Today in Labor History: Weekend Edition
October 05
A strike by set decorators turns into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, Calif. when scabs try to cross the picket line. The incident is still identified as “Hollywood Black Friday” and “The Battle of Burbank” – 1945
The UAW ends a three-week strike against Ford Motor Co. when the company agrees to a contract that includes more vacation days and better retirement and unemployment benefits – 1976
Polish Solidarity union founder Lech Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize – 1983
2,100 supermarket janitors in California, mostly from Mexico, win a $22.4 million settlement over unpaid overtime. Many said they worked 70 or more hours a week, often seven nights a week from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. Cleaner Jesus Lopez told the New York Times he only had three days off in five years – 2004
October 06
First National Conference of Trade Union Women – 1918
1,700 female flight attendants win 18-year, $37 million suit against United Airlines. They had been fired for getting married – 1986
Thirty-two thousand machinists begin what is to be a successful 69-day strike against the Boeing Co. The eventual settlement brought improvements that averaged an estimated $19,200 in wages and benefits over four years and safeguards against job cutbacks – 1995
October 07
Joe Hill, labor leader and song writer, born in Gavle, Sweden – 1879
[The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon is the definitive, well-illustrated biography of Joe Hill, legendary 
American songwriter and labor hero, with explosive new evidence pointing to his innocence of the crime for which he was executed nearly a century ago. The Man Who Never Died does justice to Joe Hill's extraordinary life and its controversial end. Drawing on extensive new evidence, Adler deconstructs the case against his subject and argues convincingly for the guilt of another man. It reads like a murder mystery set against the background of the raw, turn-of-the-century West. In the UCS bookstore now.]
The Structural Building Trades Alliance (SBTA) is founded, becomes the AFL’s Building Trades Dept. five years later. SBTA’s mission: to provide a form to work out jurisdictional conflicts – 1903
Hollywood’s “Battle of the Mirrors.” Picketing members of the Conference of Studio Unions disrupted an outdoor shoot by holding up large reflectors that filled camera lenses with blinding sunlight. Members of the competing IATSE union retaliated by using the reflectors to shoot sunlight back across the street. The battle went on all day, writes Tom Sito in Drawing the Line – 1946
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Cool Labor Site: Finding an Unclaimed Pension
Is it possible that you or someone you know may be owed a pension benefit without knowing it? If you worked for a company in the past that went out of business or ended its defined benefit pension plan, you may be entitled to pension money. http://www.pbgc.gov/search/
Labor Video: No Justice, No Pizza
A great video on the Palermo’s Pizza struggle in Wisconsin. One hundred and twenty workers are in their third month of a strike and are focusing on getting Costco, a big customer, to put pressure on Palermo’s to resolve the workplace safety and other issues they face. Click here to watch the video.
