September 3
African-American cotton pickers organize and strike in Lee County, Tex. against miserably low wages and other injustices, including a growers’ arrangement with local law enforcement to round up blacks on vagrancy charges, then force them to work off their fines on select plantations. Over the course of September a white mob put down the strike, killing 15 strikers in the process - 1891
September 3, 1916 - Railroad workers won the eight-hour day. The legislation, called the Adamson Act, marked the first time a group of private sector workers had their working hours regulated by the federal government. It was one of many reforms pushed by the progressive movement of the early 20th century.
Some 300 musicians working in Chicago movie houses strike to protest their impending replacement by talking movies - 1928
Twenty-five workers die, unable to escape a fire at the Imperial Poultry processing plant in Hamlet, NC. Managers had locked fire doors to prevent the theft of chicken nuggets. The plant had operated for 11 years without a single safety inspection - 1991
Labor history found here:
http://www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history & here:
http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_09_3_2011