This Week In Labor History December 25-31

DECEMBER 25
1910 – A dynamite bomb destroys a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in Los Angeles, where a bitter strike was in progress.
1967 – Fourteen servicemen from military bases across the U.S., led by Pvt. Andrew Stapp, form The American Servicemen’s Union (ASU). The union, which never came close to being recognized by the government, in its heyday during the Vietnam War claimed tens of thousands of members and had chapters at bases, on ships and in Vietnam. ASU demands included the right to elect officers.

DECEMBER 26
1869 – Knights of Labor founded. Constitution bars from membership “parasites,” including stockbrokers and lawyers.
1877 – Workingmen’s Party is reorganized as the Socialist Labor Party.

DECEMBER 27
1943 – President Roosevelt seizes the railroads to avert a nationwide strike. His decision to temporarily place the railroads under the “supervision” of the War Department prompts the five railroad brotherhoods to agree to his offer to arbitrate the wage dispute.

DECEMBER 28
1865 – The coffee percolator is patented by James H. Mason of Franklin, Mass., placing himself forever in the debt of millions of caffeine-dependent working people.
1936 – Auto workers begin sit-down strike for union recognition at GM’s Fisher Body plant in Cleveland.
1952 – Country music legend Hank Williams attends what is to be his last musicians’ union meeting, at the Elite (pronounced E-light) café in Montgomery, Ala.  He died of apparent heart failure three days later at the age of 29.

DECEMBER 29
1970 – After years of intensive lobbying by the Labor Movement, a comprehensive national safety law is enacted as President Nixon signs the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970, creating the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).
2006 – More than 15,000 United Steel Workers members at 16 Goodyear Tire & Rubber plants end an 86-day strike, ratify three-year contract.

DECEMBER 30
1899 – Gathering in the back room of Behrens’ cigar shop in Sedalia, Mo., 33 railroad clerks form Local Lodge Number 1 of a union they named the Order of the Railroad Clerks of America.
1905 – Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg, who had brutally suppressed the state’s miners, is killed by an assassin’s bomb. Legendary Western Federation of Miners and IWW leader William “Big Bill” Haywood and two other men were put on trial for the death but were ultimately declared innocent.
1936 – GM sit-down strike spreads to Flint, Mich., will last 44 days before ending in union victory.

DECEMBER 31
1931 – Sixty thousand unemployed workers rally at a Pittsburgh stadium.
1969 – United Mine Workers reformer Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, his wife and daughter are murdered by hit men hired by union president Tony Boyle, who was to be convicted of the crime and eventually die in prison.
1987 – OSHA adopts a grain handling facilities standard to protect 155,000 workers at nearly 24,000 grain elevators from the risk of fire and explosion from highly combustible grain dust.

(Compiled by David Prosten, founder Union Communication Services)