Labor History in 2:00

September 5 - The First Labor Day Parade

On this day in Labor History the year was 1882. That was the day the first Labor Day celebration and parade took place in New York City. The New York Sun printed a vivid report of the parade of 10,000 marching workers.

The paper described “men wearing regalia, men with society aprons, and men with flags, musical instruments, badges and all the other paraphernalia of a procession.”

The article went on, “As far ahead as one could see and as far down the side streets as forms and faces could be distinguished the windows and roofs and even the lamp posts and awning frames were occupied by persons anxious to get a good view of the first parade in New York of workingmen of all trades united in one organization.  All along the line cheers were sent up.” 

The reporter described the colorful banners carried by each trade union, and noted that following the bricklayers came “two decorated wagons containing brick arches.  On each side of one of the wagons were the inscriptions: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for recreation,” and “Get on to it the Union will never surrender.”

From New York the idea of setting aside a holiday for workers spread. 

Oregon became the first state to officially recognize the holiday in 1897. 

Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York established a Labor Day that year as well. 

By 1894 twenty-three more states celebrated the workers holiday.

It was that year, that President Grover Cleveland declared it a national holiday, in response to the Pullman Strike and Boycott that began in Chicago. 

Labor Day is day to honor the sacrifices made by labor fighting for safe and fair workplaces.

September 4 - The Peekskill Riots

On this day in Labor History the year was 1949. 

That was the day known in New York as the Peekskill Riots. 

Internationally renowned African American Paul Robeson was scheduled to give an open-air concert.  

He was known for his deep, moving voice singing iconic songs like Shenandoah and the Ballad of Joe Hill.

Robeson was active in the causes of civil and labor rights. 

In the Cold War hysteria after World War II, Robeson had been labeled a dangerous Communist. 

The New York concert was originally planned to benefit the Civil Rights Congress.

The group had been defending the “Trenton 6” a group of six black young men sentenced to die in New Jersey for allegedly killing a white shop keeper.

The case was rife with legal abuses.  

But protests over the concert led to its cancellation. 

It was rescheduled, and the tickets were distributed to trade unionists in New York City. 

On the day of the concert 2,500 union members made a human wall around the field to protect against protesters. 

Protesters gathered hurling anti-black and anti-Jewish racial epithets.

Pete Seeger opened the concert followed by Robeson. 

The real trouble came when the concert ended and people tried to leave. 

The protesters threw rocks at the passing cars, while policeman stood by and watched. 

145 people were injured.

 Other concerts were cancelled. 

Paul Robeson would continue to be harassed by the FBI. 

He was denied a passport due to his stance against anti-black discrimination in the United States and against colonialism in Africa.  

September 3 - Locked in to Die

On this day in Labor History the year was 1991.

That was the day that a fire killed twenty-five workers are the Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. 

More than fifty workers were injured. 

The plant made chicken products for fast food restaurants and grocery stores. 

According to an article in the New York Times, the plant was “a warren of ramshackle buildings.”

The fire “started with hydraulic fluid from a ruptured line spraying in to gas flames that heated large, oil-filled cooking vats.”

Ninety workers were inside when the fire began. 

Some were able to escape out the main entrance or a loading bay. 

But the emergency exits of the plant were locked from the outside. 

A worker said that this was on the order of company owner Emmett J Roe, to stop workers from stealing chicken. 

A passerby, Sam Breeden was interviewed by the Associated Press.

He described the tragic scene “They were screaming: ‘let me out.” They were beating on the door.  The people could not force the door open.”

At the time of the fire, the company had not had a fire inspection in eleven years.

An inspection after the fire found 54 “willful” violations.

The company was fined more than $800,000.

Although this was the highest fine in the history of North Carolina, it was far less than federal fines for similar workplace disasters. 

That is because North Carolina has a state-run occupational health and safety program. 

At the time of the fire nearly half of the states in the country had state-run safety inspections. 

And for the company owner Emmett Roe?

He was convicted on twenty-five counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Serving just four years. 

September 2 - Protecting Pensions

On this day in Labor History the year was 1974. 

 

That was the day that President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

 

The act was passed over growing concern about the mismanagement of private pension plans.

 

In 1963, the Studebaker Corporation closed its auto plant.

 

Its pension plan was in shambles nearly seven thousand workers received only fifteen percent of their pension or nothing at all.  

 

Across the country more and more workers were relying on private pensions.

 

In 1960 21.2 million workers had private pensions. 

 

By 1970 the number stood at thirty million. 

 

The funds in those pensions had nearly tripled in that same decade to $138 billion.

 

Ensuring the security of those pensions was essential for millions of workers and the stability of the economy.

 

At the bill signing, President Ford explained, “Dramatic growth in recent years has thrust private pension plans into a central role in determining how older Americans live in their retirement years. Yet, this same growth in pension plans has brought with it a host of new problems. Many workers have ultimately lost their benefits - even after relatively long service - because when they left jobs, they thereby gave up rights to hard-earned pension benefits. Others have sustained hardships because their companies folded with insufficient funds in the pension plan to pay promised pensions. In addition, some pension funds have been invested primarily for the benefit of the companies or plan administrators, not for the workers. It is essential to bring some order and humanity into this welter of different and sometimes inequitable retirement plans within private industry.”

 

President Ford signed the bill on Labor Day, and outlined minimum standards for private pensions.  

September 1 - The Boilermakers

On this day in Labor History the year was 1893. 

That was the day that the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Iron Ship Makers of America was founded in Chicago. 

This joined two earlier boilermaker unions into one. 

They decided to establish their headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas. 

Two years later, the Boilermakers affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

The union represents members of 250 lodges in the United States and Canada.  

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Boilermakers had about 8,500 members. 

But the membership expanded, especially during World War II, as shipbuilding grew for the war. 

By 1944, there were more than 350,000 Boilermakers. 

In 1954, they merged with the International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers, and expanded their name to include these groups of workers. 

But what exactly is a boilermaker? 

According to the union’s website the term can have many meanings. 

It might refer to a Purdue University student or alumni, whose football team started going by the name of the boilermakers in 1891. 

Or boilermaker might refer to dropping a shot of whiskey into a draft of beer, and drinking it all at once. 

But for the labor movement a boilermaker is someone that constructs and repairs boilers, and the other workers who are part of the union. 

These might include “blacksmiths, forgers, ship builders, cement workers, stove workers, metal polishers, or numerous other job descriptions.” 

The boilermaker’s union logo reflects these workers. 

It includes images of a ship, a worker working on a boiler, and a blacksmith’s anvil. 

Below the images are found the words “Unity, Progress and Protection” declaring the mission of the union and its members.

August 31 - The Battle of Blair Mountain

On this day in Labor History the year was 1921. 

On that day the “Battle of Blair Mountain” raged in Logan County, West Virginia. 

Members of the United Mine Workers of American were attempting to organize the minefields in the southern part of the state. 

The effort to bring workers the union was met with violent resistance. 

The miners armed themselves and marched south. 

As many as ten thousand joined the march. 

They met armed company men at Blair Mountain. 

In the battle that ensued, one million rounds were fired. 

The mine owners even hired private planes to drop bombs on the union miners. 

The US army intervened, and the battle ended. 

Despite not being successful in their march, the bloody battle brought national attention to the violence in the coal fields. 

But that was not the last Battle for Blair Mountain. 

In 2011, there was a proposal to bring mountain top removal mining to Blair Mountain. 

This type of mining blasts off large chunks of a mountains surface, to get at the coal seams below. 

Protestors stood against the proposal. 

They argued it would be environmentally devastating to the area. 

They also argued it would blast away one the most important sites of labor history in the nation. 

Some coal miners took exception to the protests. 

In a CNN documentary on the conflict, one union miner said, “Mountaintop removal is what built this house, sends that little girl to school, provides insurance for my wife…”

But another miner joined in the protest against removal.

He told CNN that miners had been “brainwashed to think, “Oh I can’t have a job unless it’s a mountaintop removal job.”

In 2014, the state prohibited surface mining at Blair Mountain……. for now, 

August 30 - Taxing the Rich

On this day in Labor History the years was 1935. 

That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Revenue Tax Act, more popularly known as the “Wealth Tax.” 

The act reformed the federal income tax to raise rates on the wealthiest in the nation.

Those making over $5 million could pay taxes up to seventy-five percent. 

In a speech to Congress that summer, Roosevelt had explained his thoughts on wealth and taxes. 

The President said,

“Wealth in the modern world does not come merely from individual effort;

it results from a combination of individual effort and of the manifold uses to which the community puts that effort.

The individual does not create the product of his industry with his own hands;

he utilizes the many processes and forces of mass production to meet the demands of a national and international market.

Therefore, in spite of the great importance in our national life of the efforts and ingenuity of unusual individuals,

the people in the mass have inevitably helped to make large fortunes possible.

Without mass cooperation great accumulations of wealth would 'be 'impossible save by unhealthy speculation.

As Andrew Carnegie put it, "Where wealth accrues honorably, the people are · always silent partners."

Whether it be wealth achieved through the cooperation of the entire community or riches gained by speculation—in either case the ownership of such wealth or riches represents a great public interest and a great ability to pay.” 

Although President Roosevelt tried to win over the nation's wealthy by quoting industrialist Andrew Carnegie, he did not gain their support. 

Not surprisingly many of the national’s wealthy lobbied for and used tax loopholes to evade paying the new rates.  

August 29 - Flawed Designs Kill

On this day in Labor History the year was 1907. 

That was the day that became known for the Quebec Bridge Disaster in Canada. 

Workers were building a cantilever bridge over the St. Lawrence River.

This was not an easy task. 

The river was two miles wide at its narrowest point. 

The river was deep, moved quickly, and was icy in the winter.

But in the late 1880s, businessmen in Quebec who wanted to keep up in trade with Montreal, decided the river had to be spanned. 

The project did not begin for more than a decade due to a lack of funds. 

Finally, the Canadian government supported the project to improve the nations railway infrastructure.

Theodore Cooper, a respected American bridge designer was signed on for the project. 

Despite concerns about the bridge design, he never visited the site due to illness.

Eighty-six men were working on the project that fateful day. 

Their work day was drawing to a close when the bridge suddenly collapsed. 

Seventy-five men plunged to their deaths. 

Some of their bodies were never found.  

The bridge collapsed because of design flaws.

The official report of the disaster noted that the loss of life “might have been prevented by the exercise of better judgement on the part of those in responsible charge of the work for the Quebec Bridge and Railway Company and for the Phoenix Bridge Company.”

Unfortunately, that was not the last tragedy trying to cross the St. Lawrence. 

After the bridge collapse, the Canadian government took over the project. 

A partial collapse on that effort killed thirteen more workers in 1916. 

The bridge finally opened in 1917.  

Its completion came at high price.  Costing $22 million and eighty-six lives.

August 28 - Remembering Bayard Rustin

On this day in Labor History the year was 1963. 

That was the day one of the most important stands for justice and equality took place in United States history. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” to a quarter-million people in Washington D.C. 

But did you know that one of the main organizers for the march was a man by the name of Bayard Rustin? 

Rustin is often left out of the history books because he was gay and because of earlier communist affiliations. 

He was born in 1912, and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

He was raised in the Quaker tradition, and his commitment to peaceful, non-violent protest continued into the Civil Rights Movement.

Rustin joined the Young Communists League in the 1930s, a time when Communist organizers were some of the few people actively speaking out about racial injustice in the United States. 

After he left the YCL, Rustin spent a brief time as the youth organizer for a March on Washington planned in the 1940s. 

This movement was led by one, A. Philip Randolph. 

The planned march was aimed at putting pressure on President Franklin D. Roosevelt to desegregate work at industries with federal wartime manufacturing contracts. 

When President Roosevelt agreed to issue an order desegregating these jobs, the planned march was called off. 

But the idea for the march lived on, and became a reality during the Civil Rights Movement. 

Rustin went on to work in the labor movement. 

He became the founder and first director of the AFL-CIO’s A. Philip Randolph Institute, which focuses on tearing down the walls of discrimination in work places and within the labor movement

August 27 - The Packers

On this day in Labor History the year was 1921. That was the day that Green Bay Packers football team received a charter from American Professional Football Association. 

A year later this would become the National Football League. The Green Bay club had started up two years earlier. 

Its original sponsor was the Indian Packing Company, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They packaged canned meat. Meat packing was a major industry in the Midwest during this era. 

Packing plants in Chicago, Kansas City, Iowa and Wisconsin processed the cattle and pigs raised in the west as meat to feed the nation.

Curly Lambeau was a shipping clerk for the company. He helped to organize a group of local players into a football team. Curly persuaded his boss to donate money for the uniforms. The name “Packers” was born.

Then when Indian Packing fell on hard times, they were bought out by Acme, another packing company based in Chicago. So for a brief moment, the Green Bay Packers, one of the staunchest rivals of the Chicago Bears, was actually owned by a Chicago company.  

Although Acme only owned the team for a year, the team nickname stuck. Lambeau was able to buy back the team. 

He went on to become the Packers coach, leading the team to six championships. The Packers are not the only American sports franchise that’s name harkens back to a particular kind of labor. 

Another Wisconsin team, the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, is a reference to that city’s proud beer brewing tradition. In Big Ten Sports the Purdue Boilermakers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers take to the gridiron. 

These names reflect the working traditions of the cities where the teams play ball.