Today in labor history for the week of May 12, 2008
- May 12
- Laundry & Dry Cleaning International Union granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1958
- International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots merges with Longshoremens? Association - 1971
- May 13
- Western Federation of Miners formed in Butte, Mont. - 1893
- The Canadian government establishes the Department of Labour. It took the U.S. another four years - 1909
- 10,000 IWW dock workers strike in Philadelphia - 1913
- May 15
- The first labor bank opens in Washington, D.C., launched by officers of the Machinists. The Locomotive Engineers opened a bank in Cleveland later that year - 1920
- Death of IWW song writer T-Bone Slim, New York City - 1942
- May 16
- Minneapolis general strike backs Teamsters, who are striking most of the city?s trucking companies - 1934
- U.S. Supreme Court issues Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers. The decision had little impact until Ronald Regan?s replacement of striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) in 1981, a move that signalled antiunion private sector employers that it was OK to do likewise - 1938
- Black labor leader and peace activist A. Philip Randolph dies. He was president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and first black on the AFL-CIO executive board, and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington - 1979
- May 17
- First women?s anti-slavery conference, Philadelphia - 1838
- Supreme Court outlaws segregation in public schools - 1954
- May 18
- Amalgamated Meat Cutters union organizers launch a campaign in the nation?s packinghouses, a campaign that was to bring representation to 100,000 workers over the following two years - 1917
- Big Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), dies in exile in the Soviet Union - 1928
- Insurance Agents International Union and Insurance Workers of America merge to become Insurance Workers International Union (later to merge into the UFCW) - 1959
- Oklahoma jury finds for the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood, orders Kerr-McGee Nuclear Co. to pay $505,000 in actual damages, $10 million in punitive damages for negligence leading to Silkwood?s plutonium contamination - 1979
Courtesy of Big Labor Dot Com
