Labor History

Labor Quote: Bennie Martin

On July 1, 1929, some 1,100 streetcar workers struck in New Orleans, spurring the creation of the po' boy sandwich by a local sandwich shop owner and one-time streetcar man. "Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming," Bennie Martin later recalled, "one of us would say, 'Here comes another poor boy.'" Martin and his wife fed any striker who showed up.

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week's Labor History Today podcast: Working People's Hidden Histories; Last week's show: Labor history at the AFL-CIO & Labor Notes.

July 1

Homestead, Pennsylvania steel strike. Seven strikers and three Pinkertons killed as Andrew Carnegie hires armed thugs to protect strikebreakers - 1892

One million railway shopmen strike - 1922

Copper miners begin a years-long long, bitter strike against Phelps-Dodge in Clifton, Ariz. Democratic Gov. Bruce Babbitt repeatedly deployed state police and National Guardsmen to assist the company over the course of the strike, which broke the union - 1983

July 2

President Johnson signs Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbidding employers and unions from discriminating on the basis of race, color, gender, nationality, or religion - 1964

July 3

Children, employed in the silk mills in Paterson, N.J., went on strike for 11-hour day and 6-day week. A compromise settlement resulted in a 69-hour work work week - 1835

July 4

AFL dedicates its new Washington, D.C. headquarters building at 9th St. and Massachusetts Ave. NW. The building later became headquarters for Plumbers and Pipefitters and the exterior of the building is now part of the Marriott Washington. - 1916

- David Prosten

Union City

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