Labor history Sept 14 Ella Mae Wiggins the mother of 9 killed, strikers shot and 64 arrested, more

[Omaha Steve]

September 14

The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers union calls off an unsuccessful three-month strike against U. S. Steel Corporation subsidiaries - 1901

September 14, 1918 - Labor leader and ardent Socialist Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for speaking out against World War I. It was at his sentencing that Debs uttered the famous speech that included these lines: “ . . . while there is a lower class I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free . . .” Two years later, Debs became the first person to run for U.S. president while behind bars. He received nearly 1 million votes.

Gastonia, N.C. textile mill striker and songwriter Ella Mae Wiggins, 29, the mother of nine, is killed when local vigilantes, thugs and a sheriff's deputy force the pickup truck in which she is riding off the road and begin shooting - 1929

A striker is shot by a bog owner (and town elected official) during a walkout by some 1,500 cranberry pickers, members of the newly-formed Cape Cod Cranberry Pickers Union Local 1. State police were called, more strikers were shot and 64 were arrested. The strike was lost - 1933

Congress passes the Landrum-Griffin Act. The law expands many of the anti-labor provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, increasing union reporting requirements and restricting secondary boycotting and picketing - 1959

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_09_14_2011