Timeline Labor
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1504 Apr 1,
English guilds went under state control.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1648 Oct 18, The "shoemakers of
Boston"--the first labor organization in what would become the United
States--was authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Mass. Bay
Company).
(HN, 10/18/98)
1787 Feb 18, Austrian emperor
Josef II banned children under 8 from labor.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1811 Mar 11, Ned Ludd led a group
of workers in a wild protest against mechanization. Members of the
organized bands of craftsmen who rioted against automation in 19th
century England were known as Luddites and also "Ludds." The movement,
reputedly named after Ned Ludd, began near Nottingham as craftsman
destroyed textile machinery that was eliminating their jobs. By the
following year, Luddites were active in Yorkshire, Derbyshire,
Lancashire and Leicestershire. Although the Luddites opposed violence
towards people (a position which allowed for a modicum of public
support), government crackdowns included mass shootings, hangings and
deportation to the colonies. It took 14,000 British soldiers to quell
the rebellion. The movement effectively died in 1813 apart from a brief
resurgence of Luddite sentiment in 1816 following the end of the
Napoleonic Wars.
(HN, 3/11/01)(HNQ, 5/14/01)(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A1)
1819 Aug 16, English police
charged unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field in the Manchester
Massacre.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1830 May 1, Mother (Mary Harris)
Jones, reformer and labor organizer, was born. [see 1837]
(HN, 5/1/01)
1834 Jan 29, President Jackson
ordered the 1st use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute. Jackson
ordered the War Department to put down a "riotous assembly" near
Willamsport, Maryland, among Irish laborers constructing the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal.
(HNQ, 1/23/99)(MC, 1/29/02)
1834 William Bentinck, India's
governor-general, wrote to his superiors in London that Indian
cloth-makers were suffering severe hardship due to the efficiency of
the English textile industry.
(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A1)
1839 Mar 9, Prussian government
limited the work week for children to 51 hours.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1842 Mar 3, 1st US child labor law
regulating working hours was passed in Massachusetts.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1850 Jan 27, Samuel Gompers, first
President of American Federation of Labor, was born.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1852 Mar 29, Ohio made it illegal
for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1860 Feb 22, Shoe-making workers
of Lynn, Mass, struck successfully for higher wages. The strike in Lynn
and Natick, Massachusetts, spread throughout New England and involved
20,000 workers. The strike was for higher wages and included women. The
workers won their major demands.
(HNQ, 8/3/98)(MC, 2/22/02)
1860 Mar 6, While campaigning for
the presidency, Abraham Lincoln made a speech defending the right to
strike.
(HN, 3/6/99)
1865 Mar 20, Michigan authorized
workers' cooperatives.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1872 Mar 22, Illinois became 1st
state to require sexual equality in employment.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1873 Mar 3, William Green,
President of the American Federation of Labor (1924-52), was born.
(HN, 3/3/99)(SC, 3/3/02)
1874 Jan 13, Battle between
jobless and police in NYC left 100s injured.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1874 Jul 4, Social Democratic
Workmen's Party of North America was formed.
(Maggio, 98)
1877 Feb 12, US railroad builders
struck against a wage reduction.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1877 Jul 17, Riots and violence
erupted in several major American cities stemming from strikes against
railroads in protest of wage cuts. Strikes started against the
Baltimore & Ohio, and quickly spread west, with riots erupting in
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis. Nine were killed when
Federal troops were sent into Martinsburg, West Virginia. On July 21,
26 were killed and the Union Depot and machine shops were burned down.
(HNQ, 12/11/98)
1877 Jul 21, In West Virginia 26
railroad strikers were killed and the Union Depot and machine shops
were burned down.
(HNQ, 12/11/98)
1877 Jul 21-27, The US army broke
a railroad strike.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1880 Feb 12, John L. Lewis,
American labor leader, was born.
(HN, 2/12/01)
1880 Apr 10, Frances Perkins,
Labor secretary, first woman cabinet member in an American
Administration, was born.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1881 Nov 15, The American
Federation of Labor was founded. [see Nov 17]
(HN, 11/15/98)
1881 Nov 17, Under Samuel Gompers
(d.1924), the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Union of the
United States was formed--a precursor to the American Federation of
Labor. Gompers emigrated from England to New York with his family as a
boy. He grew up working in a sweatshop and amid discussion about labor
reform. Gompers led the AFL for 40 years, sometimes using strikes and
boycotts to demand workers' rights. He successfully changed the
unionism of the 19th century in the United States, uniting different
labor groups and keeping away from political influence to guide
American laborers. [see Nov 15]
(HNPD, 11/17/98)
1882 Aug 3, US Congress passed the
1st Immigration Act. It banned Chinese immigration for ten years. The
Chinese Exclusion Act barred laborers from China and halted a massive
immigration of Cantonese peasants.
(HN, 8/3/98)(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)(SC, 8/3/02)
1882 Sep 1, The first Labor Day
was observed in New York City by the Carpenters and Joiners Union. [see
Sep 5]
(HN, 9/1/00)
1882 Sep 5, The first Labor Day
observance—a picnic and parade—was held in New York City. Matthew
Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the New York City Central Labor
Union, probably first suggested the celebration in 1882 to recognize
the contributions of workers to America. Parades like the one in
Buffalo, New York, around 1900, soon became an important part of Labor
Day festivities. Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the New
York City Central Labor Union, probably first suggested the celebration
in 1882 to recognize the contributions of workers to America. Local and
regional Labor Day observances spread across the nation until, on June
28, 1894, the U.S. Congress passed an act making the first Monday in
September a legal holiday. [see Sep 1]
(AP, 9/5/97)(HNPD, 9/5/98)(HNQ, 9/7/98)
1885 Sep 2, In Rock Springs,
Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers were killed and hundreds more
chased out of town by striking coal miners.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1886 May 4, At
Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour
workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen were
killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the
strike. 3 labor leaders were executed Nov 10, 1887, for the bombing.
The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important
influence on the origin of international May Day observances for
workers.
(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 2/6/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot)
1886 May 5, A bomb exploded on the
fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1886 Dec 8, The American
Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded at a convention of union leaders
in Columbus, Ohio, by some 25 labor groups representing about 150,000
members. The first president of the American Federation of Labor was
Samuel Gompers, who had reorganized the Cigarmakers Union and
participated in the founding of the Federation of Organized Trades and
Labor Unions in 1881.
(AP, 12/8/97)(HNPD, 9/7/99)
1888 Apr 16, Drentse and Friese
peat cutters went on strike.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1889 Apr 15, Asa Philip Randolph,
American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate, was born.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1890 Jan 25, The United Mine
Workers of America was founded.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1891 Apr 7, Nebraska introduced an
8 hour work day.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1891 Sep 3, Cotton pickers
organized a union & strike in Texas.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1891 Nov 28, The National
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (now IBEW) was founded in St. Louis,
home of Local 1.
(DT net, 11/28/97)
1892 Jan 8, Coal mine explosion
killed 100 in McAlister, Okla.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1892 Henry Clay Frick, partner of
Andrew Carnegie, engineered a bloody clash with the labor union at the
Pittsburgh Homestead Mill. 9-10 workers and 3 Pinkerton guards were
killed and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers union
was crushed. The strike had arisen over Carnegie's efforts to automate
steel production.
(SFEC,1/20/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 5/12/03, p.A6)(WSJ,
3/29/04, p.A8)
1893-1894 During the economic crisis of 1893-94,
groups of jobless men organized into so-called "armies" with their
leaders referred to as "generals."
(HNQ, 8/24/99)
1894 Mar 17, US and China signed a
treaty preventing Chinese laborers from entering US.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1894 Mar 25 Jacob S. Coxey began
leading an "army" of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington,
D.C., to demand help from the federal government. Coxey
advocated, as a way to provide jobs and increase the amount of money in
circulation, a public works program of road construction and local
improvements to be financed by the issuance of $500 million in legal
tender notes. Coxey's Army of unemployed disbanded when Coxey and two
other leaders were arrested for trespassing on the White House lawn in
1894.
(AP, 3/23/97)(HNQ, 8/24/99)
1894 Apr 5, 11 strikers were
killed in riot at Connellsville, Penn.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1894 Apr 29, The Commonweal of
Christ, called Coxey's Army, arrived in Wash, DC, 500 strong to protest
unemployment; Coxey was arrested for trespassing at Capitol.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1894 May 11, Workers at the
Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois went on strike. The American
Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, subsequently began a boycott of
Pullman that blocked freight traffic in and out of Chicago. Pullman had
cut wages due to the recession but left high rents in his company town.
Mail cars were coupled to Pullman cars and Pres. Cleveland ordered
federal troops onto the trains to insure the delivery of mail. Illinois
Gov. John Peter Altgeld opposed Cleveland’s plans. 34 union workers
were killed when federal troops intervened.
(AP, 5/11/97)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)(SFC, 10/4/02,
p.A17)
1894 Jun 26, The American Railway
Union with 125,000 workers, led by Eugene Debs, called a general strike
in sympathy with Pullman workers that blocked freight traffic in and
out of Chicago. [see May 11]
(AP, 6/26/97)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1894 Jun 28, Labor Day was
established as a holiday for federal employees on the first Monday of
September. The U.S. Congress passed an act making the first Monday in
September a legal holiday.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HNPD, 9/5/98)
1894 Jul 2, The US Government
obtained an injunction against striking Pullman Workers.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1894 Jul 20, 2000 federal troops
were recalled from Chicago with the end of the Pullman strike.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1894 Aug 16, George Meany, the
first president of the AFL-CIO, was born in New York City.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1894 Sep 1, By an act of Congress,
Labor Day was declared a national holiday.
(WSJ, 9/25/95, p.A-1)(HN, 9/1/99)
1894 Sep 4, Some 12,000 tailors in
New York City went on strike to protest the existence of sweatshops.
(AP, 9/4/97)
1897 Sep 11, A strike by some
75,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia ended
after 10 weeks. Concessions included an eight-hour work day,
semi-monthly pay, and the abolition of company stores (which were
famous for over charging workers). The day before, about 20 miners were
killed when sheriff's deputies opened fire on them in Pennsylvania.
(AP, 9/11/97)(MC, 9/11/01)
1897 The American Federation of
Labor backed literacy requirements for immigrants.
(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A8)
1898 Sep 13, 20,000 Paris
construction workers went on strike.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1899 The Western Federation of
mine workers demanded that only union workers be hired, but mine owners
refused. In Wardner, Idaho, the Bunker Hill Co. mine was dynamited.
Pres. McKinley sent in troops who gathered up thousands of miners and
confined them in “bullpens.”
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1901 Jul 15, Over 74,000
Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1901 Jul 28, Alfred Renton Bryant
Bridges (d.1990), aka Harry Bridges, American labor leader who headed
the West Coast Longshoremen’s Union, was born in Australia.
(SFC, 7/27/01, p.A21)(HN, 7/28/98)
1902 May 12, Over 100,000 miners
in northeastern Pennsylvania called a strike and kept the mines closed
all summer. Owners refused arbitration and Pres. Roosevelt intervened.
[see Oct 3]
(LCTH, 10/3/99)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1902 Oct 3,
President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coal field operators
in an attempt to settle the anthracite coal strike, then in its fifth
month. The country relied on coal to power commerce and industry and
anthracite or “hard coal” was essential for domestic heating.
Pennsylvania miners had left the anthracite fields demanding wage
increases, union recognition, and an eight-hour workday. As winter
approached, public anxiety about fuel shortages and the rising cost of
all coal pushed Roosevelt to take unprecedented action. A presidential
commission awarded the workers a 10% wage increase and a shorter work
week. [see May 12]
(LCTH, 10/3/99)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1902 President Theodore Roosevelt
said he would intervene in a coal strike: “I knew that this action
would form an evil precedent, and that it was one which I should take
most reluctantly.” The strike settled without intervention.
(HNQ, 12/23/02)
1904 Jan 25, Two-hundred (179)
coal miners were entombed in an explosion in Cheswick, Pennsylvania.
(HN, 1/25/99)(MC, 1/25/02)
1905 Jan 24, In Vilnius a mass
worker strike began and lasted to Jan 29.
(LHC, 1/24/03)
1905 Jul 7, The International
Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The
IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners,
Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of
the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in
response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the
unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated
sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government
from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the “Red Scare” that
started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with
the newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining
energies so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the
mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history “We
Shall Overcome.”
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1905 Dec 30, Governor Frank
Steunenberg of Idaho was killed by an assassin's bomb. The former gov.
of Idaho, was blown up by a booby-trapped gate in front of his home in
Caldwell, Idaho. Three Western Federation of Miners leaders in
Colorado, Charles Moyer, George Pettibone and William Haywood, were
“legally kidnapped” to Idaho and put on trial for the murder. The event
and surrounding circumstances were described by J. Anthony Lukas in his
1997 book: “Big Trouble.”
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)(HN, 12/30/98)
1906 Feb 15, British Labour Party
organized.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1906 Mar 10, A coal dust explosion
killed 1,060 at Courrieres, France.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Dec 3, The U.S. Supreme Court
ordered Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to
Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1907 May 6, San Francisco
streetcar workers of the Carmen’s Union went on strike after owner
Patrick Calhoun refused to accept a $3 per 8-hour day wage. Calhoun
hired James Farley to break the union.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.D9)
1907 May 7, In San Francisco a
gunfight erupted during the electrical workers strike in what came to
be known as “Bloody Tuesday.” City union street car workers fought with
scabs and 4 people were killed and 20 seriously injured.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.B3)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Sep 1, Walter Reuther, labor
leader, was born. He merged the American Federation of Labor with the
Congress of International Organizations
(HN, 9/1/99)
1907 Dec 6, Worst mining disaster
in American history took place in West Virginia's Marion County. An
explosion at a mine owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah
killed 361 coal miners.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1907 Dec 19, A gas explosion
killed 239 workers in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pa.
(AP, 12/19/97)(MC, 12/19/01)
1908 Feb 3, The US Supreme Court,
in Loewe v. Lawlor, ruled the United Hatters Union had violated the
Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott of Danbury
Hatters of Connecticut.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1908 Mar, In SF streetcar riders
returned after Patrick Calhoun replaced the car-men with non-union
drivers. The strike failed and the Carmen’s Union was disbanded.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.D9)
1908 May 30, 1st US federal
workmen's compensation law was approved.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1908 Nov 28, 154 men died in a
coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pa.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1909 May 17, White firemen on
Georgia RR struck to protest the hiring of blacks.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1910 Jan 3, British miners struck
for an 8 hour working day.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1910 Dec 21, Explosion in coal
mine in Hulton, England killed 344 mine workers.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1910 In Chicago a spontaneous
strike by a handful of women workers led to a citywide strike of 45,000
garment workers. That strike was a bitter one and pitted the strikers
against not only their employers and the local authorities, but also
their own union.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamated_Clothing_Workers_of_America)
1911 Mar 8, International Women's
Day was established when American working women demonstrated for their
rights as workers and women.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A32)
1911 Mar 25, The Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146-147 immigrant workers. 13 girls
survived the fire that broke out on the top three floors of the
10-story New York’s Asch Building as the workday was ending. No one
knows what caused the fire, but it spread quickly, fueled by the fabric
scraps and sewing machine oil used in the manufacture women’s blouses.
The three avenues of escape were almost immediately clogged with
panicked workers, mostly young immigrant women. Then, to the horror of
spectators seven stories below, the desperate women began to jump to
their deaths. Appalled by the tragedy, the New York State legislature
formed a commission whose findings led to the creation of new fire and
building codes that were soon adopted in cities throughout America.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/23/97)(HNPD, 3/25/00)(SFC,
4/27/98, p.A8)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C4)(MC, 3/25/02)
1912 Feb 26, Coal miners struck in
England. They settled on 03/01.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1913 Feb 12, A New York commission
reported that there was widespread violation of child labor laws.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1912 Jun 4, Massachusetts passed
the 1st US minimum wage law.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1912 Aug 24, US passed an anti-gag
law giving federal employees the right to petition government.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1913 Feb 14, Jimmy Hoffa (d.1975),
Teamsters leader who disappeared, was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1913 Jun 2, The 1st strike
settlement mediated by US Dep't of Labor for the RR clerks.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1913 Jul 14, Jimmy Hoffa, missing
labor leader, was born.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1914 Apr 20, Soldiers killed 33
during mine strike in Ludlow, Colo. In the Ludlow Massacre 2 women and
11 children perished in a mining camp torched by Colorado militiamen
called in by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to settle a strike.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR p.3)(MC, 4/20/02)
1914 Apr 28, At Eccles, WV,
181 died in coal mine collapse.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1915 Nov 19, Joe Hill, Labor
leader and songwriter, was executed for murder. Joe Hill (Joseph
Hillstrom) was executed after being convicted of killing two men in a
holdup in Salt Lake City in 1914. He claimed the charges against him
were trumped up and won worldwide support, including that of President
Woodrow Wilson. Nevertheless, Hill was tried, convicted and executed by
firing squad. Hill, born Joel Haggelund in Sweden in 1879, went to the
United States in 1902 and soon joined the revolutionary Industrial
Workers of the World (the Wobblies).
(HNQ, 10/25/99)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A21)(MC, 11/19/01)
1916 Jul 22, In San Francisco some
50,000 people marched in a Preparedness Day parade sponsored by
business leaders and opposed by labor. A bomb went off on Market St. at
Steuart during the parade and 6-10 people were killed. The bomb was set
by a professed anarchist. Labor leader Tom Mooney was convicted but it
turned out that the evidence was fabricated.
(AP, 7/22/97)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W5)(SFC, 9/22/01,
p.A3)(OAH, 2/05, p.A10)
1916 Sep 1, The Keating-Owen Act
banned child labor from interstate commerce.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1916 Sep 7, The U.S. Congress
passed the Workman’s Compensation Act.
(HN, 9/7/00)
1917 Apr 10, A munitions factory
explosion at Eddystone, PA., killed 133 workers.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1917 Aug 1, Frank Little, IWW
organizer, was lynched in Butte, MT.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1918 Jun 3, The US Supreme Court
ruled child labor laws unconstitutional.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1919 Feb 6, The 1st day of 5-day
Seattle general strike, the first general strike in America, took
effect. During this period Washington was a center for the Industrial
Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies." Their agitation led
to the Centralia massacre and the Everett massacre.
(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.A14)(MC, 2/6/02)
1919 Mar 11, A general strike in
Germany was crushed.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1919 Aug 31, John Reed formed the
Communist Labor Party in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world
unite!"
(HN, 8/31/98)(YN, 8/31/99)(MC, 8/31/01)
1919 Nov 22, A Labor conference
committee in the U.S. urged an eight hour work day and a 48-hour week.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1921 Mar 31, Great Britain
declared a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners
on strike.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1921 Apr 15, The Black Friday
Labour Party strike of mine workers failed.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1921 Dec 21, Supreme Court ruled
labor injunctions and picketing unconstitutional.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1922 May 18, Dutch 2nd Chamber
agreed to a 48 hour work week over the previous 45 hours.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1922 Aug 8, An Italian general
strike was broken by fascist terror.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1923 Apr 7, The Workers Party of
America in NYC became an official communist party.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1923 May 28, US unemployment was
nearly ended.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1923 Aug 13, US Steel Corp.
initiated an 8-hour work day.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1924 Mar 8, Coal mine explosion
killed 171 at Castle Gate, Utah.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1924 Apr 26, House Joint
Resolution No. 184, The child labor amendment to prohibit the labor of
persons under 18 years of age, was adopted by the US House of
Representatives, with a vote of 297 yeas, 69 nays, 2 "present" and 64
not voting. It was then adopted by the Senate on June 2, 1924, with a
vote of 61 yeas, 23 nays and 12 not voting. With that, the proposed
constitutional amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for
ratification pursuant to Article V of the Constitution. It was never
ratified and in 2007 was still technically pending.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_amendment)
1925 Jul 31, An Unemployment
Insurance Act was passed in England.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1925 Aug 25, Asa Philip Randolph
(36) began to organize the Pullman Sleeping Car Porters’ Union.
(PCh, 1992, p.768)(HN, 8/25/98)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1925 The All-China Federation of
Trade Unions was founded. In 1927 it was crushed by the nationalist
government and then rose with the ascension of the Communist Party in
1949. It was crushed again in the Cultural Revolution and then revived
following Mao’s death.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.66)
1926 Jan 12, U.S. coal talks broke
down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike dragged on into its fifth
month.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1926 Apr 3, Italy established
corps of force in order to break powerful unions.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 May 3, There was a British
general strike and 3 million workers supported the miners.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1927 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez
(d.1993), California union leader of agricultural workers (United Farm
Workers), was born in Yuma, Az.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A3)(MC,
3/31/02)
1927 Nov 21, Police turned machine
guns on striking Colorado mine workers, killing five and wounding 20.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1928 May 19, "Firedamp" exploded
in a Mather, Pennsylvania, coal mine killing 195 of 273 miners.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1932 Feb 27, Explosion in coal
mine in Boissevain, Virginia, left 38 dead.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1932 Mar 7, Riots at Ford factory
in Dearborn, Michigan, killed 4.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1932 Apr 5, A Dutch textile strike
was broken by trade unions.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1932 Aug 27-28, In England 200,000
textile workers went on strike.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1933 May 2, In Germany, Adolf
Hitler banned trade unions.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1933 Jun 6, The US Employment
Service was created.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1933 Jun 16, The US Congress
passed the National Recovery Act. A $.25-per-hour standard wage was set
as part of the Act. However, in 1935 the US Supreme Court declared the
National Recovery Act unconstitutional, and the minimum wage was
abolished. In July a code of the NRA instituted a 35 hour week for
blue-collar workers and a 40-hour week for office employees. Minimum
wages were also instituted, ranging from 12 ½ cents an hour for
needlework employees in Puerto Rico to 70 cents an hour for wrecking
and salvage workers in NYC. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt had employers
sign a “President’s Reemployment Agreement” covering 16.3 million
employees. The employers who signed on agreed to limit work weeks to 40
hours, to pay a minimum wage of $12-$15 per week (at least 30
cents/hour) and to not hire children under 16.
(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1663.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage)
(http://tinyurl.com/8mxty)(http://tinyurl.com/9t4rn)
1933 Aug 5, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt established the National Labor Board to enforce the right of
collective bargaining. It was later replaced with the National Labor
Relations Board.
(AP, 8/5/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1933 Nov 13, The 1st modern
sit-down strike began with Hormel meat packers in Austin, Minn.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1933 Pres. Roosevelt signed a law
that granted workers the right to choose which labor union they wanted
to join.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.D11)
1934 Mar 15, Henry Ford restored
the $5 a day wage.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1934 May 9, The San Francisco
waterfront strike began. The Int’l. Longshoremen’s Association (ILA),
headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, shut down seaports in
Washington, Oregon and California for 3 months. Union workers went on
strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company
operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. Strike breakers were housed
in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers. In 1996 David F.
Selvin published "A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General
Strikes in San Francisco." [see Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC,
8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1934 Jul 5, During the West Coast
maritime strike Mayor Angelo J. Rossi, a former florist, unleashed the
city’s violently anti-union police department on the workers. 33 people
were shot with 2 men killed in what came to be called “Bloody
Thursday.” Police fired into a crowd of strikers at Stewart and Mission
streets and killed 2 men and wounded 109. Police had tried to escort
scabs to the docks. Civil liberties attorneys Ernest Basing (d.1998 at
94), and Chester Williams were called in to from new York. They founded
a local American Civil Liberties Union and sued SF and Oakland for
failure to protect striker’s First Amendment rights. [see Jul 16]
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A23)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFC,
11/21/98, p.C2)(SFC, 9/27/02, p.D11)
1934 Jul 9, In SF a parade of
15,000 was held on Market Street for the 2 men killed on Jul 5. The
funeral was followed by a general strike. SF Mayor Angelo J. Rossi and
Gov. Frank Merriman blamed the strike on Communists.
(SFEM, 1/18/98, p.6)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFEC,
5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jul 16, The nation’s 1st
general strike was called in San Francisco in response to violence and
disregard of worker’s rights in the waterfront strike. Some 140,000
workers walked off their jobs. It collapsed after 4 days. Seven men
were killed and thousands were injured. The general strike ended after
4 days and went into arbitration. In the fall arbitrators gave the
union a hiring hall, a 6-hour day and a small wage increase. [see May
9, Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC,
9/27/02, p.D11)(PCh, 1992, p.826)
1934 Jul 18, Cotton-mill workers
in the US south went on strike. The UTW locals in the northern part of
Alabama launched a strike in Huntsville, Alabama, then spread to
Florence, Anniston, Gadsden, and Birmingham. While the strike was
popular, it was also ineffective: many employers welcomed it as a means
of cutting their expenses, since they had warehouses full of unsold
goods. A documentary called the "Uprising of ‘34" was made in 1995 and
scheduled for PBS on 6/27/95.
(WSJ, 6/13/95,
p.A-1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_workers_strike_%281934%29)
1935 Mar 3, Dutch Revolutionary
Socialist Worker's party (RSAP) was formed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1935 Apr 8, The Works Progress
Administration (WPA) was approved by Congress. President Franklin
Roosevelt proposed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the
Great Depression of the 1930s when almost 25 percent of Americans were
unemployed. The WPA created low-paying federal jobs to provide
immediate relief. The WPA put 8.5 million jobless to work on projects
as diverse as constructing highways, bridges and public buildings to
arts programs like the Federal Writers' Project.
(AP, 4/8/97)(HN, 4/8/98)(HNPD, 4/8/99)
1935 Jul 5, President Roosevelt
signed the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), which provided
for a National Labor Relations Board and authorized labor to organize
for the purpose of collective bargaining. The National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) was created by a statute as an independent federal agency
that conducts secret-ballot elections to determine whether employees
desire union representation. This inaugurated the "pink decade"
of Soviet espionage and penetration of America's labor movement by
Communists.
(WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A15)(AP, 7/5/97)(SFC, 11/27/99,
p.C4)(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M6)
1936 Jun 30, A 40 hour work week
law was approved for US federal workers.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1937 Feb 11, In Flint, Mich., a
sit-down strike against General Motors ended after 44 days, with the
company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. The
UAW was victorious in a strike against GM. GM recognized the union and
agreed to a contract.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(AP, 2/11/97)
1937 Mar 1, US Steel raises
workers' wages to $5 a day.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1937 May 30, The Memorial
Day Massacre took place. Ten union demonstrators were killed and 84
wounded when police opened fire in front of the South Chicago Republic
Steel plant. Earlier in 1937 the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee
had secured recognition by U.S. Steel as the workers' bargaining agency
and had won a number of concessions. "Little Steel," under the leader
ship of Republic's Tom Girdler firmly opposed the union demands,
leading to the deadly demonstration. A newsreel film of the Republic
Steel strike riots was made.
(AP, 5/30/97)(SFC,11/21/97, p.C17)(HNQ, 5/25/98)
1937 Apr 12, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the 1935 National Labor Relations Act is unconstitutional.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Jun 5, Henry Ford initiated a
32 hour work week.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1938 Jun 25, The US Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938 was enacted.
(AP, 6/25/08)
1938 Oct 24, The Fair Labor
Standards Act became law, establishing the 40-hour work week and
overtime rules. The Act forbade child labor in factories. [see Oct 24,
1940]
(HN, 10/24/00)(MC, 10/24/01)
1938 Oct, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $0.25 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1939 Jan 7, US worker's union
leader Tom Mooney, jailed since 1916, was freed.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1939 Feb 27, The US Supreme Court
outlawed sit-down strikes.
(AP, 2/27/98)(HN, 2/27/98)
1939 Oct, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $0.30 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1940 Oct 24, The 40-hour work week
went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
(AP, 10/24/97)
1941 Feb 3, Supreme Court upheld
the Federal Wage & Hour law which set minimum wages and maximum hrs.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1942 Jul 31, At midnight the
record studios fell silent in a struggle with James Caesar Petrillo
(d.1984), head of the American Federation of Musicians. Petrillo
insisted that the record industry pay a ¼ to ¾ cent
royalty to the musicians union. Decca signed an agreement in Aug, 1943,
and Columbia and Victor surrendered Nov 11, 1944.
(WSJ, 7/31/02, p.D10)
1942-1964 The "Bracero Program," run under the
auspices of the US Dept. of Labor, sent Mexican workers to the US to
help the labor shortage created by World War II. From 1942-1949 10% of
their wages was deposited with the National Bank of Rural Credit,
Banrural (Banco Nacional de Credito Agricola, a predecessor of
Banrural). Workers in 1999 demanded to know the status of the fund.
Mexican banking officials in 1999 reported no evidence of the funds. In
2001 a suit for $500 million was filed for deposits and interest from
1942-1949.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A16)(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A16)(SSFC,
7/15/01, p.A4)(SFC, 1/16/04, p.A19)
1944 Pres. Roosevelt ordered the
Army to seize the executive offices of Montgomery Ward and Co. after
Sewell Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward, refused to comply with a
National War labor Board directive to extend a 1942 labor contract.
Avery was bodily removed along with other senior managers. The US
government took control of operations until the end of the war.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A12)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1945 Oct, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $0.40 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1946 Jan 25, The United Mine
Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1946 Apr 1, A U.S. mine
worker strike idled 400,000 miners.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1946 Dec 7, The president of the
United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, ordered all striking miners back to
work.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1947 Mar 25, A coal mine explosion
in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.
(AP, 3/25/97)
1947 May 13, The US Senate
approved the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions. [see Jun 4]
(MC, 5/13/02)
1947 Jun 4, The House of
Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Labor Management Relations
Act also known as the Taft-Hartley Act. It provided for an 80-day
injunction against strikes that endangered public health and safety.
Pres. [see Jun 20]
(WUD, 1994 p.1447)(AP, 6/4/97)(SFC, 11/27/99, p.C4)
1947 Jun 20, President Truman
vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, but had his veto overridden by Congress.
The act declared the closed shop illegal and permitted the union shop
only following a majority employee vote. [see Jun 4]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.C2)(AP,
6/20/97)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1947 Dec 12, The United Mine
Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1948 Apr 14, Walter P. Reuther,
Pres (United Auto Workers), was shot at his home. [see Apr 20]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1948 Apr 20, United Auto Workers
president Walter P. Reuther was shot and wounded at his home in
Detroit. [see Apr 14]
(AP, 4/20/98)
1949 Dec 7, The A.F.L. and the
C.I.O. organized a non-Communist international trade union.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1950 Aug 25, President Truman
ordered the Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a
strike. The railroads were returned to their owners 2 years later.
(AP, 8/25/97)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1950 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $0.75 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1951 Mar 23, Wages in France
increased 11%.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1951 German corporations began
operating under a principle of co-determination between workers and
management. It applied to companies with more than 2000 workers.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.63)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.16)
1952 Mar 1, In SF Municipal
Railway workers received a wage increase of 9.4 cents effective July 1.
This raised their hourly rate to $1.73.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.G8)
1952 Apr 8, President Truman, to
avert a strike, ordered the Army to seize the nation’s steel mills
after companies rejected Wage Stabilization Board recommendations.
Truman’s attempt to take over the US steel industry was later denied by
the Supreme Court and the mills were shut down by strikers for 8 weeks
[see Jun 2].
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(AP, 4/8/97)(HN, 4/8/98)(SFEC,
11/14/99, p.B10)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1952 Apr 12, A telephone strike
was settled in Michigan but continued in Northern California for a 5th
day.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.G6)
1952 Jul 24, President Truman
announced a settlement in a 53-day steel strike.
(AP, 7/24/02)
1952 Jun 2, The US Supreme Court
ruled in favor of steelworkers, who then began a 53-day walkout
demanding wage and benefit increases.
(SFC, 4/9/09, p.B2)
1952 Sep 6, The 9th US Circuit
Court of Appeals upheld a conviction against Harry Bridges as a
Communist who lied to obtain US citizenship.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.E3)
1952 Nov 25, George Meany was
appointed chairman of AFL.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1953 Feb 6, US controls on wages
and some consumer goods were lifted.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1953 Apr 8, A Federal Grand Jury
in SF indicted Hugh Bryson, pres. of the National Union of Marine Cooks
and Stewards, on charges that he falsely claimed that he was not a
communist in a Taft-Hartley affidavit.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.E6)
1953 Aug 13, 4-5 million French
went on strike against economizations.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1954 Jan 9, Former Hawaii Gov.
Ingram Steinbeck said this is no time to admit the territory of Hawaii
to the Union, because left wing labor unions had an economic
stranglehold on the islands.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.E2)
1954 Jan 16, Mexico closed its
borders to all farm laborers heading for the US following a breakdown
in negotiations with the US over renewal of an annual agreement on
labor flow.
(SFC, 1/16/04, p.E5)
1954 US labor union membership
reached an all time high of 35% of the work force.
(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.B1)
1955 Feb 3, AFL grocery clerks
struck against the 400-members of the Retail Grocers Association and
began picketing 2 stores in SF. Negotiations had broken down over union
demands for $3 per week wage increase. An employer’s lockout soon
closed at least 100 stores.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1955 Feb 9, US federations of
trade unions agreed to merge into the AFL-CIO: The American Federation
of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
(AH, 2/05, p.17)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1955 Apr 30, West German unions
protested for 40-hour work week and more wages.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1955 Aug 12, Pres Eisenhower
raised the minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1955 Dec 5, The American
Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged
to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany. [see Feb 9]
(AP, 12/5/97)
1956 Mar 20, Union workers ended a
156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1956 Mar, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.00 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1956 Jul 10, 650,000 US steel
workers went on strike.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1957 Dec 6, AFL-CIO members voted
to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The union had been
expelled because of racketeering by its executives, including union
president Dave Beck and vice president James R. Hoffa. The criminal
activity was disclosed during a special Senate committee investigation
of racketeering and organized crime in labor-management relations. The
Teamsters were readmitted in Oct, 1987, but disaffiliated themselves
from the AFL-CIO in 2005.
(HNQ, 1/8/99)(AP, 12/6/07)
1959 May 1, West Germany
introduced a 5 day work week.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1959 A 116-day strike opened the
doors to foreign imports as 519,000 US workers demanded better benefits.
(WSJ, 5/12/03, p.A6)
1960 Jan 22, The John burg coal
mine caved in and 417 die.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1960 May 19, Belgian parliament
required a rest day for self employed.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1961 Mar 9, A mine cave-in in
Japan killed 72.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1961 Jul 7, James R. Hoffa was
elected president of Teamsters.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1961 Sep, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.15 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1962 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez (d.1993)
founded the United Farm Workers Union on his birthday.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A14)
1962 May 25, US unions AFL-CIO
started campaign for a 35-hour work week.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1962 Dec 8, A 114-day newspaper
strike began in NYC.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1962 Pres. Kennedy signed an
Executive Order maintaining the right of federal employees to join
unions and negotiate on many issues.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1963 Mar 1, 200,000 French mine
workers went on strike.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1963
Apr 1, Workers of the International
Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York
City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after began on December 8,
1962.
(OTD)
1963 Jun 9, A US Equal Pay Act was
enacted.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1963 Jun 10, JFK signed an equal
pay for equal work law for men & women.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1963 Sep, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.25 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1964 Mar 4, Jimmy Hoffa was
convicted of jury tampering.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1964 Jul 26, Teamsters president
Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in
the handling of a union pension fund.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1965 Sep 8, An AFL-CIO affiliated
Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a union of mostly
Filipino workers, voted to go on strike in Delano, Ca. They were joined
after eleven days by Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Assoc.
In 1967 John Gregory Dunne (1932-2003) authored "Delano," an account of
the California grape strike.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SFC, 1/1/04, p.A23)
1965 US Steel workers negotiated
the right to retire on a full pension after 30 years of service,
regardless of age.
(WSJ, 5/12/03, p.A6)
1966 Jan 1, A 12 day transit
worker strike shut down NYC subway and buses.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1966 Jan 12, A 12 day NYC transit
strike ended.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1966 Jul 8, A US airline strike
began and lasted until Aug 19th.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1967 Feb, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.40 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1967 Mar 6, Jimmy Hoffa entered
Lewisburg Federal Prison. [see Mar 7]
(MC, 3/6/02)
1967 Mar 7, Convicted Teamster
boss Jimmy Hoffa began an eight-year prison term in Pennsylvania for
defrauding the union and jury tampering. The sentence was commuted by
President Nixon Dec 23, 1971.
(HN, 3/7/98)(MC, 3/7/02)
1968 Feb, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.60 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1968 Apr 18, Some 178,000
employees of US Bell Telephone System went on strike.
(www.project1968.com/in-the-news-april-14-apri.html)
1968 Aug 9, The 267-day Detroit
newspaper strike ended.
(www.loc.gov/rr/news/chronological/exception_report.html)
1968 Walter Galenson (1914-1999),
American labor economist, published "The C.I.O. Challenge to the
A.F.L." with Harvard Univ. Press.
(SFC, 1/8/00,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Galenson)
1969 Jun 11, John L. Lewis
(b.1880), American labor organizer, died. He was the driving force
behind the 1935 formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis)
1969 The first case of karoshi, a
Japanese term for death from overwork, was reported with the death from
a stroke of a male worker (29) in the shipping department of Japan's
largest newspaper company. In 1987, as public concern increased, the
Japanese Ministry of Labour began to publish statistics on karoshi.
(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.69)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi)
1970 Jan 5, Joseph A. Yablonski,
an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine
Workers, was found murdered with his wife and daughter at their
Clarksville, Pa., home. Nine people were later charged in the killing
including UMW Pres. W.A. Boyle.
(AP, 1/5/98)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1970 Mar 18, The U.S. Postal
Service was paralyzed by the first postal strike. A walkout of letter
carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan set off a strike that involved
210,000 of the nation’s 750,000 postal employees. Pres. Nixon declared
a state of national emergency and assigned military units to NYC post
offices.
(HN, 3/18/98)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1970 May 9, Walter P. Reuther
(b.1907), US worker's union leader, president (CIO), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reuther)
1970 Aug 3, A 4-day NFL strike
ended.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1970 Oct 3, Baseball umpires
called their 1st strike.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1971 Apr 28, The US Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established within the
Dept. of Labor under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which was
passed on Dec 29, 1970. It was formed to protect workers from
on-the-job injuries and illnesses.
(www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/100.html#100.1)
1971 An Arizona law under Gov.
Jack Williams (1909-1998) outlawed secondary boycotts and harvest-time
strikes, tools used by the growing UFW.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.12)(http://rulers.org/indexw2.html)
1972 In Zimbabwe 418 people were
killed in an underground explosion at a mine.
(AP, 7/30/02)
1974 Apr 11, United Mine Workers
president W. A. “Tony” Boyle was found guilty of first-degree murder,
for ordering the assassination of union reformer Joseph A. “Jock”
Yablonski in 1969. Yablonski, his wife and daughter were murdered on
December 30, 1969. Boyle had defeated Yablonski in the UMW election
earlier in the year-an election marred by intimidation and vote fraud.
In 1972 the election was set aside by a federal court after Boyle had
been convicted of illegal use of UMW funds in the federal elections of
1968. In a new election held in December, 1972, Boyle was defeated by
rank and file reformist Arnold Miller. Soon after the election Boyle
was put on trial for murdering the Yablonskis and was sentenced to
three consecutive life terms in prison.
(HNQ, 11/8/99)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C2)
1974 May 1, The US Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $2.00 an hour.
(www.dol.gov/ESA/minwage/chart.htm)
1975 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $2.10 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1975 May 3, Gov.
Jerry Brown of California began a round of private meetings to resolve
the issues between the UFW, agribusiness, and the Teamsters Union.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.22)
1975 Jun 5, Gov. Jerry Brown of
California announced the new Agricultural Labor Relations Act. It was a
temporary truce in the struggle between the state’s farm workers
(UFW) led by Cesar Chavez and farmers. Chavez officially ended the
table grape, lettuce and wine boycott on Jan 31, 1978.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.22)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1975 Jul 30, Former Teamsters
union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the
Machus Red fox Restaurant in suburban Detroit. Although presumed dead,
his remains have never been found. He was scheduled to meet with Mafia
captain Tony Jack Giacalone (d.2001 at 82) and New Jersey Teamster boss
Anthony Provenzano. In 2004 Charles Brandt authored “I Heard You Paint
Houses,” in which he says Teamster official Frank Sheeran (d.2003)
claimed to have shot Hoffa. Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP, 7/30/97)(SFC, 2/26/01,
p.A24)(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A2)
1976 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $2.30 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1976 A typical American CEO earned
36 times as much as the average worker. By 2008 average CEO pay
increased to 369 times that of the average worker.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.E2)
1978 Jan 31, Cesar Chavez
officially ended the United Farm Workers’ boycott of table grapes,
lettuce and wine.
(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1978 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $2.65 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1978 Mar 6, Pres. Carter invoked
the Taft-Hartley Act for an 80-day cooling off period in a coal strike.
Miners had struck 3 months earlier after coal companies demanded wage
and benefit cuts and refused to be forced back to work. They ended the
strike after 110 days when most company demands were dropped.
(SFC, 10/4/02,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bituminous_Coal_Strike_of_1977-1978)
1978 Jul 4, Memphis fire fighters
halted 3-day strike under a court order.
(Maggio)
1978 Aug 9, A California statewide
Teamsters warehouse workers strike began.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Sep 26, British unions, fed
up with wage restraints, launched their “winter of discontent,” to the
humiliation of James Callaghan’s government.
(http://web.onetel.net.uk/~davewalton/archive/local/winterofdiscontent.html)(SSFC,
3/27/05, p.A21)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.69)
1978 Pres. Carter invoked the
Taft-Hartley Act for an 80-day cooling off period in a coal strike.
Miners had struck 3 months earlier after coal companies demanded wage
and benefit cuts and refused to be forced back to work. They ended the
strike after 110 days when most company demands were dropped.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1979 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $2.90 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1979 Feb, Farm workers in
California began a mass walkout in the UFW supported great lettuce
strike.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.34)
1979 Mar 8, Cesar Chavez led some
5,000 striking farmworkers on a march through the streets of Salinas,
Ca.
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1979 May 16, Asa Philip Randolph
(b.1889), black labor leader and civil rights pioneer, died in NYC.
Randolph brought the word of trade unionism to millions of African
American households.
(www.aflcio.org/aboutus/history/history/randolph.cfm)
1979 Jul 31, Cesar Chavez began a
12-day march from SF to Salinas to dramatize the 6-month strike of the
United Farm Workers.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.F2)
1979 Aug 27, California’s West
Coast Farms agreed to a 3-year pattern contract with the United Farm
Workers raising the minimum hourly wage.
(SFC, 8/27/04, p.F2)
1979-1995 Lane Kirkland served as president of the
AFL-CIO. In 2005 Arch Puddington authored “Lane Kirkland: Champion of
American Labor.”
(WSJ, 3/8/05, p.D7)
1980 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $3.10 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1980 Feb 4, In Alameda, Ca., 3
former waitresses testified in Superior Court that they were
blackballed by a union hiring hall after refusing to have sex with
labor leader Ray Lane.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1980 Jul 17, Over 6,000 union
hotel employees went on strike and were locked out of SF hotels in a
contract dispute, the 1st in 40 years.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.F3)
1980 Apr 11, The Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission issued regulations specifically prohibiting
sexual harassment of workers by supervisors.
(AP, 4/11/97)
1980 Aug 14, Some 17,000 Polish
workers, led by Lech Walesa, began a 17-day strike at the Lenin
Shipyards in Gdansk. This resulted in the creation of the Solidarity
labor movement.
(TMC, 1994, p.1980)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A12)(AP,
8/14/00)(MC, 8/14/02)
1980 Aug 31, Poland's Solidarity
labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a
17-day strike. Solidarity, founded by Lech Walesa during anticommunist
strikes at the Gdansk shipyards, won recognition as the first free
trade union of the Soviet bloc.
(TMC, 1994, p.1980)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A12)(SFC,
7/11/97, p.A10)(AP, 8/31/97)
1981 Jan, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $3.35 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1981 Apr 22, Almost 1 million West
German metal workers went on strike.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1981 Jun 12, Major league baseball
players began a 49-day strike over the issue of free-agent
compensation. The season did not resume until August tenth.
(AP, 6/12/01)
1981 Jul 31, A seven-week-old
Major League Baseball strike ended.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1981 Aug 3, U.S. air traffic
controllers (PATCO) went on strike, despite a warning from President
Reagan they would be fired. Most of the 13,000 controllers defied
Reagan’s order to return to work within 48 hours and were fired.
(AP, 8/3/02)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1981 Aug 5, Pres. Reagan began
firing 11,500 air traffic controllers who had gone out on strike 2 days
earlier.
(AP, 8/5/97)(WSJ, 9/3/96, p.A1)(MC, 8/5/02)
1981 Oct 22, The US Professional
Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal
government for its strike the previous August.
(AP, 10/22/99)
1982 Nov 16, The US National
Football League ended a 57-day strike, the longest in the history of
professional sports.
(AP, 11/1697)(HN, 11/16/98)
1983 Aug 7, Some 675,000 employees
struck ATT Corp.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1985 Mar 3, National Union of Mine
Workers in Britain voted to end a 51 week strike that proved to be the
longest and most violent walkout in British history.
(SC, 3/3/02)(AP, 3/3/05)
1985 Jun 27, The 1st hotel strike
in NYC took place.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1986 Jan 6, Impala Platinum fired
20,000 black mine workers in Johannesburg.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1986 Alexander Kisser authored
"Out of Work," an overview of unemployment.
(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.B1)
1987 Feb 2, Largest steel strike
in American history, in progress since August, ended.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1987 Mar 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled employers may sometimes favor women and members of minority
groups over men and whites in hiring and promoting in order to achieve
better balance in the work force.
(AP, 3/25/97)
1987 Jul 21, Defying a threatened
veto by President Reagan, the Senate approved a trade bill containing a
provision requiring companies to give 60 days' notice to employees of
impending plant closings and large-scale layoffs. Reagan vetoed the
bill, but ended up allowing a separate plant-closing notice measure to
become law.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1987 Aug 10, Iorwith Wilbur Abel
(b.1908), CEO of the United Steel Workers of America (1965-77), died.
I.W. Abel had also served as vice-president of the AFL-CIO.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iorwith_Wilbur_Abel)
1987 Oct 24, The Teamsters union
was welcomed back into the AFL-CIO by a vote of the labor federation's
executive council in Miami Beach, Fla. The union had been expelled from
the AFL-CIO in December, 1957, because of racketeering by its
executives, including union president Dave Beck and vice president
James R. Hoffa. However, the Teamsters disaffiliated themselves from
the AFL-CIO in 2005.
(AP, 10/24/97)(HNQ, 1/8/99)(AP, 10/24/07)
1987 Oct 24, NBC technicians
accepted a pact and ended a 118 day strike.
(http://tinyurl.com/eq22r)
1988 Mar 4, The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported that the nation's civilian unemployment rate had
dropped the previous month to 5.7 percent.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1988 May 10, In Poland an
eight-day strike by workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk ended
without an agreement.
(AP, 5/10/98)
1988 Jun 28, The US federal
government sued the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to force
reforms on the nation's largest labor union. The two sides reached a
settlement in March, 1989.
(AP, 6/28/98)
1988 Jul 9, Teamsters President
Jackie Presser died in Lakewood, Ohio, at age 61.
(AP, 7/9/98)
1988 Jul 15, The leadership of the
Teamsters Union chose William J. McCarthy to fill out the remaining
term of the late Jackie Presser as president, narrowly rejecting
Secretary-Treasurer Weldon Mathis, Presser's hand-picked successor.
(AP, 7/15/98)
1988 Aug 7, The Writers Guild of
America ended their 6 months strike.
(http://tinyurl.com/zlxht)
1989 Mar 3, Machinists struck
Eastern Airlines and pilots honored the picket lines.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1989 Mar 4, Eastern Airlines
machinists went on strike and were joined by pilots and flight
attendants.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1989 Mar 5, Machinists striking
Eastern Airlines withdrew an immediate threat to picket the nation's
railroads, after a federal judge issued an order temporarily
prohibiting rail workers from honoring the Eastern picket lines.
(AP, 3/5/99)
1989 Jul 27, Workers at the Nissan
Motor Corp. assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn., voted against
representation by the United Auto Workers.
(AP, 7/27/99)
1989 Aug 18, The US Labor
Department reported that the Consumer Price Index rose only 0.2 percent
in July 1989, easing fears of a recession.
(AP, 8/18/99)
1989 Nov 23, Pilots Union gave up
on a sympathy strike against Eastern Airlines.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1990 Mar 2, More than 6,000
drivers went on strike against Greyhound Lines Inc. The company, later
declaring an impasse in negotiations, fired the strikers.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1990 Mar 30, Harry Bridges
(b.1901), Australian-born SF labor activist, died.
(SFC, 7/27/01, p.A19)
1990 Apr 12, Greyhound Bus hired
new drivers to replace strikers.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1990 Apr, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $3.80 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1991 Apr 17, Congress voted to put
a quick end to a day-old nationwide strike by 235,000 rail workers.
President Bush signed the legislation early the next day.
(AP, 4/17/01)
1991 Apr, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $4.25 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1991 Nov 13, The U.S. House of
Representatives approved a Senate-passed bill guaranteeing many workers
up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family emergencies.
(AP, 11/13/01)
1992 Feb 1, Ron Carey was sworn in
as the first Teamsters president elected by the union's rank-and-file.
(AP, 2/1/02)
1992 Feb 3, Maximum NY State
unemployment benefits were raised to $300 per week.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1992 Jul 2, The Labor Department
reported that the nation's unemployment rate the previous month had
risen to an eight-year high of 7.8 percent, compared to 7.5 percent in
May.
(AP, 7/2/97)
1992 Aug 3, Millions of South
African blacks joined a nationwide strike against white-led rule.
(AP, 8/3/97)
1992 Aug 12, The North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was announced in Washington, D.C. after 14
months of negotiations between the United States, Mexico and Canada. It
created the world's wealthiest trading bloc. [see Jan 1, 1994]
(AP, 8/12/97)(HN, 8/12/02)
1992 Aug 31, A dynamite explosion
in Philippines mine killed 500 people.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1992 Sep 4, The US government
reported the nation's unemployment rate had edged down to 7.6 percent
in August 1992, but also said adult joblessness had worsened slightly
and the economy had lost thousands of crucial manufacturing jobs.
(AP, 9/4/97)
1992 Sep 5, A strike that had
idled nearly 43,000 General Motors Corp. workers ended as members of a
United Auto Workers local in Lords town, Ohio, approved a new
agreement.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1993 Apr 23, Labor leader Cesar
Chavez died in San Luis, Ariz., at age 66. He founded the United Farm
Workers Union on his birthday Mar 31, 1962.
(AP, 4/23/98)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A14)
1993 Sep 3, The US Labor
Department reported the nation's unemployment rate edged down to a
two-year low of 6.7 percent the previous month.
(AP, 9/3/98)
1994 Jan 1, The North American
Free Trade Agreement went into effect. Under the system a complaint is
referred to a panel of experts who debate it and render a decision. The
losing nation must then change its practices or offer compensation to
the injured nations. Members who refuse to comply can be subjected to
trade retaliation, such as tariffs to their exports. It was run out of
Geneva by Renato "Rocky" Ruggiero. GATT gave poorer countries 10 years
to strengthen their drug-patent laws and a similar period for the US to
lift its textile quotas. The World Trade Organization (WTO), founded as
the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a
relatively weak regulator of int’l. trade, was a product of the Uruguay
Round of negotiations (1986-1994). In 2000 John R. MacArthur authored
"The Selling of "Free Trade:" NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of
American Democracy." In 2004 David Bacon authored "The Children NAFTA:
Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A9)(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A1)(WSJ,
12/13/96, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98) (SFC, 11/24/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR
p.3)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.M2)
1994 Sep 2, The government
reported the nation's unemployment rate for August was unchanged from
July, at 6.1 percent.
(AP, 9/2/99)
1994 Jeff Taylor founded
Monster.com, an online job-search site.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.66)
1995 Mar 26, The National Labor
Relations Board, in an extraordinary Sunday session, voted 3-2 to seek
an injunction against baseball owners as a seven-and-a-half-month-old
strike by players continued.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1995 May 10, One-hundred-four
miners were killed in an elevator accident in Orkney, South Africa.
(AP, 5/10/00)
1995 Oct 25, John J. Sweeney was
elected AFL-CIO president. He soon pledged to his 13 million members
“We will not be a rubber stamp of the Democrats.”
(AP, 10/25/00)(Econ, 5/14/05, p.32)
1995 Stephen P. Yokich succeeded
Owen Bibber as UAW president.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)
1995 Germany introduced a 35-hour
work week.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A14)
1996 Feb 14, In Michigan the
newspapers unions in Detroit offered to return to work (on strike since
July 1995). The newspapers accepted the offer 5 days later but vowed to
retain some 1200 replacement workers. A 1997 ruling ordered as many as
1,100 former strikers reinstated.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A4)
1996 Mar 21, General Motors and
the United Auto Workers reached a settlement in a 17-day brake-factory
strike that idled more than 177,000 employees and brought the world's
top automaker to a near standstill.
(AP, 3/21/97)
1996 May 16, French unions
scheduled a series of strikes to protest Prime Minister Jape’s plans to
eliminate thousands of civil service jobs.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 23, The House approved,
by a vote of 281-144, election-year legislation to raise the minimum
wage by 90 cents an hour.
(AP, 5/23/97)
1996 May 29, The United Farm
Workers signed a contract with a major lettuce producer. A minimum of
6.62/hr will be paid rising to 7.23/hr in 5 years.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.C1)
1996 May 29, A 15-year-old
Honduran girl spoke of sweatshop conditions under South Korean owners
in the production of clothing for the Kathie Lee Gifford line for
Wal-Mart. The National Labor Committee accused marketers such as Eddie
Bauer, J. Crew, and K-Mart of selling clothes made by underage Honduran
workers.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A5)
1996 Jul 5, The government
reported the nation's unemployment rate fell to a six-year low to 5.3%
in June 1996; nervous investors, fearing higher interest rates, gave
the stock market its worst beating in four months, sending the Dow
industrials down 114 points.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/5/97)
1996 Aug 29-30, Dancers from the
North Beach Lusty Lady Club voted on union representation with the
Service Employees International Union, Local 790. The vote passed 57 to
15. The contract was ratified Apr 10, 1997.
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.A15)(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A17)(SFC,
4/11/97, p.A19)
1996 Oct, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $4.75 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1996 Dec 5, Isidro Gil, a union
leader at a Crepe, Colombia, Coca-Cola bottling plant, was killed at
work. It was later alleged that the plant manager hired right-wing
paramilitary to help wipe out union activity. In 2002 the labor union
filed suit against Coca-Cola in Miami.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A11)
1997 Feb 19, Detroit's daily
newspapers accepted a back-to-work offer from employees who'd been on
strike for 19 months, but the strikers charged the conditions for
return amounted to a lockout.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1997 Apr 21, Some 12,500 workers
for Goodyear Tire went on strike.
(WSJ, 4/21/97, p.A1)
1997 May 7, Chrysler Corp. and
United Auto Workers agreed to a new contract, ending a damaging 28-day
engine-plant strike.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1997 Jul 22, In Michigan some
2,800 UAW workers went on strike at a GM plant in Warren.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A3)
1997 Jul 27, United Auto Workers
approved a deal to end a six-day strike at a General Motors parts plant
that forced four assembly plant shutdowns and threatened GM's entire
North American production.
(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A3)(AP, 7/27/98)
1997 Aug 3, UPS went out on strike.
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 4, US Teamsters under Ron
Carey (1935-2008) went on a 15-day strike against United Parcel Service
after talks broke down with nation's largest package delivery service.
(AP, 8/4/98)(SFC, 12/13/08, p.B5)
1997 Aug 8, The Teamsters and
United Parcel Service completed a second day of federally mediated
talks, with neither side reporting progress toward ending a strike.
(AP, 8/8/98)
1997 Aug 12, Steel workers in West
Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania ended a 10-month strike at
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. with a new contract. It was the longest
strike by a major steel company.
(SFC, 8/13/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/12/98)
1997 Aug 20, United Parcel Service
drivers put away picket signs, put on brown shirts and shorts, and
called on customers again as the delivery giant began to sluggishly
recover from its costly strike.
(AP, 8/20/07)
1997 Aug 22, A federal official
threw out the contentious Teamsters election because of alleged
campaign fund-raising abuses, forcing union President Ron Carey into
another race against James P. Hoffa.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/22/98)
1997 Sep 1, The 2nd phase of the
minimum wage raise to $5.15 per hour went into effect
(SFC, 9/1/97,
p.A3)(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1997 Dec 4, In Canada postal
workers ended their strike under threat of heavy fines with a 5.15%
wage increase over 3 years.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B5)
1997 Dec 4, In Indonesia some
2,000 Dole farmworkers on Mindanao went on strike protesting low wages.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 1, Mongolia switched from
a 46 hour to 40 hour work week.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1998 Feb 13, The United Auto
Workers reached a tentative contract agreement with Caterpillar Inc.;
union members rejected the agreement, which was revised and later
ratified, ending a bitter dispute that lasted more than six years.
(AP, 2/13/99)
1998 Mar 22, A deeply divided
United Auto Workers union approved a new contract with Caterpillar
Inc., ending a 6 1/2-year contract battle.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1998 Apr 4, In the Ukraine a gas
explosion at the Skochinsky coal mine outside Donetsk killed 63 men.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A20)(AP, 4/4/08)
1998 May 13, Thousands of yellow
cab drivers went on a one day strike in NYC.
(SFC, 5/14/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 19, Workers for Saturn
Corp., a division of GM in Tennessee, authorized union leaders to call
their first-ever strike.
(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 28, General Motors and
the UAW agreed tentatively to settle an almost two-month strike at two
parts plants in Flint.
(SFC, 7/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/28/99)
1998 Jul 29, GM workers began
returning to their jobs after ratifying a strike settlement.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 9, A strike by 73,000
telephone workers of NYC-based Bell Atlantic began.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A2)
1998 Aug 14, It was reported that
the average compensation for the 100 top Prudential Insurance
executives doubled from 1994 to 1997 to about $820,000.
(WSJ, 8/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 15, Some 34,000 union
workers went on strike against US West.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 28, Over 6,000 pilots of
Northwest Airlines went on strike.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 29, Northwest Airlines
pilots went on strike after their union rejected a last-minute company
offer.
(AP, 8/29/99)
1998 Aug 30, In Denver the largest
union of US West, the regional telephone service, ended a 15-day strike
with a tentative agreement on a three-year contract.
(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A4)(AP, 8/30/99)
1998 Sep 1, Pilots for Air Canada
went on strike for the first time in the association’s 61 year history.
(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 2, Pilots for Air Canada
began a strike, the first in the carrier's history. [see Sep 1]
(AP, 9/2/99)
1998 Sep 12, Leaders of striking
pilots at Northwest Airlines ratified a new contract, ending a walkout
that began August 28.
(AP, 9/12/03)
1998 Nov 21, Rail workers in
southern France extended their strike for the 12th day. A Europe-wide
rail strike was planned for Nov 27.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)
1998 Dec 5, James P. Hoffa claimed
the Teamsters presidency after challenger Tom Dedham conceded defeat in
the union's presidential election.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A9)(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 In Australia’s waterfront war
Chris Corrigan, head of the cargo-handling Patrick Corp., took on the
“wharfies” and smashed their union’s control of the docks.
(Econ, 10/30/04, p.70)
1998-2002 China’s closure of state-owned enterprises
and “collectives” resulted in job losses for some 24 million workers,
representing about 10% of the work force.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.37)
1999 Feb 13, A federal judge held
American Airlines' pilots' union and two top board members in contempt
and promised sizable fines against them, saying the union did not do
enough to encourage pilots to return to work after a court order. A
federal judge fined the American Airlines pilot's union at least $10
million for ignoring his back-to-work order.
(AP, 2/13/00)(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.A2)
1999 Apr 2, The US Labor
Department reported that the nation's unemployment rate fell to a
29-year low of 4.2 percent in March 1999.
(AP, 4/2/00)
1999 Apr 5, At Newport News, Va.,
members of local 8888 of the United Steelworkers went on strike. The
shipyard offered a $2.49 per hour raise over 3 years as opposed to the
union demand for $3.95.
(SFC, 4/6/99, p.D1)
1999 Apr 19, In Canada a Toronto
transit strike forced 800,000 commuters to seek alternate
transportation.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
1999 Aug 31, Detroit’s teachers
went on strike, wiping out the first day of class for 172-thousand
students in one of the largest teachers’ strikes in years. The walkout
lasted nine days.
(AP, 8/31/00)
1999 Sep 6, Detroit's teachers
reached a tentative agreement and won smaller classes and raises of up
to 4%. The union represented 9,200 teachers and some 172,000
students were affected. The teachers ratified the contract two days
later.
(AP, 9/6/00)(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A5)
1999 Nov 21, In South Korea
thousands of workers gathered in Seoul and demanded a reduction of the
workweek from 44 to 40 hours. They also protested government plans to
privatize state-run power, gas and financial firms.
(SFC, 11/22/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 5, AFL-CIO chief John
Sweeney welcomed the collapse of World Trade Organization talks in
Seattle and the failure to agree on a new round of negotiations,
telling CBS’ “Face the Nation,” “No deal is better than a bad deal.”
(AP, 12/5/00)
2000 Feb 1, In France the new
35-hour work week took legal effect. Workers that included truckers
struck across the country for a number of demands that included higher
pay. The truckers were exempted from the reduced work week.
(SFC, 2/2/00, p.B2)
2000 Feb 9, In Renton, Wa., some
17,000 Boeing engineers and technical workers began a 40-day strike,
one of the biggest white-collar strikes in US history.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A9)(AP, 2/9/01)
2000 Feb, Female workers at Boeing
filed a class-action suit for discrimination in pay and promotions.
(ST, 5/14/04, p.A5)
2000 Mar 17, Boeing Co. agreed to
settle a 38-day strike by its engineers. It was the largest
white-collar walkout in US history.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A2)
2000 May 1, May Day marches and
protests took place around the world. In Berlin violence erupted as
some 10,000 anarchists marched against “capitalism and imperialism”
after some 1200 neo-Nazis rallied. In London some 2,000 demonstrators
caused havoc in London. Tens of thousands gathered in Madrid and some
15,000 demonstrated in both Russia and Istanbul. Hundreds of thousands
demonstrated in Sao Paulo, Brazil and some 20,000 marched in Quito,
Ecuador.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 May 16, In China some 5,000
retired or laid-off workers in Liaoyang clashed with police following
protests over non-payment of pensions and wages.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 23, In France the 15-day
strike by armored truck security guards ended after they agreed to a
risk premium of $138 per month.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C4)
2000 Aug 6,
Workers at Verizon, the nation’s largest local telephone company, went
on an 18-day strike over working conditions and union representation.
(AP, 8/6/01)
2000 Aug 26, United Airlines
signed a tentative accord with its 10,000 pilots following 20 months of
negotiations.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.A1)
2000 In China coal mine fatalities
were estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 per year with an average
of 13 miners killed per day. Miners earned about $50 per month.
(SFC, 12/25/00, p.B6)(NW, 10/28/02, p.44R)
2001 May 1, May Day protests
rallies took place around the world as people demonstrated against
global trade and for workers’ rights.
(WSJ, 5/2/01, p.A1)
2001 May 20, In China 20 miners
were feared dead in a gypsum mine in the Guangxi region and another
38-39 were trapped in a coal mine in Sichuan. The miners in Sichuan
were working a prison-run mine.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2001 Jul 19, In Argentina workers
staged a nationwide strike due to government spending cuts.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A17)
2001 Sep 7, The US jobless rate
for August was reported with a rise of .4%. The DJIA fell 235 to 9,605.
The Nasdaq ended at 1,687.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 7, In New Jersey nearly
230 teachers were ordered freed from jail after their union agreed to
end the 9-day strike and go into mediation.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A4)
2002 Feb 2, New Orleans voters
approved a $1 per hour increase in the minimum wage above the $5.15
federal standard in a referendum that went to court for resolution.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 8, The US Labor Dept.
reported an addition of 66,000 jobs in February, the 1st increase in 8
months.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 8, K-Mart announced the
closure of 284 stores and layoffs of 22,000.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.B1)
2002 Apr 8, In Mexico Pres. Fox
and the Manuela and Export Industry Council signed an agreement to
improve working conditions for female factory workers.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A9)
2002 May 3, The US Labor Dept.
reported the April jobless rate at 6%, up .3%.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A1)
2002 May 10, It was reported that
IBM would lay off as many as 8,000 workers over the next quarter, 2.5%
of its world-wide work force.
(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A3)
2002 May 15, German Metalworkers
in Baden-Wuerttemberg won a higher than expected wage increase that
included 4% in June and 3.1% in 2003. A 10-day strike was expected to
end.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A1)
2002 May 30, In Greece civil
servants staged a 1-day national strike to protest government welfare
and tax reforms.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C11)
2002 Jun 10, The US Supreme Court
ruled that employers can reject applicants for jobs that would endanger
their health.
(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A4)
2002 Aug 16, Stephen P. Yokich
(66), former United Auto Workers president died in Detroit.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Sep 26, Gap Inc, 6 other US
firms and 23 local manufacturers settled a class-action lawsuit over
alleged sweatshop abuses on Saipan. The deal created a $20 million fund
for back wages and a monitoring system.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 1, West Coast dockworkers
and shipping lines reached a tentative agreement on key issues.
(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 23, West Coast dock
workers and shipping lines reached a tentative 6-year contract.
(SSFC, 11/24/02, p.A23)
2002 Dec 28, US federal
unemployment benefits ended for nearly 800,000.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A5)
2003 Jan 6, California Gov. Davis
promised to create 500,000 new jobs over the next 4 years.
(AP, 1/7/03)
2003 Jan 9, The Bush
administration said federal airport security screeners will not be
allowed to unionize so as not to complicate the war on terrorism.
(WSJ, 1/10/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 10, The US Labor Dept.
reported that 101,000 jobs were lost in December with 8.6 million (6%)
officially unemployed.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.A1)
2003 May 2, The US jobless rate
was reported at 6%, an 8-year high.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B1)
2003 Jul 3, The US jobless rate
was reported to have surged to a nine-year high in June as employers
cut 30,000 workers from their payrolls.
(AP, 7/3/03)
2003 Aug 18, In Venezuela 9
workers died as 8 tried to rescue a comrade who was felled by toxic
industrial gases at an animal feed plant outside Caracas.
(WSJ, 8/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 9, Chicago sanitation
workers accepted a 28% wage increase over 5 years and ended a 9-day
strike.
(SFC, 10/10/03, p.A6)
2003 Oct 12, Some 70,000 employees
of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons grocery stores began a strike in
southern California, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. Health
care costs were a main issue. Workers approved an agreement for
southern California on Feb 29, 2004.
(SFC, 10/14/03, p.B2)(SFC, 11/5/03, p.B1)(SFC,
3/1/04, p.A5)
2003 Oct 14, In LA, Ca., some
2,000 train and bus mechanics went on strike and halted the
mass-transit system.
(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A9)
2003 Oct 28, Japan's Sony Corp.
said it would cut 20,000 workers and reduce costs by $3 billion over
the next 4 years.
(SFC, 10/29/03, p.B3)
2003 Nov 7, The US Labor Dept.
Reported an increase of 126,000 jobs outside the farm sector for
October.
(SFC, 11/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 11, Striking Kroger
workers in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio ratified a new contract.
The strike began Oct 13.
(SFC, 12/12/03, p.B4)
2003 Dec 15, California's longest
strike by nurses ended after workers at Doctors Medical Center in San
Pablo and Pinole approved a new contract with Tenet Healthcare Corp.
ending a 13-month walkout.
(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A23)
2003 In 2005 estimates of Chinese
labor unrest for 2003 noted some 60,000 protests with a 17% annual
increase over the past decade.
(WSJ, 4/18/05, p.A16)
2004 Feb 23, The wage minimum in
SF rose to $8.50 from $6.75, based on voter approval in 2003.
(SFC, 2/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 24, A group of large
employers proposed "scorecards" for doctors in an effort help employees
choose doctors based on quality care.
(WSJ, 3/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 26, The WSJ quoted Bill
Dreher, retailing analyst for Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. as follows:
"From the perspective of investors, Costco's benefits are overly
generous. Public companies need to care for shareholders first. Costco
runs its business like it is a private company."
(WSJ, 3/26/04, p.B1)
2004 Apr 10, A coal mine explosion
trapped five miners underground in a northeastern Chinese city where
more than 150 miners have been killed in the past year.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 Apr 10, In Siberia an
apparent methane blast ripped through a coal mine, killing 22 miners
and trapping at least 25.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 Apr 20, The US Labor Dept.
established new rules on overtime pay. It expanded the range for lower
income workers and put a ceiling on overtime for higher income workers.
(WSJ, 4/21/04, p.D1)
2004 May 10, Gov. Baldacci of
Maine signed legislation increasing the minimum wage. The current $6.25
and hour rate would be increased 25 cents in each of two phases.
(USAT, 5/11/04, p.10A)
2004 Apr 30, In the SF Bay Area
the National Labor Relations Board ruled that cab drivers for an East
Bay syndicate to taxi companies are employees, not independent
contractors, and therefore entitled to unionize. The companies refused
to negotiate.
(SFC, 7/28/04, p.B5)
2004 Aug 23, New US rules on
overtime pay went into effect. Under the new FairPay rules, workers
earning less than $23,660 per year, or $455 per week, were guaranteed
overtime protection.
(SFC, 8/24/04,
p.C1)(www.dol.gov/esa/WHD/regs/compliance/fairpay/)
2004 Sep 8, In Turkey rescue
workers started to evacuate dozens of workers trapped inside a copper
mine engulfed in fire. Eight miners were rescued so far. Between 25 and
30 miners were trapped inside the mine in the town of Kure in Catamount
province, some 185 miles north of the capital, Ankara.
(AP, 9/8/04)
2004 Sep 23, California’s
Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board approved restrictions on
hand-weeding in most commercial crops.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.B7)
2004 Oct 5, Supermarket janitors
in California won a $22.4 million settlement against 3 grocery chains
and a cleaning contractor in a class-action suit over failure to pay
for overtime.
(SFC, 10/6/04, p.B3)
2004 Oct 26, Mayor Newsom joined
the picket line to support the 4,000 locked-out workers in the SF hotel
strike.
(SFC, 10/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 1, Casino workers in
Atlantic City tentatively accepted a new 5-year contract.
(SFC, 11/3/04, p.C1)
2004 Nov 11, Delta Air Line pilots
accepted over $1 billion in annual pay cuts and agreed to forgo raises
through 2009.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.C2)
2004 Mike Rose of UCLA authored
“The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker.”
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.M1)
2005 Mar 18, Wal-Mart agreed to
pay a record $11 million to settle a civil immigration case for using
illegal immigrants to clean floors at stores in 21 states.
(SFC, 3/19/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 23, In South Africa some
21,000 Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. mineworkers went on strike after
mediation efforts with the union over pay and working conditions failed.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Apr 22, The US Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corp. agreed to take over the underfunded pension
plans of United Airlines and assume some $6.6 billion in liabilities.
(SFC, 4/23/05, p.C1)
2005 May 10, A federal bankruptcy
judge freed United Airlines from responsibility for pensions covering
120,000 employees.
(SFC, 5/11/05, p.A1)
2005 May 11, Teachers across
California honored the 23rd annual Day of the Teacher by protesting
deep cuts to education and changes to their retirement system.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.B1)
2005 Jun 9, In the Netherlands
thousands of civil servants went on strike to protest declining social
benefits and low wages.
(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A6)
2005 Jul 19, Computer and printer
maker Hewlett-Packard Co. said it will cut 14,500 jobs and overhaul its
retirement program in a restructuring plan designed to save $1.9
billion annually.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Jul 22, In Irving, Texas,
Kimberly-Clark Corp., maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers,
said it plans to cut about 6,000 jobs and sell or close up to 20
manufacturing plants.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 25, The Brotherhood of
Teamsters and the Service Employees Int’l. Union broke from the AFL-CIO
as 1,000 delegates gathered in Chicago for the federation’s 50th annual
convention. They formed a coalition called Change to Win with 5 other
unions with a mission to emphasize organizing rather than supporting
like-minded politicians.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A1)
2006 Jan, A Toyota engineer died
of ischemic heart disease one day before leaving for an auto show in
the US. In 2008 a Japanese labor bureau ruled that the man died from
working too many hours (karoshi), a phenomena recognized by the Health
Ministry since 1987.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.C3)
2007 Aug 29, A new report said
CEOs of American companies made an average of $10.8 million last year,
more than 364 times the average pay of American workers. The 14th
annual study was a joint report from the Institute for Policy Studies
and United for a Fair Economy.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.C3)
2007 Oct 27, Despite significant
dissent among some of its workers, United Auto Workers members narrowly
passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2007 Nov 3, United Auto Workers
agreed to a tentative contract with Ford Motor Co.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2007 Philip Dine authored “State
of the Unions.”
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.66)
2008 Jan, Belgium began sending
out inspectors to daily check on 150 randomly selected sick and not so
sick civil servants. Some government departments were averaging 35 days
of sick leave per year.
(WSJ, 1/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 13, In Colombia a
delegation of visiting US union leaders expressed alarm at what its
members called a steady erosion of labor rights in the world's
deadliest country for organized labor.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Apr 26, In Canada transit
workers in Toronto went on strike after rejecting a tentative contract
deal, shutting down bus, streetcar and subway service in Canada's most
populous city.
(Reuters, 4/26/08)
2008 May 22, Tens of thousands of
French workers took to the streets as unions mounted a one-day show of
force against President Nicolas Sarkozy's government over pension
reforms.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 31, In Vietnam some 1000
workers walked off the assembly line of a Panasonic plant as inflation
reached a 13-year high of 25.2%. Some 300 strikes took place in the
first quarter as compared to 103 in the frist quarter of 2007.
(WSJ, 6/3/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 4, In Canada angry
autoworkers blockaded the entrance to General Motors of Canada
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, one day after GM said it would shut
its Oshawa truck plant as well as 2 plants in the US and one in Mexico.
(Reuters, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 11, In Thailand thousands
of truckers went on a half-day strike demanding government help against
rising fuel prices, the latest in a series of protests that have swept
across Asia and Europe.
(Reuters, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 16, The Canadian Auto
Workers union ended its blockade of General Motors of Canada's
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, allowing about 900 employees to return
to work after nearly 13 days of protest, but it vowed to fight on.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Aug 6, Thousands protested in
South Africa as workers disrupted gold mining and other major
industries in a national strike over price hikes rattling the
continent's economic powerhouse.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 15, In Canada employees
at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlet won an arbitrator-imposed contract,
becoming the giant retailer's only location in North America with a
collective agreement in place.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Oct 20, The UN said the
financial crises will add at least 20 million people to the wolrd’s
jobless, raising the total to 210 million.
(WSJ, 10/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 29, In northern China a
gas explosion in a mine shaft at a coal mine trapped 29 miners at the
Yaotou mine in central Shaanxi province. 23 bodies were recovered over
the next 2 days and 6 remained missing.
(AP, 10/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 1, Members of the
Machinists Union, representing some 27,000 workers in Washington,
Oregon, and Kansas, ratified a new contract with the Boeing Co. ending
an 8-week strike.
(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 7, The US Labor
Department said the nation's employers cut 240,000 jobs in October,
hurtling the US unemployment rate to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 11, Swedish truck and bus
maker Volvo AB said it will lay off nearly 1,000 staff at its
powertrain unit in Sweden and the United States as the global financial
crisis continues to weigh on the demand for heavy vehicles.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 12, Germany's biggest
industrial union secured a 4.2 percent pay rise over 18 months for the
nation's manufacturing workers in a deal that averted an all-out strike.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 13, The US government
said the number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment
benefits has jumped to a seven-year high.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 17, Citigroup Inc. said
it is cutting approximately 53,000 more jobs in the coming quarters as
the banking giant struggles to steady itself after suffering massive
losses from deteriorating debt.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 19, Germany chemical
company BASF SE said it is temporarily closing 80 plants worldwide due
to slumping demand and cutting production at 100 more, including
facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Some 20,000 workers are affected.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 29, In southern China
about 300 taxi drivers went on strike in Chaozhou, smashing cars and
demanding a crackdown on unlicensed taxis in the latest protest against
illegal taxi competition in China.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 4, AT&T Inc. joined
the recession's parade of layoffs by announcing plans to cut 12,000
jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, The US labor Dept.
said employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years,
catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the
country is careening deeper into recession.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 8, Dow Chemical Co. said
it will slash 5,000 full-time jobs, about 11 percent of its total work
force, close 20 plants and sell several businesses to rein in costs
amid the economic recession.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 9, Sony said it is
slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its global work force, aiming to
cut costs by $1.1 billion a year as an economic downturn and a stronger
yen batter profits at the Japanese electronics maker.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 24, US government data
showed that the number of domestic workers filing new claims for
jobless benefits jumped by 30,000 to a 26-year peak last week, as the
country's year-long recession continued to chill the labor market.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2009 Jan 9, The US Labor
Dept. reported that unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent in December,
the highest level in 16 years, as nervous employers slashed 524,000
jobs. The labor market is expected to remain weak as mass layoffs
continue.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 16, Circuit City, a
bankrupt electronics retailer based in Richmond, Va., said it failed to
find a buyer and will liquidate its 567 US stores resulting in the loss
of some 30,000 jobs.
(SFC, 1/17/09, p.C1)
2009 Jan 21, Intel said it will
close several older factories displacing some 5-6 thousand workers in
reaction to a sharp drop in demand for its computer chips.
(WSJ, 1/22/08, p.B1)
2009 Jan 26, Caterpillar Inc
announced it would cut nearly 20,000 jobs and warned of a tough year
ahead as a downturn that began in the United States metastasized into a
full-blown global recession, gutting orders for earth-moving equipment.
At least 1,500 of the lost jobs were in greater Peoria, Ill.
(Reuters, 1/26/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.37)
2009 Jan 26, Home Depot Inc.
announced plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs while closing four dozen stores
under its smaller home improvement brands as the recession continues to
batter the nation's housing market. Its shares climbed more than 5
percent in morning trading.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 26, Pfizer Inc. said it
is buying rival drug maker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal that will
increase its revenue by 50%. At the same time Pfizer announced cost
cuts that include slashing more than 8,000 jobs as it prepares for an
expected revenue crash when its cholesterol drug Lipitor loses patent
protection in November 2011.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 29, President Barack
Obama signed an equal pay bill into law, declaring that it's a family
issue, not just a women's issue.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, In France hundreds of
thousands of workers staged a nationwide strike to try to force
President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to protect
jobs and wages during the economic crisis.
(Reuters, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, President Barack
Obama signed a series of executive orders that he said should "level
the playing field" for labor unions in struggles with management.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, US Senator Claire
McCaskill (D., Mo.) introduced legislation that would limit the salary,
bonuses and stock options of executives of financial companies getting
federal bailout aid to no more than what the US president earns:
$400,000 a year, excluding benefits.
(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 30, In Britain wildcat
strikes against foreign workers spread through oil refineries and other
energy facilities, fuelled by fears of rising job cuts due to the
global slowdown.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 2, Hundreds more British
power plant workers went on strike in a widening labor campaign over
the use of overseas workers to build an oil refinery in Immingham.
Workers were upset over the decision by Italian construction company
IREM SpA to use Italian and Portuguese workers for a 200 million-pound
($280 million) project at a Total refinery.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 2, A Chinese official
said an estimated 26 million desperately poor rural Chinese are jobless
after pinning their hopes on factory jobs that dried up due to the
global economic slowdown, noting that widespread unemployment could
threaten the country's social stability.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 4, President Barack Obama
imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed
financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying
Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, British workers voted
to end a week-long unofficial strike over the use of foreign labor at a
French-owned oil refinery that sparked sympathy protests across Britain.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 9, Nissan said it is
slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope
with what Japan's third-largest automaker expects will be its first
annual loss in nine years.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 10, General Motors Corp.
said it will cut 10,000 salaried jobs, citing the need to restructure
itself with a government deadline looming and amid some of the worst
sales in the auto industry's history.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, Nigerian union
officials said a 2-day-old strike by freight and forwarding agents to
protest high charges was worsening cargo congestion in Lagos, the
country's main seaport.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 19, France bowed to
demands for wage increases in Guadeloupe in the hope of ending a
month-long strike that has plunged the French Caribbean island into
rioting.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 22, In northern China a
gas explosion ripped through a coal mine outside Taiyuan, capital of
the main coal-producing province of Shanxi, killing at least 77 miners
and trapping dozens in the deadliest Chinese coal mine accident in more
than a year.
(AFP, 2/22/09)(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, A 24-hour strike by
Greek civil servants disrupted services across the country, forcing
public hospitals to accept only emergency cases and airlines to cancel
at least 68 flights.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 27, San Francisco handed
out pink slips to 262 city employees, with most cuts coming from the
Recreation and park Dept., the Human Services Agency, and the Dept. of
Public Works.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 27, Unions in Guadeloupe
scored a victory in getting a deal to raise some workers' salaries, but
said they will not end a general strike now concluding its sixth week.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 6, The US Labor
Department reported that the nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1
percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting
employers slashed 651,000 jobs amid a deepening recession.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 12, China announced plans
to assist millions of unemployed migrant workers with increases in
grain subsidies and rural infrastructure projects.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 24, Striking French
workers for US manufacturer 3M held their boss hostage amid labor talks
at a plant south of Paris, as anger over layoffs and cutbacks mounted
around the country. Manager Luc Rousselet was released after being held
for 2 days.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 31, Angry French workers
facing layoffs at a Caterpillar factory briefly detained four of their
bosses at the US manufacturer's plant in the Alps to protest job cuts.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 2, Greek public services
closed down and transport was disrupted across the country as thousands
of workers went on strike to protest government spending cuts.
(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Apr 8, In France workers at a
British-owned adhesives factory held three British executives and a
local manager captive over plans to close the site down. Scapa, which
announced in February it would close its plant in Bellegarde, said it
was forced to cut back after the market for car industry adhesives
collapsed by 50 percent in 2008. The managers were released after being
held overnight.
(AP, 4/8/09)(SFC, 4/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 14, In southern China
hundreds of workers at a textile factory blocked roads, in a second day
of protests over unpaid wages.
(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 15, A blockade by French
fishermen angry at EU quotas cut ferry links with Britain for a second
day as a union official threatened to block the Channel Tunnel in
support of the movement.
(AFP, 4/15/09)
2009 Apr 16, French fishermen
allowed traffic to resume to three English Channel ports after
receiving a government promise of euro4 million ($5.27 million) in aid,
but they vowed to keep up their fight against European fishing quotas.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, Hotel service in
Monaco was limited and casino roulette wheels were expected to stop
spinning as employees in the wealthy Mediterranean principality went on
strike to protest job cuts.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 20, In southeast France
workers at a French subsidiary of the American company Molex detained
two bosses to protest plans to close the plant.
(AP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 24, The Canadian Auto
Workers union and Chrysler Canada reached a tentative concession deal
that would cut about C$19 ($15.70) an hour from labor costs in a bid to
keep the struggling automaker from bankruptcy.
(Reuters, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 26, A deal between
Chrysler and the UAW was revealed that would give the union a 55% stake
in the company in return for concessions. Under the plan Fiat SpA would
eventually own 35% and the US government together with secured lenders
would own up to 10%.
(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A8B)
2009 Apr 27, General Motors Corp.
said it will cut 21,000 US factory jobs by next year, phase out its
storied Pontiac brand and ask the government to take more than half its
stock in exchange for half of GM's government debt as part of a major
restructuring that would leave current shareholders holding just 1
percent of the company.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 May 1, May Day protesters
clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece, while thousands
angry at the government's responses to the global financial crisis took
to the streets in France. Riot police battled 700 stone-throwing
left-wing militants in Berlin for more than five hours in May Day
clashes that stretched into early pre-dawn hours.
(Reuters, 5/1/09)(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 20, In Britain hundreds
of protesters blocked roads near an oil refinery, as other sites were
hit by a second day of wildcat strikes in a dispute over hiring foreign
workers.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 25, Dairy farmers created
traffic chaos in Berlin, blocked milk processing plants in France and
protested at EU headquarters in Brussels, seeking more aid to cope with
a sharp drop in milk prices.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 29, Puerto Rico fired
nearly 8,000 government workers, the start of a wave of layoffs aimed
at closing a budget deficit as the island struggles through its third
year of recession.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 30, In southwest China 25
miners were killed and 20 trapped by a gas explosion at the Tonghua
Coal Mine in Anwen town, Chongqing municipality.
(AFP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 2, In South Africa police
said at least 61 prospectors have been found dead in an abandoned gold
mine belonging to Harmony Gold mining company, which had ceased working
its Eland shaft. Illegal miners, often called "gold pirates," are hired
through organized crime rackets that produce about $250 million in gold
a year.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 10, Millions of Londoners
faced a grim commute, taking boats, buses and bicycles or walking in
the rain as a strike by subway workers crippled the city's subway
system.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 11, The London subway
workers’ strike continued for the second day in a row shutting down
much of the city's Underground network. The strike ended as Transport
for London agreed with workers to restart talks.
(AP, 6/11/09)(SFC, 6/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 11, North Korea demanded
a 3,000 percent hike in rent from South Korea for the site of a joint
industrial park at the center of a dispute roiling their relations. It
also sought a more than fourfold increase in wages for North Korean
workers employed by South Korean companies at the park. More than 100
South Korean companies have factories in the park, employing some
40,000 North Koreans. They are paid about $70 a month on average.
(AP, 6/11/09)
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End of file