March on washington for jobs and freedom martin luther king jr. and joachim prinz 1963

Important dates in labor history

  • Committee made

    Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.
  • The Labor Movement and Gender Equality

    The Labor Movement and Gender Equality

    1834 First turnout of “mill girls” in Lowell, Massachusetts, to protest wage cuts
  • The story of Walden

    Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden
  • How is ecology worked in Germany

    The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
  • What is Acid rain?

    The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain
  • The Labor Movement and Immigrant Rights

    The Labor Movement and Immigrant Rights

    1898 Erdman Act prohibits discrimination against railroad workers because of union membership and provides for mediation of railway labor disputes
  • What is smog

    The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution
  • The National Park Service get approved

    US Congress created the National Park Service
  • The Labor Movement and Labor Law

    The Labor Movement and Labor Law

    1926 Railway Labor Act sets up procedures to settle railway labor disputes and forbids discrimination against union members
  • Trade Unions and the AFL-CIO History Timeline

    Trade Unions and the AFL-CIO History Timeline

    1943 The CIO forms first political action committee to get out the union vote for President Roosevelt
  • What is Silent Spring

    Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
  • The Apollo 8 misson

    The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
  • The Great Postal Strike of 1970

    The Great Postal Strike of 1970

    The Great Postal Strike of 1970 was the moment they were "standing 10 feet tall instead of groveling in the dust," as a Manhattan letter carrier put it. They got fed up, joined together, and transformed both the Postal Service and their own lives forever.
  • Earth Day Stong

    First Earth Day – April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established
  • Labor Reform Act of 1977

    Labor Reform Act of 1977

    The Labor Reform Act of 1977 was a proposed Act of the US Congress on US labor law that never came into force. It would have altered the labor legislation to bring it in line with modern developments and international standards by removing obstacles from employers to the formation of unions in the workplace.
  • Labor unions’ decline since the 1980s has given corporate management a free hand to make massive, permanent layoffs.

    Labor unions’ decline since the 1980s has given corporate management a free hand to make massive, permanent layoffs.

    Until the 1980s most large corporate layoffs meant the temporary suspension of employment, rather than the more permanent downsizing which we know today. In new research which examines nearly 700 layoff announcements over 16 years, Jiwook Jung examines what led to this change in corporate policy. He finds that the decline of industrial unions led what were once temporary layoffs, which were often followed by recall in better economic times, to become permanent.
  • Montreal Protocol deplete the ozone layer

    Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force
  • Unions Are Expanding Their Role to Survive in the 90's

    Unions Are Expanding Their Role to Survive in the 90's

    Labor leaders and experts say the organizations, to survive, will have to evolve more fully into providers of financial and social services, offering discount credit cards, for example, and readily available family counseling.
  • The Kyoto Protocol reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide

    The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
  • The Labor Movement and Workplace Rights

    The Labor Movement and Workplace Rights

    1998 The longest successful strike in the history of the United States, the Frontier Strike, ends after 6 years, 4 months and 10 days.
  • The Kyoto Protocol wrost plan

    U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
  • The Labor Movement and Labor Law

    The Labor Movement and Labor Law

    2002 President George W. Bush pledges to strip collective bargaining rights from 170,000 civil servants in the new Transportation Security Administration and denies bargaining rights to airport-security screening personnel
  • Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

    U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation
  • Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

    U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation