Today in Labor History May 24 After 14 years and 27 worker deaths, the Brooklyn Bridge is finished

[Omaha Steve]

May 24


After 14 years of construction and the deaths of 27 workers, the Brooklyn Bridge over New York’s East River opens. Newspapers call it “the eighth wonder of the world” - 1883 (the history of the building trades comes alive in Grace Palladino’s Skilled Hands, Strong Spirits: A Century of Building Trades History, available in the UCS bookstore)

And this:
May 24, 1883 - After 14 years and 27 worker deaths, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River opened, connecting the cities of New York and Brooklyn for the first time in history. Among those killed during its construction was the designer, John Roebling. After working in watertight caissons dozens of feet below the surface of the river, many workers died from serious cases of compression sickness, more commonly known as “the bends.” The bridge itself was called “the eighth wonder of the world.”

2,300 members of the United Rubber Workers, on strike for 10 months against five Bridgestone-Firestone plants, agree to return to work without a contract. They had been fighting demands for 12-hour shifts and wage increases tied to productivity gains - 1995

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_05_24_2011

[Wilms]

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