miners had been forced to work side by side with convict labor.

The convicts, overwhelmingly African-American, were forced to live in deplorable stockade conditions.

Their presence in the mines served to minimize paid labor, keep wages low and stunt union organizing throughout the state.

Miners demanded that Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad give them the same hours of work as the convicts. 

When they refused, the miners marched on the stockades where convicts were housed. 

They released the convicts and marched them onto trains bound for Nashville, burning the stockades to the ground. 

The revolt at Tracy City followed armed uprisings of thousands of miners the previous year in nearby Briceville and Coal Creek. 

Here it is thought that Knights of Labor leaders led miners to surround stockades, disarm guards, and release convicts onto Knoxville bound trains over the course of several days. 

By August 1892, hundreds of miners would confront state forces in armed shootouts across Grundy, Marion and Anderson counties, releasing convicts when they could onto trains bound for Nashville. 

Miners were eventually arrested and convicted. 

But these revolts would lead the Tennessee General Assembly to end its convict lease system four years later, making it one of the first Southern states to do so.