… for the week of April 26, 2010
April 26
The U.S. House of Representatives passes House Joint Resolution No. 184, a constitutional amendment to prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age. The Senate approved by the measure a few weeks later, but it was never ratified by the states and is still technically pending – 1924
On the orders of President Roosevelt, the U.S. Army seizes the Chicago headquarters of the unionized Montgomery Ward & Co. after management defies the National Labor Relations Board – 1944
April 27
First strike for 10 hour day, by Boston carpenters – 1825
James Oppenheim’s poem “Bread and Roses” published in IWW newspaper “Industrial Solidarity” – 1946
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450: Security Requirements for Government Employment. The order listed “sexual perversion” as a condition for firing a federal employee and for denying employment to potential applicants – 1953
April 28
Coal mine collapses at Eccles, W.Va., killing 181 workers – 1914
119 die in Benwood, W.Va. coal mine disaster – 1924
United Wallpaper Craftsmen & Workers of North America merges with Pulp, Sulfite & Paper Mill Workers – 1958
American Federation of Hosiery Workers merges with Textile Workers Union of America – 1965
Congress creates OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The AFL-CIO sets April 28 as “Workers Memorial Day” to honor the hundreds of thousands of workers killed and injured on the job every year – 1970.
First “Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” promoted by the Ms. Foundation, to boost self-esteem of girls with invitations to a parent’s workplace – 1993
April 29
Coxey’s Army (pictured above) of 500 unemployed civil war veterans reaches Washington, DC – 1894
When their demand that only union men be employed was refused, members of the Western Federation of Miners dynamited and destroyed the $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill Company at Wardner, Idaho – 1899
April 30
An explosion at the Everettville mine in Everettville, W. Va., kills 109 miners, many of whom lie in unmarked graves to this day – 1927
May 01
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones born in County Cork, Ireland – 1830
Cigar makers in Cincinnati warn there could be a strike in the Fall if factory owners continue to insist that they pay 30 cents per month for gas consumed at work during mornings and evenings – 1883
Eight-hour day demonstration in Chicago, and other cities, begins tradition of May Day as international labor holiday – 1886
Nineteen machinists working for the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad gather in a locomotive pit to decide what to do about a wage cut. They vote to form a union, which later became the International Association of Machinists – 1888
The Cooks’ and Waiters’ Union strikes in San Francisco, demanding one day of rest per week, a ten-hour work day and a union shop for all restaurants in the city – 1901
Mother Jones’ 100th birthday celebrated at the Burgess Farm in Adelphi, Md. She died six months later – 1930
New York City’s Empire State Building officially opens. Construction involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, and hundreds of Mohawk iron workers. Five workers died during construction – 1931
Congress enacts amendments to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, extending protections to the employees of state and local governments – protections which didn’t take effect until 1985 because of court challenges and regulation-writing problems – 1974
The Federal minimum wage rises to $2.00 per hour – 1974
International Molders & Allied Workers Union merges with Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers International Union – 1988
Woodworkers of America International merges with International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers – 1994
International Leather Goods, Plastics & Novelty Workers Union merges with Service Employees International Union – 1996
Rallies in cities across the U.S. for what organizers call “A Day Without Immigrants.” An estimated 100,000 immigrants and sympathizers gathered in San Jose, Calif., 200,000 in New York, 400,000 each in Chicago and Los Angeles. In all, there were demonstrations in at least 50 cities – 2006
May 02
Chicago’s first Trades Assembly, formed three years earlier, sponsors a general strike by thousands of workers to enforce the state’s new eight hour day law. The one-week strike was unsuccessful – 1867
Birth of Richard Trevellick, a ship carpenter, founder of American National Labor Union and later head of the National Labor Congress, America’s first national labor organization – 1830
First Workers’ Compensation law in U.S. enacted, in Wisconsin – 1911
Pres. Herbert Hoover declares that the stock market crash six months earlier was just a “temporary setback” and the economy would soon bounce back. In fact the Great Depresssion was to continue and worsen for several more years - 1930
In Germany, Adolph Hitler issues an edict abolishing all labor unions, part of his effort to ban any political opposition – 1933
Sources:
Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council (graphics research).
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April 19