Today in Labor History: Weekend Edition
June 29
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in CWA v. Beck that, in a union security agreement, a union can collect as dues from non-members only that money necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining representative – 1988
Also on this date: What is to be a 7-day streetcar strike begins in Chicago after several workers are unfairly fired…Executive Order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the National Labor Relations Board…IWW strikes Weyerhauser and other Idaho lumber camps…Jesus Pallares, founder of the 8,000-member coal miners union, Liga Obrera de Habla Espanola, is deported as an “undesirable alien”…The Boilermaker and Blacksmith unions merge to become International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers…The newly-formed Jobs With Justice stages its first big support action, backing 3,000 picketing Eastern Airlines mechanics at Miami Airport… click here for complete postings.
June 30
Up to 40,000 New York construction workers demonstrated in midtown Manhattan, protesting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s awarding of a $33 million contract to a nonunion company. Eighteen police and three demonstrators were injured. “There were some scattered incidents and some minor violence,” Police Commissioner Howard Safir told the New York Post. “Generally, it was a pretty well-behaved crowd.” – 1998
Also on this date: Alabama outlaws the leasing of convicts to mine coal, a practice that had been in place since 1848…Walsh-Healey Act takes effect, requiring companies that supply goods to the government to pay wages according to a schedule set by the Secretary of Labor…The storied Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers merges into the United Steelworkers of America… click here for complete postings.
July 01
Some 1,100 streetcar workers strike in New Orleans, spurring the creation of the po’ boy sandwich by a local sandwich shop owner and one-time streetcar man. “Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming,” Bennie Martin later recalled, “one of us would say, ‘Here comes another poor boy.’” Martin and his wife fed any striker who showed up – 1929
Also on this date: Steel workers in Cleveland begin what was to be an 88-week strike against wage cuts…Homestead, Pennsylvania steel strike: seven strikers and three Pinkertons killed as Andrew Carnegie hires armed thugs to protect strikebreakers… Amalgamated Assn. of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers stages what is to become an unsuccessful three-month strike against U.S. Steel Corp. Subsidiaries…One million railway shopmen strike…Nat’l Assn. of Post Office & General Service Maintenance Employees, United Fed. of Postal Clerks, Nat’l Fed. of Post Office Motor Vehicle Employees & Nat’l Assn. of Special Delivery Messengers merge to become American Postal Workers Union…International Jewelry Workers Union merges with Service Employees International Union…Graphic Arts International Union merges with International Printing & Graphic Communications Union to become Graphic Communications International Union, now a conference of the Teamsters…Copper miners begin a years-long long, bitter strike against Phelps-Dodge in Clifton, AZ…Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union merges with International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union to form Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees…International Chemical Workers Union merges with United Food & Commercial Workers Int’l Union…The Newspaper Guild merges with Communications Workers of America…United American Nurses affiliate with the AFL-CIO… click here for complete postings.
Labor Video: Look for the Union Label
Unfair competition from low-wage imports has been a problem for decades: check this classic TV commercial from 1981 featuring members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, now part of the UNITE HERE union. Click here to watch the video.
