Today in Labor History—February 3

February 3, 1908 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that union boycotts violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1910 – Mary Harris "Mother" Jones addressed Milwaukee brewery workers during a two-month stint working alongside women bottle-washers while on leave from the United Mine Workers:

"Condemned to slave daily in the wash-room in wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul-mouthed, brutal foremen . . . the poor girls work in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, in their wet shoes and rags, for they cannot buy clothes on the pittance doled out to them. . . . Rheumatism is one of the chronic ailments and is closely followed by consumption . . . An illustration of what these girls must submit to, one about to become a mother told me with tears in her eyes that every other day a depraved specimen of mankind took delight in measuring her girth & passing comments." (From the Daily Bleed)

Flyer distributed in Lawrence, September 1912, Wikipedia

 February 3, 1912 – 32,000 textile mill workers were actively involved in the "Bread & Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The strike began last month and continued for over nine weeks. Several strikers were killed by cops and goons. Annie Welzenbach and her two teenage sisters were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night. 200 police attacked striking women with their clubs. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1964 – 464,000 students (45% of all students) boycotted New York City schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1965 – 3,200 were arrested, including many school children, in week-long voter registration demonstrations in Selma, Alabama. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1981 – Striking Telecommunications Workers occupied the offices of a telephone company in Nanaimo, British Columbia and renamed it "Co-Op Tel." (From the Daily Bleed)

February 3, 1994 -- A General Strike of 500,000 workers was declared in Equador. (From the Daily Bleed)