« Conservatives Declare War On Unions - Public Employee Unions to Be Outlawed in Wisconsin | Main | Union Busting In Wisconsin »

Labor's Bloody History

Strikers get clubbed by police

The period in American history leading up from the Civil War to World War II was particularly violent and bloody for labor. It was through that struggle that many of the very most basic rights we enjoy today came about. These include:

  • Abolition of clihld labor
  • The eight hour day
  • Unemployment insuance
  • Social security
  • The right to form and join unions, and bargain collectively

To give a glimpse of the background that led up to these changes, here's a list of the major strikes that took place in the United States from after the Civil War on (courtesy of Wikipedia):

1850-1899


  • Great Railroad Strike (1877)

  • Cigarmakers' Strike (1877)

  • Cohoes New York, Cotton Mill Strike (1882)

  • Cowboy Strike (1883)

  • Lynchburg Virginia, Tobacco Workers' Strike (1883)

  • Molders' Lockout (1883)

  • Fall River Massachusetts, Textile Strike (1884)

  • Union Pacific Railroad Strike (1884)

  • Cloakmakers' General Strike (1885)

  • McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Strike (1885)

  • Southwest Railroad Strike (1885)

  • Yonkers New York, Carpet Weavers' Strike (1885)

  • Augusta Georgia, Textile Strike (1886)

  • Cowboy Strike (1886)

  • Eight-Hour Strikes (1886)

  • McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Strike (1886)

  • Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886

  • Troy New York, Collar Launderesses' Strike (1886)

  • Haymarket Affair (1886)

  • Bay View Tragedy (1886)

  • Port of New York, Longshoremens' Strike (1887)

  • Lafourche Parish,Louisiana, Sugar Cane Workers Strike (1887)

  • Burlington Railroad Strike (1888)

  • Cincinnati Shoemakers' Lockout (1888)

  • Baseball Players' Revolt (1889)

  • Fall River Massachusetts, Textile Strike (1889)

  • Carpenters' Strike for the Eight-Hour Day (1890)

  • Savanna Georgia, Black Laborers' Strike (1891)

  • Tennessee Miners' Strike (1891)

  • Homestead Strike (1892)

  • Buffalo switchmen's strike (1892)

  • Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892 (1892)

  • Coxey's Army marches on Washington D.C. (1894)

  • Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894

  • Pullman Strike (1894)

  • Great Northern Railway Strike (1894)

  • Bituminous Coal Miners' Strike of 1894

  • Haverhill Massachusetts Shoe Strike (1895)

  • Brooklyn, New York Trolley Workers' Strike (1895)

  • Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike (1896)

  • Lattimer Massacre Strike (1897, Pennsylvania )

  • Marlboro Massachusetts, Shoe Workers' Strike (1888)

  • Buffalo New York, Grain Shovellers' Strike (1899)

  • Cleveland Ohio, Street Railway Workers' Strike (1899)

  • Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899 (1899)

  • Newsboys Strike of 1899 (New York City)


    • 20th century


    1900s



    1910s



    1920s



    1930s




    1940's



    1950s



    1960s



    1970s



    1980s



    1990s



    21st century





    Tags:

    Posted by Mike Pellegrini on February 28, 2011 7:26 PM |

    TrackBack

    TrackBack URL for this entry:
    http://www.mikepellegrini.com/cgi/mt-tb.cgi/94

    Comments (1)

    D Author Profile Page:

    this is brutal! civil rights has been really disregarded before! too bad. trains o scale

    Posted by D Author Profile Page | October 28, 2011 12:25 AM

    Posted on October 28, 2011 00:25

    Post a comment

    (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

    Search


    About

    This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 28, 2011 7:26 PM.

    The previous post in this blog was Conservatives Declare War On Unions - Public Employee Unions to Be Outlawed in Wisconsin.

    The next post in this blog is Union Busting In Wisconsin.

    Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

    Subscribe to this blog's feed
    [What is this?]
    Powered by
    Movable Type 4.01