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Kennedy Legalizes Public Employee Unions
This allows federal employees to organize, join unions, and bargain collectively with the government. It does not give them the right to strike. The move begins an era of public employee unionization. -
Equal Pay Act
This prohibits discrimination in wages on the basis of sex. The result: women's earnings will climb from 62% of men's in 1970 to 80% in 2004. -
UAW Splits From AFL
The United Auto Workers under leader Walter Reuther leave the AFL, in part because of personal disputes between Reuther and AFL president George Meany. Reuther will die in a plane crash in 1970, but the UAW will not rejoin the AFL until 1981. -
New York Teachers Strike
A New York City teachers strike ends after depriving more than a million public school students of an education during 36 school days. Pitting union power against the public interest, the strike adds to the distrust of organized labor and exacerbates racial tensions. -
Postal Strike
More than 200,000 Post Office workers walk off the job in the first national strike of public employees. Though the action is illegal and President Nixon calls on the Army and National Guard to keep the mail moving, the two-week strike proves largely successful and ultimately leads to a modernization of the postal service. -
Pension Standards
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) sets minimum standards for most private-sector pension and health plans. This provides key safeguards for employees. -
Major League Baseball Strike
Major League Baseball players strike. Team owners want to restore their own prerogatives by requiring a team to pay compensation to another when hiring a free agent. Players fight the move in a strike that wipes out almost 40% of the season before being settled by compromise in August, just in time to save the World Series from cancellation. -
Air Traffic Controllers Strike
President Ronald Reagan fires the striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), calling the work stoppage illegal. Reagan's action and the demise of the union sets a new tone for labor-management relations across the country. Employers begin to take tough stands against unions and do not hesitate to replace strikers with replacements. The decline in union membership accelerates. -
Hormel Foods Strike
Members of a local of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in Austin, Minnesota, go on strike against the Hormel Foods Corporation, ignoring the advice of their national union. Highlighting the confusion within the labor movement, the workers continue their action even after the company vows to reopen the plant with replacement workers. Some union members cross the picket lines and the strike drags on for ten months with no gains for union members. -
UPS Strike
After a 16-day walkout, United Parcel Service agrees to a contract with the Teamsters, marking labor's first successful nationwide strike in two decades. One of the main issues leading to the strike is the company's practice of using part-time workers to avoid paying benefits. -
UAW Loses Nissan Plant Election
The United Automobile Workers loses an election to represent the workers in a Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. It is one of a series of defeats in attempts to organize the plants of foreign car makers in the U.S. UAW membership will continue to slide. -
Change To Win Is Formed
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters, and other activist unions leave the AFL-CIO to form a new labor coalition called Change to Win. The move represents a new emphasis on organizing workers to bring them into a labor movement starved for members.