Today in Labor History—June 1

June 1 is the day that U.S. labor law officially allows children under the age of 16 to work up to 8 hours per day between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 pm. (From Workday Minnesota) Time is ticking away, Bosses. Have you signed up sufficient numbers of low-wage tykes to maintain production rates with your downsized adult staffs?

 

Tupac Amaru

June 1, 1572 – The Battle of Coyaochaca between Hurtado de Arbieto and the rebel army of Tupac Amaru was fought in Peru. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1771 – A crowd of women was arrested while destroying the fences around Rewhay Common, England, in attempt to resist the enclosures of the commons that was occurring throughout the coutnry. Another group of women marched to Burton-on-Trent where they freed their comrades. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Arggghh, Matey, Nicaragua is My Personal Slave State!

June 1, 1855 – American pirate William Walker conquered Nicaragua, ceded it to the U.S. south, and reintroduced slavery. Walker was later captured and executed in Trujillo, Honduras. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Captain Jack, Modoc Warrier

June 1, 1873 – Captain Jack, who led a band of 52 warriors against the U.S. army near Tule Lake, California, finally surrendered to U.S. troops. The fight was part of the Modoc Wars, in which the Modoc tribe (southern Oregon and Northern California) resisted domination by the U.S. Many of his own people had joined with the U.S. forces to help capture him. Captain Jack had led the most expensive Indian War in US history. (From the Daily Bleed, Wikipedia)

 

Cananea Riot, 1906

June 1, 1906 – The bloody Cananea copper miners' strike began in Sonora, Mexico. The miners were demanding 5 pesos a day and an 8-hour workday, commensurate with the U.S. citizens who were working with them side-by-side. As many as 100 miners were killed. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1909 – W. E. DuBois founded the NAACP. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Raising of U.S. Flag as U.S. Occupied Veracruz

June 1, 1914 – 80 militia men refused to board a train as reinforcements for the U.S. invasion of Veracruz, Mexico. The U.S. ultimately occupied the region for six months because President Huerta refused to provide the U.S. with a 21-gun salute as an apology for arresting nine U.S. sailors. More significantly, Veracruz was an important oil port. Germany and Britain had been battling for its control. The occupation gave the U.S. greater influence on the still unfolding Mexican revolution, as well as the growing tensions in Europe. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1914 – U.S. troops arrived in Colorado to reclaim coal mines from striking miners, after the Colorado National Guard massacred 19 in the miners’ camp. 2 women and 11 children were among those killed. (From the Daily Bleed, and here and here)

June 1, 1916 – Pacific Coast longshoremen (ILA) struck up and down the Pacific coast. (From the Daily Bleed)

 

Propaganda Poster for the May 30th Movement

June 1, 1925 – The Shanghai General Strike began, as part of an ongoing labor insurgency occurring throughout China's industrial cities. The day prior, police opened fire on protesters. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1929 --A meeting of the Korean Anarchist Federation (KAF) was held in Peking in which it was decided to divert all resources outside Korea itself to Manchuria. Over 2 million Koreans were living in Manchuria at the time, and the KAF was a significant force. Their significance was short-lived, however, as the Japanese attacked from the south, while Stalinists attacked from the north. By 1931, many of the anarchist leaders were dead and the region was devastated. (From the Daily Bleed and The Korean Anarchist Movement)

June 1, 1942 - The Polish Socialist newspaper, Liberty Brigade, made the first public report that that the Nazis were gassing Jews by the thousands. In the article, they published an interview with a young Jew, Emanuel Ringelblum, who had escaped the Chelmno death camp. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 1, 1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court banned formal prayers and religious exercises from public schools. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1968 – Libertarian Socialist Helen Keller died in Westport, Connecticut. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 1, 1981 – Two Filipino longshore labor organizers, Domingo & Viernes, were assassinated in Seattle, Washington on orders of U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History: April 24

April 24, 1920--A General Strike in Piedmont, which started on April 15, was put down on this date by the Italian authorities. (From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1954--Mumia Abu Jamal, death row activist, journalist and former Black Panther, was born on this date.(From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1999 - The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union brought shipping to a standstill on the West Coast of the United States in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 24, 1996 – Nineteen demonstrators were arrested in Kiev, during an illegal anti-nuclear protest marking 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed).

Today In Labor History: April 4

Luddite Leader Ned Ludd (engraving, 1812, from Wikipedia)

April 4, 1812 – Luddites rioted at Stockport, England, to tried and halt the advancement of machines that would replace workers. (From Luddite Chonology and the Daily Bleed)

April 4, 1950 – Longshoremen union leader Harry Bridges was convicted of lying about being a Communist. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—February 6

February 6, 1910 – Philadelphia shirtwaist makers voted to accept an arbitration offer and end their strike.  (From the Daily Bleed)

February 6, 1919 – The Seattle General Strike began on this date. The city's 10,000 Japanese immigrants participated in the walkout, along with longshoremen, trolley operators, and bartenders. The strike began in response to government sanctioned wage cuts. During the strike, councils were formed consisting of workers, soldiers and sailors council, which took over virtually all major city services, including food distribution and security. The strike ultimately ended as a result of bureaucratic labor union intervention. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

February 6, 1970 – After 136 days on strike, Fisher Body workers ratified a new agreement. (From the Daily Bleed)

Labor History Timeline--The Era of Depression and General Strikes

1933    National Industrial Recovery Act (NiRA): Companies that abided by NiRA codes for minimum wages and maximum working hours could not only skirt anti-trust laws, but could also enforce open shops and discriminate against union activists and workers of color. (Sources: WSWS, International Socialist Review)

Toledo General Strike

1934    Toledo General Strike: 2 workers were killed and over 200 were injured during the Auto-Lite strike in Toledo, Ohio. The auto strike began in February, 1934, with as many as 10,000 other employed and unemployed Toledo workers joining the General Strike in May. During the General Strike, there was a five-day running battle between thousands of workers and the Ohio National Guard. Workers fought the police and National Guardsmen with their fists and with bricks (sometimes firing them with slingshots made from inner tubes). The strike ended when public outrage over the brutality against the workers forced Auto-Lite to recognize the union and offer employees a 5% raise. (Sources: Wikipedia, WSWS)

SF General Strike

1934    San Francisco General Strike: The longshoremen’s strike, which began as a strike for a union hiring hall and union recognition, started on May 9 and lasted 83 days, leading ultimately to the unionization of all West Coast ports. After World War One, West Coast long shore workers were poorly organized or represented by company unions. The IWW had tried to organize them with some successes, like in San Pedro, in 1922, but they were ultimately crushed by injunctions, imprisonment, deportation and vigilante violence. While longshoremen lacked a well-organized union, they retained a syndicalist sentiment and militancy. On May 9, 1934, longshoremen walked off the job at ports up and down the West Coast, soon to be followed by sailors. 2 strikers were shot dead by the bosses’ goons in San Pedro. There was also violence in Oakland and San Francisco. Street battles between the cops and strikers continued in San Francisco, heating up on July 3, and culminating in Bloody Thursday, on July 5, when 3 workers were shot by police (two of them died). The attack led to a four-day general strike that effectively shut down commerce in San Francisco, despite police violence and attempts to weaken it by national unions. (From the Daily Bleed, Workday Minnesota and Wikipedia)

1934    Minneapolis General Strike: grew out of a Teamsters strike that began May 16. On Friday, July 20, 150 police opened fire on striking workers as they attempted to block a scab truck, killing two and injuring 67 others. That night, 15,000 workers protested, followed by a citywide strike of all transport workers on July 23. The next day, roughly 100,000 people participated in a march. On July 26, martial law was declared. Picketing and rallies were banned, while union leaders were arrested or and ordered to leave town. However, the strike was costing employers millions of dollars and the strike was ultimately settled with the employers recognizing the teamsters and offering workers a modest raise. (Sources: WSWS, Wikipedia)

1934    Eastern Textile General Strike: Over 400,000 textile workers participated in what was one of the largest strikes in U.S. history up until that point. The strike came in response to attacks by employers exploiting the new National Industrial Recovery Act (NiRA, see above), which allowed the mills to slash hours and weekly pay by 25%. In response, a General Strike of textile workers began on September 1 that spread throughout the South and the Eastern Seaboard.  The authorities in the various affected states responded by calling in National Guards, deputizing citizens, declaring martial law and other heavy handed tactics that resulted in numerous deaths and dozens of arrests. The workers’ ultimate defeat left most of the South non-unionized for the next 50 years. (Sources: International Socialist Review, North Carolina History Project, Wikipedia)

1935    The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Foundedon November 9, 1935, as an opposition movement within the AFL (which expelled the CIO in 1938). Important founding members included the Steelworkers, Auto Workers and Textile Workers. The CIO ultimately merged with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO.  (Sources: International Socialist Review, Workday Minnesota)

1935    Wagner Act: A wave of strikes and labor turmoil during the Great Depression paved the way for the Wegner Act—also known as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which legitimized unions, but also created rules by which they had to abide, promoting the bureaucratization and timidity of union leadership. Even with the rules of NLRA strongly favoring the bosses, they fought it tooth and nail, finally winning passage of the Taft Hartley Act, in 1947, which weakened NLRA by blocking unions from engaging in secondary boycotts, solidarity actions with other unions, and general strikes.  (Sources: Modern School)

1937    GM Sit-Down Strike: GM recognized the United Autoworkers (UAW) after their famous 44-day sit-down strike in Flint, MI. The Flint strike was actually preceded by two days when workers at the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland launched a sit-down strike. During the Flint strike, 5,000 armed workers circled the plant to protect the workers inside. Following police attacks with tear-gas, workers fought back with fire hoses. 13 workers were injured by police gunfire. By the time the National Guard arrived, sympathy strikes had spread to GM plants across the country, with 44,000 autoworkers participating. (Sources: Workday Minnesota, Daily Bleed)

Battle of the Overpass, National Archives

1937    Battle of the Overpass: United Auto Workers were attacked by Ford security forces. UAW organizers Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen were badly beaten, swaying public opinion in favor of the UAW. (Sources Wikipedia)

Memorial Day Massacre, National Archives

1937    Memorial Day Massacre: The Chicago police shot and killed 10 unarmed protesting workers during the “Little Steel Strike.” 30 others were injured, including 9 who were permanently disabled. Most were shot in the back as they fled. No police officers were ever prosecuted. (From Wikipedia, WSWS)

1938    Hilo Massacre: On August 1, 1938, police opened fire on 200 unarmed trade unionists protesting the unloading of a ship in Hilo Harbor, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in what became known as "the Hilo Massacre." The protest was in support of striking waterfront workers. 50 workers were injured. Police also used tear gas and bayonets. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

Dockworkers Threaten East Coast Strike, Reject West Coast Deal

Bloody Thursday, San Francisco, West Cost Ports Strike, 1934

Dockworkers from Massachusetts to Texas are threatening to strike on Sunday, in what would be the first East Coast port shut down since 1977, a two-month work stoppage that cost retailers billions of dollars (see New York Times). The threat has so worried the corporate bosses that they are demanding Obama block the strike by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, as Bush did in 2002 to end a West Coast port strike.

The anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act, which passed in 1947, banned the General Strike, solidarity or sympathy strikes, and secondary boycotts. It prohibited closed union shops and opened the door to “right-to-work” legislation. President Truman, whose veto was overridden, called it an “intrusion on free speech.” The law also permits the president to obtain a strike-breaking injunction by claiming that national security is threatened by the strike, which is what corporate leaders want Obama to do.

Many believe that Obama will resist these demands because of his supposed strong ties to the labor movement, pointing to his hands off response to the recent Chicago teachers strike as evidence. However, Obama did not need to intervene in Chicago. His crony Rahm Emanuel applied plenty of pressure on the union, including the threat of obtaining an injunction against the strike. Furthermore, the AFT has consistently served Obama votes (also see here), stymied strikes and brokered sellout contract deals (also see here) that have shoved his corporate “reform” policies down the throats of teachers. The contract that the Chicago Teachers Union finally accepted was no doubt due in part to pressure from Randi Weingarten and the AFT, which had urged the Chicago Teachers Union to avoid striking in the first place and which refused to support the teachers with strike pay.

The ports strike is substantially different than the Chicago teachers strike. Most significantly, a shutdown of the schools has very modest and tangential impacts on profits, while a port shut down is projected to cost retailers millions of dollars a day and Obama’s allegiance to capital is far stronger than his ties with labor. Retailers and other corporate leaders are further fanning the flames by claiming that a port shut down could devastate the economy, particularly in conjunction with the tax increases and spending cuts that will come with the fiscal cliff or any compromises to avert it.

The East Coast dock workers, who belong to the International Longshoremen’s Association (in contrast to their fellow workers on the West Coast, who belong to the ILWU), had been in contract negotiations for nine months, before talks fell apart on December 18. One of the main sticking points is “container royalty payments,” which the shipping companies want to freeze for current employees and eliminate for future employees. These payments averaged $15,000 per employee last year. Aside from the fact that this would lead to stagnation in take-home pay, it would also hurt long-term organizing efforts and solidarity by driving a wedge between old-timers and new members.

While long shore unions are seen by many as among the strongest in the country, they have been losing membership over the past 50 years just like most other unions. These jobs have been lost primarily because of automation. New Jersey and New York employed 35,000 longshoremen in the 1960s and today the number has dwindled to 3,500. They are also far less militant than they were in the 1930s, when the ILWU emerged on the West Coast in the wake of a bloody 83-day strike that killed several longshoremen. 

Engraved Billy Club from Battle of Smith Cove, Seattle (image from Wikipedia)

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, the ILWU voted Monday by 93.8% to reject the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association “last, best and final” offer. The grain handlers association now plans to lock out the dockworkers and bring in scabs. The Oregonian reports that the owners of Portland, Vancouver and Puget Sound terminals have spent months preparing for a battle on the waterfront, “lining up troops and assets like chess pieces.”

The West Coast grain terminals implementing the lockout handle 25% of the U.S. grain and 50% of its wheat exports, according to the WSWS. Their owners are demanding the same concessions made by the ILWU in Longview, Washington to the EGT (Export Grain Terminal). The EGT contract was a pretty mediocre deal for the Longview dockworkers, particularly in light of the brutality and repression they suffered by police during their struggle. However, the recent vote indicates that the rest of the West Coast dockworkers are unwilling to accept such losses to workplace rights and working conditions.

Today in Labor History—August 3

August 3, 1821 -- Uriah Stephens, founder of the Knights of Labor, was born in Cape May, New Jersey (1821-1882). (From the Daily Bleed)

August 3, 1886 – Labor activist and song writer Florence Reece was born. She had been active in Harlan County, Kentucky coal strikes and penned the famed labor song "Which Side Are You On?" The song was written in 1931 on an old wall calendar while Sheriff J.H. Blair was searching for her husband and ransacking her home. Blair had led his gang of thugs on a violent rampage, beating and murdering union leaders.

They say in Harlan Co.
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a Union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair.

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

(From the Daily Bleed)

August 3, 1894 – The Pullman strike was called off by the railway union after US troops intervened. (From the Daily Bleed)

Cavalry used against striking Pullman workers

 August 3, 1913 – Four died in the so-called "Wheatland riots" when police fired into a crowd of California farmworkers trying to organize for better working conditions. Two labor leaders, one of whom was not even present at the massacre, were later convicted of murder for encouraging workers to organize, which forced officials to shoot and kill. Conditions were terrible with no water for the workers, who routinely contracted dysentery, malaria and typhoid fever. When the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had struck at the Durst hops farms in Wheatland, California, armed county officials fired on a union meeting. An ensuing gun fight left four dead, including the district attorney & sheriff.  (From the Daily Bleed)

August 3, 1949 – United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 893 won a strike at Vought. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 3, 1972 – The British government declared a state of emergency to allow troops to replace striking longshoremen, forcing Britain's 42,000 striking dock workers back to work. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 3, 1981 – U.S. federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide strike after their union, PATCO, rejected the government's final contract offer. Most of the 13,000 strikers ignored orders to go back to work and were fired on August 5 by President Reagan for participating in an illegal work stoppage. Reagan's action – and the inability of the labor movement to respond to the crisis – led to the rapid downhill spiral of unions. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—July 7

July 7, 1903 – The "March of the Mill Children" began, led by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, from Philadelphia to Teddy Roosevelt’s summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The goal of the march was to publicize the terrible conditions for children laborers and to demand a 55 hour work week.

July 7, 1882 - Striking longshoremen in New York City held a meeting to plan how to keep new immigrants from scabbing on them. They were successful, at least temporarily, as 500 newly arrived Jews marched straight from the ship to the union hall on July 14. The following day, 250 Italian immigrants stopped scabbing on the railroad and joined the union. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History: April 24

April 24, 1920--A General Strike in Piedmont, which started on April 15, was put down on this date by the Italian authorities. (From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1954--Mumia Abu Jamal, death row activist, journalist and former Black Panther, was born on this date.(From the Daily Bleed).

 

April 24, 1999 - The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union brought shipping to a standstill on the West Coast of the United States in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. (From Workday Minnesota)

April 24, 1996 – Nineteen demonstrators were arrested in Kiev, during an illegal anti-nuclear protest marking 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed).

Today In Labor History: April 4

Luddite Leader Ned Ludd (engraving, 1812, from Wikipedia)

April 4, 1812 – Luddites rioted at Stockport, England, to tried and halt the advancement of machines that would replace workers. (From Luddite Chonology and the Daily Bleed)

April 4, 1950 – Longshoremen union leader Harry Bridges was convicted of lying about being a Communist. (From the Daily Bleed)