Today in labor history May 09

[Omaha Steve]

May 09

Legendary Western Federation of Miners leader William “Big Bill” Haywood goes on trial for murder in the bombing death of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg, who had brutally suppressed the state’s miners. Haywood ultimately was declared innocent - 1907


May 9, 1934 - West Coast longshoremen walked off their jobs, with the action eventually culminating in a four-day general strike in San Francisco. The ranks of the workers held firm, despite police violence and attempts by national union leadership to cave into employer demands. The strikers responded by electing new leaders. Prominent among the new faces was San Francisco longshoreman Harry Bridges, who later became president of the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union and for decades was a militant voice for the movement.

Read more about the strike at http://www.shapingsf.org/ezine/labor/genstrike/index.html

United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther and his wife May die in a plane crash as they travel to oversee construction of the union’s education and training facility at Black Lake, Mich. - 1971

4,000 garment workers, mostly Hispanic, strike for union recognition at the Farah Mfg. Co. in El Paso, Tex. - 1972

[pnorman]

1. Thanks, Steve!

That Bloody Thursday link was one I had never seen before. Looks interesting.

pnorman