Today in Labor History May 5 Mineowner hirelings attack striking miners in Harlan County, Ky & more

[Omaha Steve]

May 5

National Typographical Union founded, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was renamed the International Typographical Union in 1869, in acknowledgment of Canadian members. When the ITU merged into CWA in 1986 it was the oldest existing union in the U.S. - 1852

On Chicago’s West Side, police attack Jewish workers as they try to march into the Loop to protest slum conditions - 1886


May 5, 1886
The day after the Haymarket massacre in Chicago, the Bay View massacre took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After three days of parades and strikes by factory, brewery and building trades workers in support of the eight-hour day, the mayor issued a warning against further demonstrations. On May 5, a crowd of 1,500 marched nonetheless to the Bay View Rolling Mill. The state militia was called out and troops fired in the crowd, killing seven people. No one who fired the shots was ever indicted, but 50 strikers were sentenced to several months of hard labor on rioting and conspiracy charges.

Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are arrested in Boston for murder and payroll robbery. Eventually they are executed for a crime most believe they did not commit - 1920

And this: May 5, 1920 Two Italian-born anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested in Brockton, Massachusetts, and charged with killing two people in an armed robbery. The Sacco-Vanzetti case became a cause celebre that drew attention to the oppression of working people, particularly immigrants, in the United States.

Heavily armed deputies and other mineowner hirelings attack striking miners in Harlan County, Ky., starting the Battle of Harlan County - 1931

John J. Sweeney, president of the Service Employees Intl. Union from 1980 to 1995, then president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009, born in The Bronx, N.Y. - 1934

And this: May 5, 1934 John Sweeney was born. As president, he built the membership of the Service Employees International Union with an aggressive organizing program. In 1995, he was elected president of the AFL-CIO.

Lumber strike begins in Pacific Northwest, will involve 40,000 workers by the time victory is achieved after 13 weeks: union recognition, a 50 cent per hour minimum wage and an eight-hour day - 1937

The U.S. unemployment rate drops to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent; the rate for blacks and Hispanics is the lowest ever since the government started tracking such data - 2000

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_05_05_2010

[phaseolus]

1. there's a kickass song about that --

I'm a Harlan Man
Went down in the mine when I was barely grown
It was easy then
‘Cause I didn't know what I know now
But I'm a family man
And it's the only life that I've ever known
But I'm a Harlan Man
Just as long as my luck and lungs hold out
I'm a mountain man
Born in east Kentucky and here I'll stay
And if it's the good Lord's plan
I'll wake up in the mornin' and find
I'm lookin' at the end
Of another long week and I can draw my pay
‘Cause I'm a Harlan Man
Never catch me whinin' cause I ain't that kind

I'm a union man
Just like my daddy and all my kin
I took a union stand
No matter what the company said
I got me two good hands
And just as long as I'm able I won't give in
‘Cause I'm a Harlan Man
A coal minin' mother ‘til the day I'm dead

- Steve Earle