Today in labor history Jan 31 Ida M. Fuller is the first retiree to receive a Social Security check

[Omaha Steve]

January 31

January 31, 1885 - Olie Olsen chaired the first meeting of the Minneapolis Bricklayers Union at Pederson Hall, 13th Ave. and Washington.

12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Tex. – mostly Latino women – walk off their jobs at 400 factories in what was to become a three-month strike against wage cuts. Strike leader Emma Tenayuca was eventually hounded out of the state - 1938

Ida M. Fuller is the first retiree to receive an old-age monthly benefit check under the new Social Security law. She paid in $24.75 between 1937 and 1939 on an income of $2,484; her first check was for $22.54 - 1940


Union and student pressure forces Harvard university to adopt new labor policies raising wages for lowest-paid workers - 2002