Today in Labor History Apr 3 Mills Strike & MLK returns to Memphis, the next day he is asassinated!

[Omaha Steve]

April 3


April 3, 1913 - During the bitter strike at the mills in Paterson, New Jersey, police repeatedly crushed efforts by the workers to hold rallies. Pietro Botto, the socialist mayor of nearby Haledon, invited the strikers to assemble on the green in front of his house. There, a crowd of 20,000 listened as speakers from the Industrial Workers of the World, novelist Upton Sinclair, journalist John Reed and other champions of labor’s cause urged the strikers not to give up their fight. Today, the Botto House is home to the American Labor Museum. It preserves the house that became a rallying point during the strike and offers special exhibits on the history of work and the labor movement.

Learn more about the Botto House at its website, http://www.geocities.com/labormuseum/

UAW Local 833 strikes the Kohler bathroom fixtures company in Kohler, Wisc. The strike ends six years later after Kohler is found guilty of refusing to bargain, agrees to reinstate 1,400 strikers and pay them $4.5 million in back pay and pension credits - 1954


Martin Luther King Jr. returns to Memphis to stand with striking AFSCME sanitation workers. This evening, he delivers his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech in a church packed with union members and others. He is assassinated the following day - 1968

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_04_03_2010