Episodes
2 days ago
May 4 - UE Beats Back HUAC in Dayton
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2 days ago
On this day in labor history, the year was 1948.
That was the day United Electrical workers voted to strike at Univis Lens Company in Dayton, Ohio.
Univis made safety lenses and instrumental optics.
The UE was well established in area manufacturing plants.
Once organized, Univis fought the UE’s presence every chance they could.
When the contract expired at the end of April, Univis refused to negotiate.
First came the injunction limiting picketing.
This was followed by a vigorous decertification campaign
Foremen made intimidating, personal visits to workers’ homes, offering raises and personal loans to coerce ‘no’ votes.
When the UE lost the election in late July, the company announced wage increases for returning workers and firings for remaining strikers.
Workers stuck together and the strike continued.
By the 26th, police swarmed the picket lines, beating top UE organizers and arresting hundreds.
Two days later, the company offered a settlement for all but 11 strikers.
The members refused.
Then House Un-American Activities Committee came to town to begin a red baiting inquisition of the UE district.
The city’s unions were outraged at the beatings and arrests.
They walked off their jobs to bolster the picket lines and were met with tear gas.
Governor Herbert called in the National Guard on August 2.
1500 troops rolled into town in Sherman tanks with machine guns trained on the strikers.
Scabs were escorted through plant gates between rows of fixed bayonets.
Area residents, furious at the virtual martial law established, flooded the governor with angry protests until troops were finally withdrawn.
The strike ended in victory, with workers winning most of their demands.
All but five were reinstated and by the following April, the NLRB voided the decertification election.
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On this day in labor history, the year was 1911.
That was the day the State of Wisconsin passed the Wisconsin Workmen’s Compensation Act.
The state became the first to “have a constitutional system for providing medical expenses, wage loss payments or death benefits to employees or their families.
The law is regarded as a pioneering act of social legislation and a major accomplishment of Wisconsin’s Progressive movement.”
Activist journalism exposed deadly and disfiguring working conditions in the country’s industries.
State industrial commissions were established to conduct factory inspections and demand reform legislation and regulations.
Upton Sinclair’s initial intent in writing The Jungle was to cultivate a public outcry for better and safer working conditions.
By 1907, the Russell Sage Foundation funded dozens of investigators to study industrial and social conditions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Two volumes of essays were produced, entitled The Pittsburgh District: Civic Frontage and Wage-Earning Pittsburgh.
The essay, Work-Accidents and the Law, written by Crystal Eastman, exposed the enormity of work-related accidents and deaths, and the failure of employers to compensate victims and their families.
Her investigation examined several industries, including railroads, steel and coal mining.
She noted, “There is no bright side to this situation. By Industrial accidents, Allegheny County loses more than 500 workmen every year of whom nearly half are American born, 70 percent are workmen of skill and training and 60 percent have not yet reached the prime of their working life. Youth, skill, strength, in a word, human power, is what we are losing.”
Eastman’s survey worked to shift the burden from workers to employers.
It is largely credited with the passage of workers compensation laws, though it would take decades for similar laws to be enacted in states throughout the country.
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May 2 - Our Thing is DRUM!
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On this day in labor history, the year was 1968.
That was the day 4000 autoworkers at Chrysler’s Dodge Main plant in Hamtramck, Michigan walked out in a wildcat strike.
They protested assembly line speed-up but also racist foremen and the firings of seven coworkers.
The strike was significant for many reasons.
It injected Black Power politics within the union movement.
The CIO had made unprecedented gains in the 30s and 40s through interracial organizing and combating Jim Crow on the job.
However, racial discrimination persisted in industries across America.
The wildcat shocked the UAW leadership, having prided itself on its early and central involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
By 1968, many African-Americans grew frustrated with the slow pace of reform and found the militancy of the Black Power movement attractive.
According to historian Robert Weir, black autoworker activists considered many UAW officials “paternalistic, condescending and out of touch with changing urban realities.”
Many of their white coworkers joined them on the picket lines.
Black activists at Dodge Main condemned the UAW for failing to address the disproportionate racial discrimination they faced on the job.
They demanded a separate contract that spoke to the needs of black workers and the right to bargain directly with the company.
The wildcat immediately grew into the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and inspired similar groupings at area auto plants.
Those white workers who were initially sympathetic, worried that DRUM demands would serve to weaken and ultimately split the union movement along racial lines.
DRUM would continue to demand safer working conditions, shorter hours and higher wages, an end to the Vietnam War and more black union officials and supervisors.
The movement was short-lived but continues to be revered among Detroit activists today.
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On this day in labor history, the year was 1919.
That was the day May Day celebrators in Cleveland, Ohio were attacked as they marched to protest the imprisonment of Socialist, Eugene V. Debs.
1919 was a year of massive upheaval, marked by countless strikes and protests, riots and bomb threats.
But much of the country was still caught up in the jingoism of the war.
Debs had just entered prison to serve a ten-year sentence.
He had been convicted in Cleveland of sedition for an anti-war speech he gave in Canton, Ohio the year before.
Thousands of trade unionists, anarchists, socialists and communists marched towards Public Square in downtown Cleveland.
Prominent Socialist Charles Ruthenberg led one of the contingents.
He planned to address the rally in defense of Debs and also to promote his candidacy in the upcoming mayoral elections.
May Day marchers carried Red flags and American flags, and banners reading “Workers of the World, Unite.”
Liberty Loan workers stopped them en route, demanding they lower their flags.
Marchers refused and attempted to proceed towards downtown.
Fighting broke out in the streets and lasted for hours until mounted police and army tanks charged the crowd.
Two were killed, at least 40 seriously injured and as many as 120 were arrested.
Ruthenberg was charged with “assault with intent to kill,” though charges were later dismissed.
Socialist Party headquarters were ransacked.
The city immediately moved to restrict parades and socialist meetings, and banned red flags.
Local newspapers were quick to scapegoat immigrants and their supposed Bolshevik sympathies for the riot.
The attack in Cleveland served as an early warning of the Red Scare that would fully erupt by the end of the year.
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On this day in labor history, the year was 1952.
That was the day 100,000 oil refinery workers went on strike.
The work stoppage was called by a coalition of 22 unions, including AFL and CIO affiliates and independent unions.
They demanded a 25-cent hourly wage increase with shift differentials.
Shutdowns began at once and picket lines went up as soon as procedures were safely completed.
The strike threatened to cut production in half.
Union leaders called all but California refinery workers out, who were central to the war effort in Korea.
Oil barons had given refinery workers the run around for eight months during contract negotiations.
The union had even postponed the original strike date in March to give Federal Mediation a chance at effecting a settlement.
When this failed, President Truman brought the case to the Wage Stabilization Board, which issued a ruling favorable to the industry.
Eighty companies demanded separate hearings for all 200 bargaining units involved.
The union wanted one hearing for all.
Even after this victory for the oil companies, they then refused to attend the hearings!
When the Board threw up its hands in mid-April, the new strike deadline was set.
Eight days into the strike, the Board ordered oil workers back to work, which they flat out refused.
The Oil Workers Union stated “Strikers are fighting against a stacked deck… if corporation executives are permitted to ignore workers needs, then to manipulate the government so the right to strike is denied, collective bargaining will be destroyed.”
The Board then set a 15-cent an hour wage cap and shift differentials. Workers were back on the job by the end of the month, having avoided possible Taft-Hartley actions from President Truman.
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On this day in labor history, the year was 1946.
That was the day 8,000 UAW workers at the Allis-Chalmers plant in Milwaukee voted overwhelmingly to walk off the job.
Close to 12,000 production and maintenance workers were on strike across the country.
Workers rode the post-war strike wave as whole industries moved to peacetime reconversion.
Historian Eric Fure-Slocum notes that UAW Local 248 had a historically militant left-wing leadership, was known for its support to housing desegregation campaigns in the city and was a central driving force of Milwaukee’s CIO Council.
They had built a strong shop steward and grievance structure at Allis-Chalmers and were sure victory was certain.
Local president Robert Buse insisted wage increases were not at issue but rather unresolved issues remained to be settled, now that the war was finally over.
Key points of contention were the company’s demand to eliminate maintenance of membership agreements that guaranteed the closed shop and union dues.
The company also wanted to stop paying stewards for time involved in grievance procedures.
The Allis-Chalmers strike was a harbinger of things to come.
Historian Martin Halpern states that company officials played a significant role in the crafting of Taft-Hartley legislation as the strike unfolded.
Allis-Chalmers was on a union-busting campaign and made no small effort to redbait union leaders for months in local newspapers.
By the fall, workers at the smaller plants had returned to work, but the Milwaukee local stood firm.
Area CIO workers joined picket lines in support only to be brutalized and arrested.
HUAC arrived in town to investigate the strike and the company instigated a vigorous back-to-work campaign.
After eleven months, the strike was called off with no contract and ninety-one union leaders were fired.
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April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
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On this day in labor history the year was 1971. That was the day the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect.
At the time, it was estimated that 14,000 workers died annually on the job, 2.2 million workers were permanently or temporarily disabled and half a million developed occupational diseases each year.
It was estimated that at least 25 million serious injuries and deaths went unreported each year.
Many of the standards, regulations and enforcements OSHA now has, have come as a result of intense, continuous pressure waged by the labor movement.
The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) was the first to test out the new bill when they filed a complaint against Allied Chemical in Moundsville, West Virginia in May 1971.
Among the many hazards at the facility, pools of mercury on the shop floor were common occurrences.
OSHA issued its first citation against Allied Chemical under the General Duty clause.
The first OSHA standard issued came a year later, for asbestos.
Today, the AFL-CIO notes that for the year 2015, 4,836 workers were killed on the job, there is one OSHA inspector for every 76,000 workers and on average it would take OSHA 145 years to inspect every workplace once.
But new rules protecting workers from silica dust and beryllium have been established, as have strong reporting and recordkeeping standards.
There are stricter coal dust standards and anti-retaliation protections for workplace whistleblowers. The Trump administration is looking to overturn all of it.
You can take action this Workers Memorial Day to protect working conditions on the job.
Find an event in your area by going to: https://aflcio.org/issues/workplace-health-and-safety
3 days ago
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
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On this day in labor history, the year was 1978.
That was the day a West Virginia cooling tower under construction collapsed, plunging 51 workers to their deaths.
It was considered the worst non-mining disaster in West Virginia and the worst accident in the history of the country’s construction industry.
Cooling towers were under construction at the Pleasants Power Station at Willow Island.
Union building tradesmen built up the walls of the tower from scaffolding bolted to it.
As each section was poured, the forms would be removed and the scaffolding raised and bolted to the new section.
The tower had reached about 168 feet when the previous day’s concrete walls began to peel away from the tower.
The scaffolding plummeted, as did the workers.
Many could only be identified by the contents of their wallets.
The Steele family was beyond devastated with the loss of 10 family members.
A 2008 retrospective by Ken Ward Jr., of the Charleston Gazette reported “…a mix of safety lapses combined to bring the tower crashing down.
Concrete in the previous day’s lift hadn’t hardened enough to hold the scaffolding.
Key bolts meant to attach the scaffolding to the tower were missing.
An elaborate concrete hoisting system was modified without proper engineering review.
Contactors were rushing to speed construction.”
Dr. Celeste Monforton of the Milken Institute School of Public Health noted that the case highlights still relevant issues: Inadequate OSHA penalties, no criminal sanctions, holding workers responsible for contractors mistakes, ignoring of previous warning signs and a disconnect between abstract calculations and real-world applications.
Ken Ward Jr. noted in his retrospective that in 2008, there was still no state public employee OSHA program in West Virginia.
4 days ago
4 days ago
On this day in labor history, the year was 1944.
That was the day the Army National Guard seized the Chicago property of Montgomery Ward and removed its chairman, Sewell Avery.
The Chicago-based company repeatedly refused to accept a National War Labor Board order to recognize the workers’ union and abide by Board-negotiated collective bargaining agreements.
After refusing the second Board order, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Army National Guard to seize the company’s central mail order house, retail store and other related properties in the city.
Avery was physically carried out of his office.
Wartime no-strike pledges were in effect to avoid strikes or any disruptions in war production.
From a distance, it looked as if the President had triumphed the cause of labor in forcefully implementing the Wagner Act.
Workers of the CIO United Mail Order, Warehouse and Retail Employees Union had walked off the job over recognition issues April 12.
Montgomery Ward officials argued again, as they had two years earlier, that they were not engaged in war production, held no government contracts and that “the dispute is not one which might impede the prosecution of the war,” by the Board’s own terms.
But the government feared strike activity would only spread to other industries in Chicago and elsewhere.
Local Teamsters and Railway Brotherhoods all supported the strike and refused to handle shipments to and from Ward facilities.
The CIO union agreed to end the strike on the eve of the seizure.
Others in the labor movement called FDR’s move a hoax and a device to break strikes and get workers back on the job without any gains.
Roosevelt issued a third seizure of Ward’s facilities nationwide by year’s end.
5 days ago
5 days ago
On this day in labor history, the year was 1947.
That was the day hundreds of thousands of Detroit area autoworkers returned to their jobs after bringing car production to a complete standstill.
They walked off the job to protest the union-busting Taft-Hartley bill, then pending in Congress.
Chrysler, Ford, Hudson and Kaiser-Frazer Corporation were all shut down.
George Romney, head of the Automobile Manufacturers Association decried the work stoppage as a contract violation, costing the industry millions.
The UAW called 350,000 of its members out in protest the day before.
As many as a half-million area workers walked off the job.
Two marches were organized from the east and west sides of the city that brought as many as 275,000 workers, black and white, men and women, AFL and CIO converging onto Cadillac Square.
A reported 65,000 workers from the Ford River Rouge plant alone marched as a contingent to the rally.
Planes flew overhead, trailing banners that read “Oppose Anti-Labor Legislation in Washington,” “Down With Jim Crow Legislation,” and “Fight Repeal of the Wagner Act.”
UAW leaders addressed the crowd at the five-hour rally, stating, “the measures, if passed, would cut the heart of our unions into a thousand tattered, bloody pieces.”
They declared the anti-labor bills are “nothing more than proposals to punish the innocent and reward the guilty, for the record establishes that responsibility for recent major strikes rests without exception on the shoulder of industry.”
Briggs Local 212, which spearheaded the protest, marched with banners that demanded an independent labor party, while veteran autoworkers carried placards that read, “We Veterans Didn’t Fight For Union-Busting.”
The rally ended with the crowd singing ‘Solidarity’ and joining picket lines at nearby Bell Telephone, to support striking phone workers.