Today in Labor History June 1 win 7-hour sit-down strike, Congress passes the Erdman Act, much more

[Omaha Steve]

Posted a day late.

June 1

The Ladies Federal Labor Union Number 2703, based in Illinois, was granted a charter from the American Federation of Labor. Women from a wide range of occupations were among the members, who ultimately were successful in coalescing women’s groups interested in suffrage, temperance, health, housing, and child labor reform to win state legislation in these areas - 1888

Union Carpenters win a 25-cents-per-day raise, bringing wages for a nine-hour day to $2.50 - 1898

Congress passes the Erdman Act, providing for voluntary mediation or arbitration of railroad disputes and prohibiting contracts that discriminate against union labor or release employers from legal liability for on-the-job injuries - 1898

3,500 immigrant miners begin Clifton-Morenci, Ariz. copper strike – 1903

12,500 longshoremen strike the Pacific coast, from San Diego to Bellingham. Demands included a closed shop and a wage increase to 55 cents an hour for handling general cargo - 1916

As many as 60,000 railroad shopmen strike to protest cuts in wages – 1922

June 1, 1942 - The Polish Socialist newspaper, Liberty Brigade, made public for the first time the news that Nazi Germany was gassing Jews by the thousands. It printed an interview with a young Jew, Emanuel Ringelblum, who had escaped the Chelmno death camp.


Farm workers under the banner of the new United Farm Workers Organizing Committee strike at Texas’s La Casita Farms, demand $1.25 as a minimum hourly wage - 1966 (find out more about the United Farm Workers and founder Cesar Chavez in Farmworker’s Friend: The Story of Cesar Chavez available in the UCS bookstore)

Dakota Beef meatpackers win 7-hour sit-down strike over speed-ups, St. Paul, Minn. – 2000

June 1 marks the day, under U.S. labor law, that children under age 16 can work later in the day. From June 1 through Labor Day, young people between the ages of 14 and 16 may work up to 8 hours a day between the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more on child labor regulations, visit the University of Iowa's Child Labor Public Education Project, http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_06_1_2011