Today in Labor History—June 11

Richard II meets the rebels (from Froissart's Chronicles)

June 11, 1381 – A Peasant revolt broke out in England, calling for property to be held in common and equality for all. Also known as Wat Tyler's rebellion and marked the beginning of the end of serfdom. (From the Daily Bleed)

Wat Tyler's execution by Walworth, while Richard II watches

June 11, 1848 – The wave of European revolutions continued with the uprising in Prague. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1872 - Labor unions were legalized in Canada, following a Toronto printers' strike. (From Workday Minnesota)

Blockade of engines in W. Virginia (from Harpers)

 June 11, 1877 –The Great U.S. Railroad Strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

Maryland national guard battling striking rail workers

 June 11, 1913 – Cops shot Black & White IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) members and AFL maritime workers who were striking against United Fruit company in New Orleans, killing one and wounding two. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1925 – During a mine workers strike against the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) in Cape Breton, drunken company police attacked on horseback, beating all in their way. They then rode through the school yards, knocking down innocent children, cracking jokes that the miners were at home hiding under their beds. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1926 – The first 40-hour work week in the U.S. was won by New York fur workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1929 – Student strikers occupied buildings at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1957 – Chinese students fought that cops and attacked the Communist Party HQ in Hang Yang. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1968 –May Days continued into June in France with ongoing strikes and protests. In the factories of Peugeot-Sochaux, two workers were killed by the hated CRS. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1973 – General Strike against General Franco was launched in Pamplona, Spain. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1974 – A labor dispute at the Chrysler Truck Facility erupted into a spontaneous wildcat strike lasting from June 11 through June 14. Two Dodge Truck strikers wrote, "[we wanted] to free ourselves from the tyranny of the workplace; stop being forced to sell our labor to others; stop others from having control over our lives." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 1981 – The first baseball player's strike in major-league history began midseason. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 11, 2002 – Earth First! and IWW activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney won $4.4 million in a false-arrest lawsuit against Oakland police and the FBI. They had been arrested for blowing up their own car while they were in it. The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants had deliberately framed Bari and Cherney in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer.

Today in Labor History—June 10

Burning of the frigate Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor, by Edward Moran

June 10, 1801 – Tripoli declared war on the U.S., for refusing to pay tribute to their pirates, and the U.S. attacked, in the “First Libyan War.” U.S. forces attacked by land and sea, forcing Tripoli to accept peace in June, 1805. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1892 – A massive strike by miners occurred in Coeur d'Alenes, Idaho. In order to prevent scabs from working the mines while they were on strike, workers destroyed & seized mines. The strike was broken after the state declared martial law. (From the Daily Bleed)

King Alexander and Queen Dragia

 June 10, 1903 – King Alexander I and Queen Dragia of Serbia were assassinated. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1904 – 79 striking Colorado miners were "deported" to Kansas, following a battle between the Colorado Militia and striking miners at Dunnville. The battle ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Dozens were arrested without warrants and held without formal charges. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1917 –A massive citywide textile strike for better wages and working conditions began in Sao Paulo, lasting over a month. Workers tried to appeal to the sympathies of police and soldiers, but when this failed openly confronted them. By July they were joined by striking cab drivers, utility workers and craft workers, totaling over 20,000 on strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1928 – Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, was born, Brooklyn, New York. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1940 – African liberationist Marcus Garvey died in London. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1960 – Thousands of council workers and revolutionary students surrounded the entourage of U.S. Presidential Press Secretary Hagerty at Haneda airport in Tokyo. Hagerty had to be rescued by a US marine helicopter, while the pro-imperialist government of Japan collapsed in embarrassment. President Eisenhower, fearing for his life, cancelled his July visit. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 10, 1963 - The Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy. The law prohibits employers from paying men and women different wages for the same job. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 10, 1971 – Police and death squads killed 43 student protesters in México City. (again). In 1968, the government massacred hundreds of students and bystanders in the Tlatelolco massacre (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 9

Women's Trade Union League Float, New York Labor Day Parade, 1908

June 9, 1865 - Labor activist Helen Marot was born. Marot was a librarian from a wealthy family in Philadelphia, who investigated working conditions among children and women. During her life she participated in numerous labor organizations, particularly those dedicated to the interests of women, such as the Women's Trade Union League and the Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union in New York. She also organized and led the 1909-1910 Shirtwaist Strike in New York and was part of a commission that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire in 1912. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 9, 1902 – The US past anti-anarchist legislation designed to quell the rising power of anarchists in the labor movement. (From the Daily Bleed)

Crowd outside City Wall, Winnipeg, 1919, during General Strike

June 9, 1919 – The Winnipeg city council dismissed the police force during the General Strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 9, 1989 – Leaders of the student protests at Tiananmen Square were tried. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 8

June 8, 1852 –The first documented labor strike in San Francisco occurred when Chinese laborers demanded a raise while working on the Parrott granite building. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 8, 1904 – A battle between the Colorado Militia and striking mine workers at Dunnville ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. (See Colorado Labor Wars, Today in Labor History—June 7) 79 of the strikers were deported to Kansas thanks to Rockefeller, who effectively owned the state government and militia. (From the Daily Bleed)

USS Liberty

June 8, 1967 – Israeli aircraft and boats attacked the USS Liberty during Israel's "Six Day War." The unprovoked assault killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 170. The U.S. government “investigated” the attack and issued a whitewashed report calling it an unfortunate mistake. However, witnesses and critics dispute this claim, calling it a deliberate attack by Israel to silence U.S. criticism of Israel’s war tactics. According to George Ball, undersecretary of state at the time, the attack set the stage for future Israeli policy by sending the message to Israel's leaders “that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything." (From the Daily Bleed, Democracy Now and Wikipedia)

Record Profits and Declining Living Standards, Again

For the second year in a row (and despite the continuation of high unemployment rates), American corporations posted record profits ($1.97 trillion for the 3^rd quarter of 2011, according to the Huffington Post). At the same time, pay, benefits and living standards for the majority of Americans declined.

The connection should be obvious. As bosses downsize their businesses, throwing more and more workers into the unemployment lines or compelling them to accept lower wages in exchange for protection from unemployment, those lucky enough to have jobs are being forced to worker harder, faster and longer (productivity increased by 3.2% during the 3^rd quarter of 2011). As a result, companies are spending less on labor and getting higher productivity as a result. (At least they were until this most recent quarter, when productivity actually declined by nearly 1%, probably because they have people working so hard and long they are burning out or deliberately slowing down out of exhaustion or frustration).

The AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch list found that average compensation for S&P 500 CEOs was $12.9 million in 2011, a 13.9% increase over 2010, which itself saw a 22.8% increase over 2009. Real wages for workers fell by 2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average CEO took home 380 times more than the average wage of their employees. 30 years ago they only took home 42 times as much as their employees. (See www.news-record.com)

Teachers File Complaint Against Union-Busting Chi-Town Charter

Teachers and staff at the Youth Connection Leadership Academy have filed an unfair labor complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board claiming the organization that runs the school decided to close it the day after teachers voted to form a union. The teachers have been joined in their complaint by the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, the American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO, according to the Chicago Tribune.

As one would expect, the school says their decision has nothing to do with the organizing effort by teachers. However, it is precisely the lack of unions, the ability to hire and fire at will, keep wages and benefits low and work demands high, that make charter schools attractive to investors and politicians.

Today in Labor History—June 7

June 7, 1896 – A bomb exploded during a religious parade in Spain, killing a dozen people and wounding 30. The government response was to mass arrest anarchists, torturing hundreds in the Montjuich Prison. The severity of the government’s response sparked international protests. (From the Daily Bleed)

Cripple Creek under martial law, 1894

"Illegal" sheriffs' deputies under arrest, Cripple Creek, 1894

June 7, 1907 – The Colorado state militia was sent to Cripple Creek (again), to suppress a Western Federation of Miners (WFM) strike. A brutal strike occurred in Cripple Creek in 1894, the only time a state militia was called out in support of striking workers. There had been numerous firefights between striking workers and the mine owners’ private security forces, including the use of dynamite. The private cops had been terrorizing union members, their families and even local residents unaffiliated with the mines. The WFM won that strike, but it was short-lived, with the mine owners going on the offensive, particularly in 1903-1904, a period known as the Colorado Labor Wars. During this period, private detectives, goons, vigilantes, state militias and national guards were all used by the mine owners to attack the miners. On June 6, 1904, there was an explosion at the Independence mine that killed several nonunion miners. The Citizen’s Alliance brought in the National Guard, who, on June 7, shot into the WFM’s union hall. The Citizen’s Alliance also set up Kangaroo courts and convicted and deported nearly 240 miners who refused to renounce their union memberships. The Cripple Creek strike officially ended in December, 1907. However, the WFM’s struggle in Colorado helped inspire the creation of the even more radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), in 1905. One of the leaders of the WFM and Cripple Creek struggle, Big Bill Haywood, was also a founding member of the IWW. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

June 7, 1929 – Striking textile workers in Gastonia, North Carolina, fought off a vigilante attack on their union hall. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 7, 1968 – Violent clashes occurred between French workers at the Renault plant and police. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 7, 1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that clothing with the words "Fuck the Draft" was protected by the First amendment. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 7, 1991 – A three-week General Strike in Albania ended by bringing down the government. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 7, 2001 – George Bush signed a $1.35-trillion tax cut, mostly for the rich. Not long after this “stimulus” plan was put into action, the economy, went further into the tank. (From the Daily Bleed)

Chicago Teacher Strike Vote Today

Chicago teachers are taking a strike vote today. While the vote will not necessarily lead to a strike, it is the next step required before a union-sanctioned and legal strike may begin. It is also likely to pass, as strike votes are generally preceded by straw polls to gauge members’ readiness for a strike.

A strike is also the necessary and correct next step for Chicago teachers, who are being required by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to work a 20% longer day for only 2% more in wages, according to ABC news. CPS also wants to bring in merit pay, larger class sizes and 60 new charter schools over the next five years, which would dramatically weaken the union as charter schools are rarely unionized.

The teachers’ contract ends this month. The results of the vote are expected by the end of the week. If successful, a strike action could begin at the beginning of the fall, 2012 school year. The last major teachers’ strike in Chicago was in 1987.