1913 Silk Strike United Diverse Workforce
A 1913 strike among silk industry workers in Paterson, NJ proved that laborers could stand up to the factory bosses who exploited them. The strike united men and women, immigrant and native-born, and skilled and unskilled workers, and although it...
Forty Years Later, The Fight for Safety in the Workplace Goes On
Before passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in December 1970, millions of Americans risked their lives every time they reported for duty: There were no national safety laws to protect workers.
Forty years ago, the groundbreaking...
The Battle of Blair Mountain
Following a wave of strikes, by 1920 the United Mine Workers (UMW) had succeeded in winning union contracts for miners across much of the nation, but coal barons in the southern West Virginia were determined to keep workers down. Company bosses cut...
Bloody Showdown on the Road to Union Rights
The mines of Appalachia were no place for the timid during the “coal wars” of the early 20th century. Following World War I, coal companies exploited workers, who were forced to endure miserable, dangerous job conditions. Wielding dynamite, picks,...
Black Women Advance Labor’s Cause In an Unlikely Setting: 1881 Atlanta
A little known yet largely successful job action waged in 1881 by black women in Atlanta is credited with helping to set the stage for a century of labor and civil rights struggles.