|
|
                   |
To see another month, clink on the appropriate link. The external links provided in these pages are for those interested in reading more on the various people and topics. These sites are not affiliated in any way with CWA Local 4319. All pictures used in the Labor Calendar, unless otherwise indicated, are courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
June 1The Ladies Federal Labor Union Number 2703 was granted a charter from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1888. Women from a wide range of occupations -- clerks, bookbinders, candymakers, typists, dressmakers, music teachers, gum makers, laundresses, and others -- were organized into the Illinois-based union. Its members were successful in coalescing women's groups interested in suffrage, temperance, health, housing, and child labor reform to win state legislation in these areas. June 3The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was founded in 1900 when delegates met, selected the union's name, picked out a union label, and elected officers. June 4The newly built AFL-CIO building, situated in full view of the White House, opened its doors in 1956. June 7In 1979, the historic founding convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union brought together the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. June 10In 1963, the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits employers from paying different wages to women than men for the same job, was signed into law. June 12In 1904, 50,000 members of the Amalgameted Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen employed in meatpacking plants walked off their jobs. Among their demands was equalization of wages and conditions throughout U.S. plants. June 16Eight local unions organize the International Fur Workers Union of U.S. and Canada in 1913. The union later merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen. June 17Twelve trade unionists met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1936 to launch a drive to organize all steelworkers. This effort marked the birth of the United Steelworkers of America, then called the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). By year's end, more than 125,000 joined the fledgling union, rallying to the $5-a-day wage demand. June 19In 1942, the Ford Motor Company recognized the United Auto Workers. June 20The American Railway Union, headed by Eugene Debs, was founded in 1893. The next year, in a strike against Pullman Company, the union was defeated by the use of injunctions and by federal troops sent to the Chicago area. Debs was imprisoned for violating the injunctions. June 23The antiworker Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 over President Truman's veto. The act weakened unions and allowed states to exempt themselves from union requirements. Twenty states immediately enacted anti-union open shop laws (so-called "Right to Work" states). June 24Agnes Nestor, president of the International Glove Workers Union in 1913 and longtime leader of the Chicago Women's Trade Union League, was born in 1880. She began working in a glove factory at age 14, working 10-hour days, six days a week. June 25At the urging of black labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who saw jobs opening up in defense plants but not being offered to blacks, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order barring discriminiation in defense industries in 1941. June 27The Industrial Workers of the World was founded in 1905. June 27Anarchist, feminist, and labor activist Emma Goldman was born in 1869. June 28President Grover Cleveland signed the bill making Labor Day a national holiday in 1894.
Home Page | Buying Guide | Committees | Contact Us | Editorials
|
