Labor History in 2:00

November 13 - Workplace Safety Hero Dies in Suspicious Crash

On this day in labor history, the year was 1974. 

That was the day Karen Silkwood was killed in a mysterious car crash. 

Though her death was ruled a one car accident, some maintain she was forced off the road. 

Silkwood was a union activist and representative for Local 5-283 of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers.

She worked at Kerr McGee’s Cimarron plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets for nuclear reactor fuel rods.

Meryl Streep popularized her life in the 1983 film, Silkwood. 

Karen’s union loyalty only grew after the company crushed a strike in 1972. 

She was elected to the union bargaining committee just as the company moved to force a decertification election. 

She also served as a union health and safety rep. 

Silkwood found a number of apparent violations: routine contamination exposure, faulty respiratory equipment, falsified inspection records, and improper storage of radioactive material.

She met with OCAW leader, Tony Mazzocchi to highlight safety issues in a campaign to beat back decertification.

It worked.

Then Karen testified before the Atomic Energy Commission, worried about her own contamination. 

It was clear her home was contaminated too. 

She worked tirelessly to gather the documentation and the evidence, detailing the company’s life-threatening negligence. 

And on this day, Karen Silkwood was headed to Oklahoma City to meet Mazzocchi’s assistant, Steve Wodka and a New York Times reporter to present evidence she collected. 

She never made it. 

Her car was found with rear end damage, near skid marks, in a ditch along Route 74.

While the company attempted to smear her as a drug addicted lesbian who deliberately contaminated herself, they would eventually settle with her family for nearly $1.4 million. 

Karen Silkwood became a model and a hero for women workers and all those who fight for safe workplaces.

November 12 - Ellis Island Closes

On this day in labor history, the year was 1954. 

That was the day Ellis Island closed its doors. 

More than 12 million immigrants had passed through its gates since its opening in 1892. 

Those steerage and third-class passengers coming to America were processed at the island between 1892 and 1924.

They were routinely subject to medical inspections to determine they were free of disease. 

Legal inspections included questions regarding birth, occupation, destination, finances and criminal record. 

Its busiest year was 1907 with more than a million arriving to enter the United States. 

During World War I, the Island was used as a detention center for presumed enemies and those considered foreign-born subversives. 

After Congress passed the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924, arrivals entering the country slowed to a trickle.

Then Ellis Island became primarily a detention and deportation center. 

During World War II, thousands of Germans, Italians and Japanese made up the majority of those detained, awaiting deportation. 

It also served as a military hospital for returning servicemen and training center for the Coast Guard. 

By 1950, Ellis Island served as a holding center for arriving Communists and Fascists, who were prevented entrance under the recently passed Internal Security Act. 

A Norwegian seaman who had overstayed his leave was released the day the Island closed and told to catch the next ship back to Norway. 

In 1965, President Johnson made Ellis Island part of the National Park Service.

A massive restoration of the Island began in 1984, organized by Lee Iacocca’s Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. 

It reopened as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in 1990, featuring numerous exhibits, publicly accessible immigration records and the award-winning film documentary, “Island of Hope, Island of Tears.”

November 11 - Execution of the Haymarket Martyrs

On this day in Labor History the year was 1887. That was a tragic day for the labor movement. Four men were hung in Chicago for their alleged role in the bombing at a labor rally at the city’s Haymarket Square a year earlier.  In a sensational trial a total of eight men were convicted for Haymarket.

November 10 - The Benevolent Dictator

On this day in Labor History the year was 1933. That was the day that Hormel plant workers in Austin, Minnesota began a sit-down strike. Company head, Jay Hormel, boasted that his company was a benevolent dictatorship. Workers agreed that the company was a dictatorship but not very benevolent.  

November 9 - The CIO is Founded

On this day in Labor History the year was 1935.The Committee for Industrial Organizations was created by eight unions, as part of the American Federation of Labor. United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis was the driving force behind this new committee

November 8 - The New Orleans General Strike

On this day in Labor History the year was 1892. That was the day that black and white workers in New Orleans began what is considered the first integrated general strike in United States history. The strike began when the New Orleans Board of Trade refused to enter into an agreement with the Teamsters Union because it included black members. 

November 7 - The Death of Boulware but Not Boulwarism

On this day in Labor History the year was 1990. That was the day that Lemuel Ricketts Boulware died.  Boulware had a notorious reputation with labor leaders. He was the Vice President for employee relations for General Electric during the 1950s. 

November 6 - Lincoln Stands with Labor

On this day in Labor History the year was 1860. That was the day that Abraham Lincoln was elected sixteenth President of the United States. When Lincoln came to office the nation was deeply divided on the question of slavery. By December 20, South Carolina had seceded from the United States.  

November 5 - Eugene V Debs is Born

On this day in Labor History the year was 1855. That was the day that Eugene Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Debs was forced to leave school when he was just fourteen.  He worked as a railroad fireman.  

November 4 - No Milk Today

Got milk?  If you lived in Neillsville, Wisconsin the answer might have been NO. On this day in labor history the year was 1933.  Wisconsin is known as the dairy state.