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JamesTown Polish Craftsman Strike
This was North America's first recorded labor uprising, Polish craftsmen, who produced glass, pitch & tar for the Jamestown colony, went on strike to protest their lack of voting rights. The incident ended peacefully when they were granted full voting rights. -
Bacon's Rebellion
A revolt in colonial Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon caused by high taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment against governor, William Berkeley's friendly attitude toward Indians. Bacon commanded two unauthorized but successful expeditions against the tribes and was then elected to the new house of burgesses, While the farmers did not succeed in their goal of driving Native Americans from Virginia, the rebellion did result in Berkeley being recalled to England. -
Stono's Rebellion
Largest slave uprising in early America near the Stono River, 20 mi from Charleston, S.C., slaves gathered, raided a firearms shop, and headed south, killing more than 20 whites as they went. The slaves may have hoped to reach St. Augustine, Fla., where the Spanish were offering freedom and land to any fugitive. White colonists quickly passed a Negro Act that further limited slave privileges. -
Boston Massacre
Late in the afternoon, on March 5, a crowd of jeering rope workers slinging snowballs gathered around a small group of British soldiers guarding the Boston Customs House. The soldiers became enraged after one of them had been hit, and they fired into the crowd, even though they were under orders not to fire. Five colonists were shot and killed. -
Philadelphia Journeymen Cordwainers
In 1794 Philadelphia shoemakers organized the "Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers" (the name came from the cordovan leather they worked with) in an effort to secure stable wages. Over the next decade, the union secured some wage increases. The union of Philadelphia Journeymen Cordwainers were both convicted of and bankrupted by charges of criminal conspiracy after a strike for higher wages, setting a precedent by which the U.S. government would combat unions for years to come. -
Workingman's Party Established
he Workingman's Party was established in New York Cityunder the leadership of Robert Dale Owen and Frances Wright. Its program included demands for the abolition of imprisonment for debt and for worker's compensation laws. For a while the party was a factor in state and local elections. In the late 1830s a significant number of its members joined the Whig Party. The party was revived in the 1870s by Dennis Kearney in California. -
Lowell Mill Strike
A group of Boston capitalists built a major textile manufacturing center in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the second quarter of the 19th century. The young female operatives organized to protest these wage cuts in 1834 and 1836. There was a decline in protest among women in the Lowell mills following these early strike defeats. -
Commonwealth vs. Hunt
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National Labor Union Founded
The NLU was led by William Sylvis and attracted more than 600,000 members included skilled and unskilled workers and farmers. They called for an eight hour day, restrictions on immigrants entering America, and an end to convict labor. The union made nominal efforts to include women and blacks. After failure at the Iron Strike in 1866, Sylvis concentrated on legislature. It was destroyed by the Panic of 1873 because jobs became scarce, and members became focused on keeping their jobs. -
Railway Strike of 1877
n 1877, after the Panic of 1973, the Baltimore & Ohio railroad began cutting wages. This ignited a series of strikes across the northeast that lasted for 45 days. The strikes began in Martinsburg, West Virginia and sympathy spread for the workers, and about 100,000 railroad workers began rioting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Missouri, and Ohio. After violence erupted, President Hayes called in federal troops. The strike began an era of strife between workers and factory owners. -
8 Hour Work Day
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, passed a resolution stating that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886." This was a big step for workers looking for a more rights. -
American Federation of Labor
Founded by Samuel Gompers, organized skilled workers by crafts. they fought for higher wages,shorter wages, and improved working conditions through collective bargaining. -
Colored National Labor Union
Established in 1869, the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU) was formed by African Americans to organize their labor collectively on a national level. The CNLU, like other labor unions in the United States, had as its goal improving the working conditions and quality of life for its members. Headed by Issac Myers -
Haymarket Riots
n chicago striking mccormick harvester worker clashed with police, four strikers were killed. The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. -
The Homestead Strike
The battle was one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history, third behind the Ludlow Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in the Pittsburgh area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (the AA) and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for their efforts to unionize steelworkers. -
Pullman Strike
The strike was led by Eugene V. Debs, leader of the American Railway Union, in which 50,000 railroad workers striked outside the Pullman Company in Pullman, Illinois because of a 25% cut in wages. Sympathy strikes broke out in 27 states including Chicago. The U.S. Attorney General, Richard Olney, obtained an injunction against the strikers for impeding the mail service and federal troops were called in. The event established that the Sherman Antitrust Act could be enforced against labor unions. -
March of the Mill Children
Labor organizer Mary Harris Jones, otherwise known as "Mother Jones," lead child workers working in mills and mines in the "Children's Crusade" demanding a 55 hour work week. The strike ended at the home of President Theodore Roosevelt with banners demanding "We want time to play!" and "We want to go to school!" The strike was ignored but brought child labor to the forefront of the public grievances. -
triangle shirtwaist fire
A fire in a shirtwaist factory in lower Manhattan kills 146 workers, mostly young women. The tragedy emphasized the harsh conditions that women are forced to work under, arousing immediate sympathy throughout America. The fire also helped to solidify support for workers' unions like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Finally, as a result of the fire, the American Society of Safety Engineers was founded soon after in New York City on October 14, 1911 -
Minimum Wage
Massachusetts becomes the first state to adopt a minimum wage law for women and children. This acted as a precedent for future mimumum wage laws in other states. -
Ludlow Massacre
During a mining strike at Ludlow, Colorado, the National Guard intervened. In an attempt to stop the strikers, they Guardmen opened fire at them and even set fire on their tents which killed miners as well as children and a couple women. As a result of this massacre, the leaders of the organized labor called to arms proposing to a large scale guerilla war that lasted ten days until President Wilson decided to send troops to stop it. his is known as the most violent labor conflict in US history. -
Clayton Anti-trust Act Passed
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Clayton Anti-trust Act excluding labor unions from the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890. It also legalized peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts. -
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
In an attempt to further promote competition in U.S. business and discourage monopolies, this act was passed to exclude the labor unions from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It also legalized peaceful protesting, picketing, and boycotts.It was signed by President Wilson. -
The Adamson Act
This act was signed and established an 8-hour workday for those interstate railroad workers with overtime pay. This was significant because it was Wilson's response to a pending strike by the majorrailway worker conditions. -
Postwar Strike Wave
After WWI, more than 40k coal workers and 120k textile workers walked away from their job in a wave of strikes. This caused Americans to feel fear of the "Red Scare" in which strikers were rounded upand the publics turned suspicious of labor radicals as being communists. -
Railway Labor Act Passed
This law was enforced so that the law governs labor relations in the railroad and "airline" industries. The act also makes employers bargain with unions and forbids discrimination against union members. -
Stock Market Crash
On this day, also known as "Black Tuesday" , investors traded about 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day and this led to the loss of billions of dollars. Investors were wiped out and America along with the rest of the industrialized world were left to fall into the Great Depression from 1929 to1939, a 10 year period. -
Davis-Bacon Act Passed
Applied to contractors working on projects federally funded or assisted contracts in excess of $2,000 for the construction, alteration or repairs of public buildings or public works. This act demanded that contractors and subcontractors paid thier laborers and mechanic employers no less than the prevailing wages and benefits for corresponding work on similar projects in the area. -
Norris-LaGuardia Act
This act was a 1932 United States federal law that banned yellow-dog contracts, barred federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes, and created a positive right of noninterference by employers against workers joining trade unions. -
Bonus MArch
Led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, the veterans of WWI marched down into Washington DC and were encouraged in their demand for immediate cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. They were pushed back by the US army. -
American Federation of Government Employees
This was a labor union that represented about 600k employees of the federal government, about 5k from the District of Columbia, and some hundred private sector employees who were mostly in federal facilities. This was the largest labor union for civilian, and largest one for District of Columbia. -
Wagner Act
United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands. -
UFW March
In an attempt to achieve better wages and working conditions for states' farm workers, Cesar Chavez along with 60 supporters of the united embarked on a thousand-mile march across California. -
Postwar Strike Wave
Following World War One, more than 40,000 coal workers and 120,000 textile workers walk off the job in a wave of strikes. In response to the strikes, Americans become paranoid of the "Red Scare," in which strikers were rounded up and the public turned suspicious of labor radicals as being communists. -
United Miners of America
The United Mine Workers of America wildcat strike of the Pittston Coal Group in Virginia spreads across the eastern coalfields involving up to 50,000 miners in 11 states. Using non-violence and civil disobedience, the miners win a contract after a bitter nine-month struggle. -
California and Safeway
70,000 Southern California grocery workers strike Safeway to protect their health benefits and stop imposition of a vicious two-tier wage system.
