Labor History

Labor Quote: Mike Wilson

"This hate that's being spread in these racist conspiracy theories that are being spread on Fox News, or from various Republican candidates, this is creating a really, grave danger for our members every day."

Mike Wilson, UFCW 400 Special Assistant to the President, on last week's Your Rights At Work radio show; local 400 represents area supermarket workers.

Today's Labor History

This week's Labor History Today podcast: Forced labour during the "Dirty Thirties"; Last week's show: Blood, guts, and organizing.

May 25
Pressured by employers, striking shoemakers in Philadelphia are arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy for violating an English common law that bars schemes aimed at forcing wage increases. The strike was broken - 1805

Thousands of unemployed WWI veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. to demand early payment of a bonus they had been told would get, but not until 1945. They built a shantytown near the U.S. Capitol but were burned out by U.S. troops after two months - 1932 photo: police clash with Bonus Army marchers.

The notorious 11-month Remington Rand strike begins. The strike spawned the "Mohawk Valley (NY) formula," described by investigators as a corporate plan to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, employ thugs to beat up strikers, and other tactics. The National Labor Relations Board termed the formula "a battle plan for industrial war." - 1936

May 26
Men and women weavers in Pawtucket, R.I. stage nation's first "co-ed" strike - 1824

Battle of the Overpass, Ford thugs beat United Auto Workers organizers - 1937

One hundred thousand steel workers and miners in mines owned by steel companies strike in seven states. The Memorial Day Massacre, in which ten strikers were killed by police at Republic Steel in Chicago, took place four days later, on May 30 - 1937

- David Prosten.

Union City

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