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Slaves from Africa first imported to the colonies
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First recorded prosecution against strikers in New York City
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American Revolution begins
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Slave importation prohibited
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Seneca Falls women’s rights convention
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Abraham Lincoln takes office as president and Civil War begins
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Railway Labor Act sets up procedures to settle railway labor disputes and forbids discrimination against union members
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15th Amendment to the Constitution adopted; states the right to vote may not be abrogated by color
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First Labor Day parade in New York City
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Iron and steel workers union defeated in lockout at Homestead, Pa. Integreated general strike in New Orleans succeeds
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Triangle Shirtwaist factory in fire in New York kills nearly 150 workers
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Woodrow Wilson takes office as president and appoints the first secretary of labor, William B. Wilson of the Mine Workers
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United States enters World War I
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19th Amendment to the Constitution gives women the right to vote
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Stock market crashes as stocks fall 40 percent; Great Depression begins
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AFL and CIO create labor's Non-Partisan League and help President Roosevelt win re-election to a second term
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John L. Lewis resigns and Philip Murray becomes CIO president
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U.S. troops enter combat in World Wal II National War Labor Board created with union members
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Largest strike wave in U.S. history
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President John Kennedy's order gives federal workers the right to bargain
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., during sanitation workers' strike
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Labor Council for Latin American Advancement founded
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Pride at Work, a national coalition of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender workers and their supporters, becomes an AFL-CIO constituency group AFL-CIO membership renewed growth
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The National Labor College (NLC) receives full accreditation from the Middle State Higher Education Commission, enabling it to grant bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
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The U.S. Department of Labor reported that union density in the U.S. had grown over the previous two years, with a net gain of 759,000 members in 2007 and 2008.
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40,000 union activists and allies protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, the largest anti-globalization mobilization to date.
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Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance created within AFL-CIO
