Labor History Timeline - LACCD · Timeline of Labor History With thanks to The University of Hawaii’s Center for Labor Education and Research for their labor history timeline. v1

Timeline

of Labor History

With thanks to The University of Hawaii’s Center for Labor Education and Research for their labor history timeline.

v1 –

09/2011

Labor History Timeline – Western States Center

1648Shoemakers and coopers (barrel-makers) guilds organized in Boston.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu. Image:http://mattocks3.wordpress.com/category/mattocks/james-mattocks-mattocks-2/


1776Declaration of Independence signed in Carpenter's Hall.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu

Image:blog.pactecinc.com


1790First textile mill, built in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was staffed entirely by children under the age of 12.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu

Image: creepychusetts.blogspot.com


1845 The Female Labor Reform Association was created in Lowell, Massachusetts

by Sarah Bagley, and other women cotton mill workers, to reduce the work day from 12-13 hours to10 hours, and to improve sanitation and safety in

the mills.

Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image: historymartinez.wordpress.com


1868 The first 8-hour workday for federal workers took effect.

Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image: From Melbourne, Australia campaign but found at ntui.org.in


1881In Atlanta, Georgia, 3,000 Black women laundry workers staged one of

the largest and most effective strikes in the history of the south.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu, Image:http://www.apwu.org/laborhistory/10-1_atlantawomen/10-1_atlantawomen.htm


1886•

March

-

200,000 workers went on strike against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads owned by Jay Gould, one of the more flamboyant

of the 'robber baron' industrialists of the day. •

May 1

-

in Chicago's Haymarket Square a bomb went off in the middle of a protest rally against the killing of 4 strikers who had been on strike for the 8-hour day. This began the international tradition of celebrating May Day for workers rights. •

December

-

The American Federation of Labor is formed representing 140,000

workers in 25 national unions.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html. Image:http://www.boisestate.edu/socwork/dhuff/us/chapters/CHAPTER%206.htm


1902 147,000 miners striked

over union recognition in the Great Anthracite Coal Strike. President Roosevelt mediated.

Big Bill Haywood lead the Western Federation of Miners (WMF) through a bloody series of conflicts spanning two years in what became known as the

Colorado Labor Wars.Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html. Image:

http://greatamericansclass.blogspot.com/2010/03/1902-anthracite-coal-strike.html


1903•

The Department of Labor and Commerce was created by an act of Congress, and its Secretary was made a member of the President's Cabinet.

•

“Mother”

Jones led a protest march of mill children, many of whom were victims of industrial accidents, from Philadelphia to New York.

•

November14 -

At the AFL convention in Boston, women unionists unite to form the National Women's Trade Union League and elected Mary Morton Kehew

president and Jane Addams vice-president.

Sources. Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html. Image:http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2010/03/another-us-radical-mother-jones.html


1909 Female shirtwaist workers in New York striked

against sweatshop conditions. This “Uprising of 20,000”

laid the groundwork for the formation of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/triangle-newman/


1911 The Triangle Waist Company Fire in New York on March 25, causes the

death of 146 workers. The majority of the deaths were of young immigrant women between the ages of 16 and 23.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/nyregion/21triangle.html


1912In Lawrence, Massachusetts the IWW led a strike of 23,000 men, women

and children to organize the Lawrence Textile Mills. The "Bread & Roses" Strike, was hailed as the first successful multi-ethnic strike.

Sources. Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-U0S.html. Image:libcom.org


1919 In February, to protest two years of World War I wage controls, 65,000

workers went on strike in Seattle. 40,000 other workers joined them in solidarity. The Seattle General Strike shut down the city.

Sources: Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html

and http://www.examiner.com/history-in-seattle/90th-anniversary-of-the-

seattle-general-strike


1934The strike of 400,000 textile

workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and all over the southeastern United States lasted

22 days. The strike's ultimate failure and the union's defeat set

the groundwork for the Southeastern portion of the United

States to become a largely unorganized and anti-union

region.

Sources: Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html,

Image: http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-1330


Sources. Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image: http://www.newmediajournal.us/daily_columns/thanksgiving_fdr.htm

1943Congress passed the Smith-Connally

Act to restrict labor bargaining and organizing. It required a 30-day "cooling off" period before strike,

criminal penalties for encouraging strikes, Presidential seizure

of struck plants, prohibitions against union campaign contributions. It was vetoed

by President Roosevelt.


1947 Following the largest strike wave in U.S. history, the Taft-Hartley Act was

passed, suppressing the rights of unions.

Sources. Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image:http://athomehesaturista.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/the-oakland-general-strike/


1962President Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988 giving federal workers the right to join unions and bargain for wages and working conditions. This set

the groundwork for large scale unionization efforts in the public sector.

Sources: Text: http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html. Image: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/Legislative-Summary-Main-Page/Legislative-Summary/Federal-Employees.aspx


Sources: Text: http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_march_on_washington_for_jobs_and_freedom/ Image:http://www.motleymoose.com/diary/2644/march-on-washington-2102010

1963On August 23, the March on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought 250,000 men, women and children

together on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial to show their

support for the civil rights movement. In addition to supporting civil rights, the

leaders and planners of the march stressed economic inequities and called for

passage of a new federal jobs program and a higher

minimum wage.


1964 On July 2, President Johnson signed the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of

1964, which banned discrimination in the workplace.Sources: Image:http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=70626


1965September 8, Delano Grape Strike began when the Agricultural Workers

Organizing Committee -

mostly Filipino farm workers in Delano, California -

walked off the farms demanding wages on level with the federal minimum wage. A week after the strike began, the predominantly Mexican-American

National Farmworkers

Association, led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, joined the strike. Eventually the two groups merged, forming the

United Farm Workers of America. The strike quickly spread to over 2,000 workers.

Sources:Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image:http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/tag/water-harvesting/


1968 On April 3,

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to support AFSCME sanitation workers. That evening, he delivered his famous

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”

speech

to a packed room of supporters. The next day he was assassinated.

Sources: Text and Images:http://www.afscme.org/union/history/mlk


1981The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association struck in defiance of the law. Newly elected President Ronald Reagan fired all the strikers and broke the union, sanctioning the practice of hiring "permanent replacements" for striking workers. Solidarity day labor rally drew 400,000 supporters to the

Mall in Washington D.C.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image: http://www.ufcw324.org/Current_Events/News/The_Strike_That_Busted_Unions/


1993 The Family and Medical leave Act was passed.

Sources: Text:http://clear.uhwo.hawaii.edu/Timeline-US.html, Image: http://myjourney.hubpages.com/hub/What-Does-FMLA-Mean-to-you


1999 Unions and social justice activists came together to protest the

World Trade Organization in Seattle. The meetings were shut down by the protests.

Sources: Image: http://content.lib.washington.edu/wtoweb/


2005The Coalition of Immokalee Workers won a major victory by getting Yum Foods, the parent company of Taco Bell, to agree to raise the rate they pay for tomatoes. This victory came

after a three-year boycott of Taco Bell.

Sources: Text and Images: http://www.ciw-online.org/agreementanalysis.html


2010 The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights went into effect in New York

State thanks to the amazing work of Domestic Workers United. The bill reforms

New York laws to guarantee basic work standards and protections for the nannies,

caregivers, and housekeepers who keep New York families functioning and make all other work possible.

Source: domesticworkersunited.org


2011 In Wisconsin Union workers fought against legislation that would

take away collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Sources: Image: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2011/2/27/madison-wisconsin-day-12-sea-people-inside-and-out


2011 Just 11.9% of the population are unionized.

Meanwhile the top 1% of the population receives 24% of the income.

Source: Text and Image: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/01/20/173738/report-incomes/

Documents

Labor History Timeline - LACCD · Timeline of Labor History With thanks to The University of Hawaii’s Center for Labor Education and Research for their labor history timeline. v1