Today in Labor History: November 01
Nation’s first general strike for 10 hour day; Philadelphia – 1835
Thirty-seven black striking Louisiana sugar workers were murdered when Louisiana militia, aided by bands of “prominent citizens,” shot unarmed workers trying to get a dollar-per-day wage. Two strike leaders were lynched – 1887
Malbone tunnel disaster in New York City; inexperienced scab motorman crashes five-car train during strike, 97 killed, 255 injured – 1918
Some 400,000 soft coal miners strike for higher wages and shorter hours – 1919
United Stone & Allied Products Workers of America merge with United Steelworkers of America – 1972
The UAW begins what was to become a successful 172-day strike against International Harvester. The union turned back company demands for weakened work rules, mandatory overtime – 1979
Honda assembles the first-ever Japanese car manufactured in a U.S. plant, in Marysville, Ohio. By 2009 the plant was making 440,000 cars a year and Honda — just one of the foreign manufacturers with multiple plants operating in the U.S. — said it had sold 20 million cars since its American operation launched – 1982
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Labor Book: Lyddie
Lyddie Worthen is a 13-year-old farm girl who takes a job in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, when hard times hit her family. Six days a week from dawn to dusk she and the other girls run weaving looms in the murky dust and lint-filled factory. Lyddie learns to read — and to handle the menacing overseer. But when the working conditions begin to affect her friends health, she has to make a choice. Will she speak up for better working conditions and risk her job — and her dream of reuniting her family? Or will she stay quiet until it is perhaps too late? A wonderful story of strength, courage and solidarity.
Labor Humor: Nursing Hell
Did you hear about the nurse who died and went straight to hell?…click here for the punchline.
