Today in Labor History: Weekend Edition
September 07
Federal employees win the right to receive Workers’ Compensation insurance coverage – 1916
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September 08
Employers give in to the demands of striking miners in McKees Rock, Pa., agree to improved working conditions, 15 percent hike in wages and elimination of a “pool system” that gave foremen control over each worker’s pay – 1909
Workers give up their Labor Day weekend holidays to keep the munitions factories working to aid in the war effort. Most Labor Day parades are canceled in respect for members of the Armed Services – 1942
United Farm Workers union begins historic national grape boycott and strike, Delano, Calif. – 1965
Some 2,600 Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers begin what is to be a successful six-day strike for higher pay and against a two-tier wage system – 1997
September 09
In convention at Topeka, Kansas, delegates create the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America. The men who repaired the nation’s rail cars were paid 10 or 15 cents an hour, working 12 hours a day, often seven days a week – 1890
More than 1,000 Boston police officers strike after 19 union leaders are fired for organizing activities. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge announced that none of the strikers would be rehired, mobilized the state police, and recruited an entirely new police force from among unemployed veterans of the Great War (World War I) – 1919
Sixteen striking Filipino sugar workers on the Hawaiian island of Kauai are killed by police; four police died as well. Many of the surviving strikers were jailed, then deported – 1924
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Cool Labor Site: Jim Hightower
Official website for Jim Hightower, Texas populist, radio commentator, author and columnist, and a long-time thorn in the side of the greedy and powerful. http://www.jimhightower.com/
Labor Video: The Scientific Power of Naps
Use this to show your boss the best thing he can do to increase your productivity. Click here to watch the video.
