labor history

  • Steward's Corner: Remember the Past, and Use It
    Craig Merrilees, Gillian Furst
    Nov 20 2009 - 6:01pm

    In San Francisco in 1934, heavily armed police and company thugs attacked striking maritime workers on the waterfront. The massive funeral procession that followed won public support and inspired workers—including Teamsters members who overruled their president to support a general strike that lasted several days, and spread fear among civic leaders, business owners, and politicians.

  • Labor History: Solidarity Begins with PATCO
    Labor Notes staff
    Aug 17 2009 - 3:30pm

    The sign carried by a sympathizer on the Professional Air Traffic Controllers picket line at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport read: “Polish Solidarity American Style.” With American unionists being fired and thrown in jail simply for exercising the right to strike, the comparison with Poland was inevitable.

  • History in the Making: Labor Party Founded in Cleveland
    Jane Slaughter
    Jul 15 2009 - 12:51pm
    ** Print only

    Outsized buttons proclaimed it “history in the making.” Indeed, nothing like it has been seen in the United States for decades. Over 1,500 union members gathered in Cleveland June 6-9 to found a labor party. A groundswell of interest in the last two months doubled the turn-out convention organizers had expected ….