Today in Labor History—February 11

February 11, 1916 – Feminist and civil-rights activist Flo Kennedy was born in on this date Kansas City, Missouri. As a lawyer, Kennedy represented Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and H. Rap Brown. In 1972 she formed the Feminist Party and filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint alleging that the Catholic Church violates tax-exempt requirements by spending money to influence political decisions. "I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady . . . & a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me." (From the Daily Bleed)

Seattle Strikers and their Supporters Took Over Most City Services, Including Food Distribution

 February 11, 1919 – The Seattle General Strike ended. (From the Daily Bleed)

Sit Down Strikers in Flint

 February 11, 1937 - General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers (UAW) following a 44-day sit-down strike involving 48,000 GM workers. Two months later, company guards beat up UAW leaders at the River Rouge, Michigan plant.  (From Workday Minnesota)

February 11, 1964 – 19,000 students boycotted Cincinnati schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 11, 1981 – Eight workers were contaminated when 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked into a containment building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Sequoyah I plant in Tennessee. (From the Daily Bleed)

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)

Labor History Timeline--The 1960s and 70s

1962    Federal Workers Granted Right to Unionize. (Sources:UHWO)

1964    Civil Rights Act Bans Workplace Discrimination. (Sources:UHWO)

1965    Delano Grape Strike: The predominantly Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee launched the strike, but it was soon joined by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta’s Mexican-American National Farmworkers Association. The two groups eventually united to form the United Farmworkers (UFW). The union also initiated a nationwide grape boycott that lasted five years and ended with the first union contract for U.S. farm workers outside of Hawaii. (Sources: UHWO, Workday Minnesota)

1968    78 Miners Killed at Consolidated Coal Mines, West Virginia. (Sources: UHWO)

1968    Martin Luther King Assassinated while supporting the AFSCME Sanitation Strike, Memphis. (Sources: UHWO,Wikipedia)

1970    Postal Strike:  The first mass postal strike in U.S. history began when carriers in Manhattan and Brooklyn walked off the job, but quickly spread to 210,000 of the nation’s 750,000 mail carriers. (Sources: UHWO, AFGE)

Trailer for “Harlan County, USA”

1972    Bloody Coal Strike (Again) in Harlan County: Miners struck the Duke Power Company in Harlan County, Kentucky, the sight of numerous bloody strikes in the past (including the Battle of Evarts, 1931). (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia, The Atlantic)

1974    Karen Silkwood Killed: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union activist Karen Silkwood was assassinated during her investigation of a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant in Oklahoma. Her car was run off the road while she attempted to deliver documents to a New York Times reporter. (Sources: UHWO,Workday Minnesota)

1975    Jimmy Hoffa Disappears: (Sources: UHWO)        

Today in Labor History—February 11

February 11, 1916 – Feminist and civil-rights activist Flo Kennedy was born in on this date Kansas City, Missouri. As a lawyer, Kennedy represented Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and H. Rap Brown. In 1972 she formed the Feminist Party and filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint alleging that the Catholic Church violates tax-exempt requirements by spending money to influence political decisions. "I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady . . . & a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me." (From the Daily Bleed)

Seattle Strikers and their Supporters Took Over Most City Services, Including Food Distribution

 February 11, 1919 – The Seattle General Strike ended. (From the Daily Bleed)

Sit Down Strikers in Flint

 February 11, 1937 - General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers (UAW) following a 44-day sit-down strike involving 48,000 GM workers. Two months later, company guards beat up UAW leaders at the River Rouge, Michigan plant.  (From Workday Minnesota)

February 11, 1964 – 19,000 students boycotted Cincinnati schools to protest segregation. (From the Daily Bleed)

February 11, 1981 – Eight workers were contaminated when 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked into a containment building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Sequoyah I plant in Tennessee. (From the Daily Bleed)

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)