Labor history Sept 2 Mineowners bomb WV strikers, Battle of Blair Mountain, 25 workers killed, more

[Omaha Steve]

September 2

White and Chinese immigrants battle in Rock Springs, Wyo. fueled by racial tensions and the practice of Union Pacific Raiload of hiring lower-paid Chinese over whites. At least 25 Chinese died and 15 more were injured. Rioters burned 75 Chinese homes - 1885

Operating railway employees win 8 hour day - 1916

Mineowners bomb West Virginia strikers by plane, using homemade bombs filled with nails and metal fragments. The bombs missed their targets or failed to explode - 1921

And this: September 2, 1921 - The Battle of Blair Mountain took place, in which U.S. troops blocked miners’ attempts to organize in southern West Virginia. The battle marked the first time the government used airplanes to drop bombs on its own citizens. Although the union effort failed, it remained an example of solidarity and heroism that has inspired West Virginia’s miners for decades since. For more on the Battle of Blair Mountain, visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/red.html

President Eisenhower signs legislation expanding Social Security by providing much wider coverage and including 10 million additional Americans, most of them self-employed farmers, with additional benefits - 1954


The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was signed by President Ford, regulating and insuring pensions and other benefits, and increasing protections for workers - 1974
(The Labor Law Source Book is a handy collection that puts the full texts of all the major U.S. labor laws into one book. Includes the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and 15 more. In the UCS bookstore now.)

September 2, 1991 - Twenty-five workers were killed when a fire broke out at the nonunion Imperial Foods poultry processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. The plant’s fire exit doors were illegally locked and blocked, leaving the workers no escape. The 11-year-old plant had never once been inspected by federal or state safety and health officials. Eerily reminiscent of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire 80 years before, the Hamlet tragedy brought renewed calls for stronger enforcement of workplace safety laws. For more on the Hamlet fire, visit http://www.organicanews.com/news/article.cfm?story_id=103 and http://www.etext.org/Politics/AlternativeOrange/1/v1n1_lda.html


Labor history found here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_09_2_2011 & here: http://www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history