Today in Labor History Aug 13 John Frey testified before the Dies Un-American Activities Committee

[Omaha Steve]

August 13

Striking miners at Tracy City, Tenn., capture their mines and free 300 convict strikebreakers. The convicts had been "leased" to mineowners by officials in an effort to make prisons self-supporting and make a few bucks for the state. The practice started in 1866 and lasted for 30 years - 1892

August 13, 1911 - Minneapolis Carpenters Local 7 won a strike settlement raising their wages from 45 cents per hour to 50 cents per hour.

August 13, 1936 - John Frey, president of the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor, testified before the Dies Un-American Activities Committee that the Committee for Industrial Organization (later the Congress of Industrial Organizations -- the CIO), was Communist dominated. Frey's testimony marked the beginning of a government-sponsored blacklist and the use of "red scares" to destroy militancy and discredit leaders of the labor movement.

Newspaper Guild members begin three-month strike of Hearst-owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer, shutting the publication down in their successful fight for union recognition - 1936

Civil rights leader and union president A. Philip Randolph strongly protests the AFL-CIO Executive Council's failure to endorse the August 28 "March on Washington" - 1963

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_08_13_2009