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Great Southwest Railroad Strike
The Great Southwest Railroad Strike began when Martin Irons of the Knights District Assembly 101 called out against Gould's Texas and Pacific Railway for firing a member of the Knights of Labor for initiating a company meeting in Texas. Violence broke out and strikers began burning railroad bridges. After discussions between Gould and the Knights of Labor executive board, the strike came to an end in late March. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket Riot was a violent dispute between police and labour protesters in Chicago. The previous day, one person was killed and several were injured by police during union action to secure an eight-hour workday at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The next day people gathered in the Haymarket square to protest this police brutality. It was peaceful until someone threw a bomb and the police responded with shooting. -
Creation of the American Federation of Labor is founded
AFL was founded in Columbus, Ohio by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor. AFL wanted higher wages and better working conditions. -
Homestead Strike
The Homesteas Strike was a violent dispute that took place at Andrew Carnegie's at his steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania between the labor and management. Frick, the operations manager, cut the workers already low wages and when they rejected this, he locked the workers out of the plant. When thousands of workers and families stormed the plant, this turned into a deadly riot. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States. The American Railway Union protested against the Pullman Company which was respobsible for the main railways in the United States. Railroad workers were upset that the Pullman Company cut the already low wages of its workers by about 25 percent, along with the already poor living conditions, and 16-hour workdays. -
Textile Workers Strike of 1934
The Textile Workers Strike of 1934 involvied as many as half a million textile workers in the U.S over deplorable working conditions, low wages, and lack of union recognition. Workers ended up recieving hollow promises from the federal government and lack of support from the textile union, so the strike ended in defeat for them. -
The Wagner Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt
The Wagner Act established the right of workers to join labor unions and to dispute labor issues. It also established the National Labor Relations Board which addressed relations between unions and employers in the private sector and held the power to hear and resolve labor disputes through judicial proceedings. -
1930s General Motors Sit Down Strike
In the General Motors Sit Dwon Strike autoworkers sat down in the General Motors Fisher Body Plant Number One in Flint, Michigan. They wanted recognition of the United Auto Workers (UAW), to make the company stop sending work to non-union plants, a fair minimum wage scale and a set of procedures that would help protect assembly-line workers from injury. -
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is signed into law by President Roosevelt
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills on this day, including the very important Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This bill banned oppressive child labor, set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and the maximum workweek at 44 hours. -
Steel Strike of 1959
The Steek Strike of 1959 occured when members of the United Steelworkers of America went on strike against the major U.S. steel producers. Workers requested higher wages, but when refused it turned into the largest strike in U.S history (500,000 people) for a record-lasting time of 116 days. At the end of the strike steelworkers returned to work with a revised contract, increased wages, increased pensions, improved health benefits, and the end of Mcdonalds presidancy.
