Today in labor history Apr 8 A violent explosion ripped through the Banner coalmine, 128 killed

[Omaha Steve]

April 08


April 8, 1911 - A violent explosion ripped through the Banner coalmine outside Birmingham, Alabama; 128 convict miners, mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses, were killed. Unlike the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that occurred two weeks earlier, the Banner explosion elicited little attention or public sympathy. Although evidence clearly pointed to a dangerous buildup of methane gas in the mine, an Alabama commission placed the blame on the miners themselves. Most of the miners were prisoners leased to Pratt Consolidated Coal Company under the state’s notorious convict lease system. While many southern states leased convicts, Alabama’s program lasted the longest, from 1846 to1928.

President Wilson establishes the War Labor Board, composed of representatives from business and labor, to arbitrate disputes between workers and employers during World War I - 1918

April 8, 1952 - President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize the nation’s steel mills to avert a strike. The act was ruled to be illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 2.

[pleah]

1. K&R

[dcsmart]

2. most people in this country would be shocked (k&R)

once they knew how brutal our labor history was...and is...and how unions made their lives a lot easier..