LABOR HISTORY TIMELINE
Compiled by Tom Day & Gene Lawhorn

"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned on in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. But not withstanding all this… labor today is the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and it's historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as the setting of the sun."

Eugene Debs, American Railway Union

1700's

• Colonial America - Guild system, Skilled Masters, journeymen, then apprentices many of whom are indentured servants. Demand for skilled carpenters is very high, apprentices make twice as much as English counterparts.
• The Carpenters Company of Philadelphia is founded and publishes a " Book of Prices" which standardizes cost of construction.

1773

• The Ship Carpenters and Culkers of Boston play a leading role in the Boston Tea Party.

1776

• The Constitutional Assembly meets in the Philadelphia Carpenters Hall on July 4th to sign the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

1788

• Again the Constitutional Assembly meets in the Philadelphia Carpenters Hall to draft the US Constitution.

1790

• The first textile mill is established in Pawtucket, Rhode Island by Samuel Slater. All the workers are children under age 12.

1791

• The Union of Society Carpenters organize and strike for a uniform workday from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, and no winter piece rate work.

1793

• Cotton gin invented which speeds up production of cotton and increases pressure slaves.
• 1800's "Empire in Wood" by Robert A. Christie tells us that three basic changes took place from 1791 to 1881 which influenced the development of Carpenter's unions in the US. (1) A change in the basic organization of the industry…(2) A widening of the labor market…(3) An advance in technology.

1806

• Eight Philadelphia shoemakers are found guilty of a criminal conspiracy after striking for higher wages under an old English common law dating back to 1349 which forced survivors of the black plague to work for fixed wages.

1814

• The Power Loom is invented which takes the weaving of cloths out of homes and into the factories where women and children are worked 12 to 16 hrs a day, seven days a week.

1825

• The United Textile Workers of New York conduct the first all women's strike for higher wages. Women are accused of striking against God and mankind.
• In the Carpenter trades the Masters become employers, journeymen and apprentices respond as employees.

1830

• Mary Harris Jones is born in Cork County Ireland. Emigrates to the US at age 8 with her family. She is the most controversial labor activist in American History. Becomes popularly know as " The Miner's Angel" " Mother Jones" and as the " Most Dangerous Woman in America" She is hired as the first woman organizer by the United Mine Workers, and her most active years in labor are between the ages of 60 to 100.

1834

• The Factory Girls Association is organized in Lowell, Massachusetts and goes on strike over wages and working conditions.

1840

• Under pressure from labor Organizations President Martin Van Buren signs into law a federal 10 hour workday for employees on public works.

1848

• Pennsylvania enacts a 10 hr workday law. Women mill workers forced to violate the law riot and attack the factory gates with axes.

1852

• On July 6th born into this world one of the most dynamic and hard working labor leader Peter J. McGuire.

1859

• Iron Moulders Union founded in Philadelphia. Oregon becomes a State.

1860

• April 12th Edmund Ruffin receives the honor of firing the first shot bringing us the American Civil War.

1863

• Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln. The Working Women's Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers founded. The Draft, or Conscription Act is enacted which allows the rich to pay a $300.00 commutation fee, or for cheaper price they can buy a replacement to serve for them in the Union Army. Workers throughout the Nation riot in protest. The Robber Barons, Rockefeller, J Gould, J.P. Morgan, Philip Armour, James Hill, Andrew Carnegie, and Jim Fisk all opt out of serving their Country using the Draft act.

1865

• Civil War ends, Old Edmund Ruffin who fired the first shot puts another one into his own head. In the post Civil War boom construction shoots up 250%
• Industrial Revolution wipes out many crafts replacing them with mass produced goods.

1866

• The National Labor Union founded. Headed by Iron Molder William Sylvis. This was the first permanent National labor organization in the US. Within a decade the NLU would fade into oblivion due to it's involvement in monetary reforms, and strict political action.

1867

• Shoe factory workers form a union called the Knights of St. Crispin, who is the patron saint of their craft. By 1870 they would become the largest labor union in the Nation with over 50,000 members.

1868

• The First 8 hour day is granted to workers employed by the Federal Government. The law has no legal sanctions and violated with impunity by employers.

1869

• The Black National Union is founded by IsaaK Myers. The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor is also founded. First organized as a secret labor society with passwords, and signs to combat labor spies, and blacklist. They would go on to become one of the most important historical efforts in labor organization after they dropped the secret rituals. Originally founded by group of Philadelphia Tailors under Uriah Stephens they would go on to represent over one million workers including women, and Blacks from Carpenters to railroad engineers.

1873

• One of the first great depressions hits the Nation as the Jay Cook banking empire Goes bankrupt. Massive unemployment hits the Nation, and wages are depressed, and many labor unions dissolve as workers compete for what little jobs remain.

1874

• Thousand of unemployed workers march on Thompson Square in New York City demanding relief. The chief organizer for this demonstration is a young trade unionist, P.J. McGuire who would go on seven years later to found the UBC. The marchers are violently attacked by the police. McGuire is denounced on the Courthouse steps by his Father for being a radical.

1877

• Possibly one of the most important historical events to take place in US labor History. Ten union coal miners members of The Workingmens' Benevolent Society were executed in Pottsville, and Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. Nine more would be executed within a year all charged with murder while being members of a secret Irish society, the Molly Maguires. These men were also members of a conservative Irish benevolent society, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A Pinkerton spy infiltrated the Hibernians with the purpose of breaking the Coal miners union. So successful was his infiltration, that after the execution the labor spy and strikebreaking business would become a multi-million enterprise. Spies would be seeded in almost every workplace, and union in the Nation. The name Pinkerton would become an anathema to all workers.

1877

• Within a month execution of the so called Molly Maguires A railroad strike in Martinsburg W.Va. would set off the largest post Revolutionary War insurrection in this Nation's history. Historian Philip Foner calls it the Great Labor Uprising of 1877. Workers from East coast to West coast would turn out in a General Strike to support the striking railroad workers In all over one hundred workers would be killed by US troops, and vigilantes to quell the uprising.

1881

• Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada founded. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners is born. On August 12. P.J. McGuire becomes the first General Secretary, and Gabriel Edmonston the first General President.

1882

• First Labor Day Celebrated in New York.

1883

• Carpenters Local 50 is chartered in Portland, Oregon. FOTLU President Sam Gompers visits Portland and sets the Federated Trades Assembly.

1886

• General Strike in support of the eight hour day begins on May 1st.Tens of thousands of works leave their jobs in the major cities of the US. Many are granted shorter hours without having to strike. May 3rd, six Striking workers are killed by Pinkerton thugs at the McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago. May 4th A squad of police enter Haymarket Square to break up a demonstration protesting the murders of the previous day. Someone threw a bomb in to the police killing seven. The police open fire and kill and unknown amount, and wounding over two hundred. This became know as the Haymarket Massacre. May 5th. In Bayview, Wisconsin seven strikers are killed Fighting for the eight hour day. FOTLU reorganizes and becomes The American Federation of Labor (AFL).

1887

• The State of Oregon becomes the first State to declare a labor Day.

1890

• The United Mine Workers of America are born. The members of the UMW would go on to become " the shock troops of the American labor movement"

1892

• Homestead, Pennsylvania . The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin workers go on strike against the Andrew Carnegie owned Homestead Works. twelve mill complex employing almost 4000 workers. They take over the complex, and Carngeie sends in Pinkerton Detectives to retake the plant. After a seven hour battle the Pinkertons surrender. Seven workers and three Pinkertons were killed in the battle. State troops were called in to end the uprising, crushing the strike.

1894

• Eugene Debs leads the American Railway Union on a strike against the Pullman Car Company. US troops are called out and break the strike. Over thirty workers were killed on the picket lines.

1897

• The Lattimer Massacre. Nineteen striking coal miners are killed shot in the back as they peacefully march to stand picket at a mine entrance. Thirty nine more were wounded.

1898

• Fourteen striking coal miners were killed, and twenty four wounded in a battle to prevent a train load of "replacement workers" (aka scabs) from being shipped in from the South. This became known as The Virden Massacre.

1900

• The Portland Labor Press, now the Northwest Labor Press issued it first edition. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union is founded.

1901

• United Textile workers founded

1902

• Mother Jones now seventy three years old leads the march of the mill Children from the textile mills of Pennsylvania to the summer home of President Teddy Roosevelt . Although Roosevelt refuses to see them the march successfully highlighted the problem of child labor and as a result many States changed laws to restrict child labor as a result.

1905

• The Industrial Workers of the World is founded. This union was the most Unique ever founded in the history of the world. With direct action as their credo the IWW or Wobblies would put the forward back into the labor movement. From 1905 to 1920 the IWW would fight a series of battles from labor rights to free speech rights that would seek to affirm every principle set fourth in the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

1906

• Upton Sinclair's classic exposure of the working conditions in the meat packing industry is published. Many people, after reading The Jungle have become vegetarians.

1906

• February 18th United Brotherhood of Carpenters Organizer, and founder, Peter J. McGuire dies.

1910

• Carpenters Union reaches 200,000 members making it the largest trade union in the US.

1911

• 146 workers, mostly women are killed in the Triangle Shirtwaste Fire in New York City. The doors were locked to prevent union organizers from entering. Most jumped to their deaths from the 14th floor.

1912

• The great State of Oregon passes the very first minimum wage law in the Nation.

1913

• Mucklow, West Virginia 12 striking coal miners were massacred by thugs Working for the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency. December 24th in Calumet, Michigan 62 Children and 11 adults are crushed in a narrow stair case when Mahon-Wadell detectives gave a false fire alarm during a Christmas party for the children of striking copper miners. This is forever known as " The Christmas Massacre of 1913"

1914

• Striking coal miners in Ludlow Colorado are attacked by the Colorado National Guard on Easter Sunday as they perform a daily ritual of raising the American Flag. These miners were housed in a colony of Tents provided by the United Mine Workers. Pits were dug under the tents to keep women and children from getting hit from the bullets randomly fired by the NG and the Baldwin Felts guards. One day after the attack the bodies of 11 children and two pregnant women are discovered in the pit under a burned mattress. The Ludlow Massacre will forever be remember as one of the most heinous crimes committed against the working class in America's History.

1915

• November 5th in Everett, Washington a boat load of Industrial Workers of the World members attempt to disembark from the Veronia, to participate in a free speech fight in Everett. They were fired on by drunken sheriff deputies in an ambush. 5 men were killed another 6 disappeared in the turbulent waters never to be seen again. William Hutchenson is elected General President of the UBC. He becomes one of the most forceful personalities in the Labor movement. He doggedly protects the multi-dimensional jurisdiction of the working carpenter from all other trades. Adamson Act creates a 8 hour work day for all railroad workers.
• IWW troubadour, Joe Hill is executed by the State of Utah in a framed up Murder charge.

1919

• Year of Great violence against workers. Elaine, Arkansas on September 30th  Between 100 and 500 striking cotton pickers were massacred by State Troops and vigilantes composed of the towns leading citizens.
• Boston Police go on strike over low pay and terrible working conditions
• Bogalusa Massacre Four organizers for the UBC are murdered by thugs working for The Great Southern Lumber Company, owned by the Goodyear Corporation.

1920

• The Matewan Battle. Seven coal company thugs, two miners, and the town Mayor are killed as company thugs attempt to evict striking coal miners form their homes with city limits.

1921

• Matewan town Marshall Sid Hatfield and deputy Ed Chambers were executed by Baldwin Felts . The murder of these heroes of the union coal miners precipitated the largest post-civil war rebellion in US history. The Battle of Blair Mountain.
• Between 10 to 20 thousand miners from the surrounding States march on the anti-union stronghold of Logan County and it's sheriff DanChafin. US troops are again called out to quell the uprising.
• Landis Decision Judge Kenesaw Landis slashes wages beyond contractors proposals and weakens the closed shop for five years.

1922

• The International Longshoreman's Association strike for Union recognition at the Port of Portland. The pickets are attacked by police and over 500 are arrested. The Palmer Red Raids hit Portland and every known member of the IWW are arrested.

1929

• Stock market crashes sending the economy in a downward tailspin.

1930

• Mother Mary Harris Jones dies at the age of 100 year old.

1931

• The Davis-Bacon Act becomes law requiring employers to pay prevailing wages to workers of contractors and subcontractors on all public construction projects. This is one of the most important laws dealing with the construction industry and is under constant attack by big business.

1932

• Wisconsin enacts the first unemployment insurance act in the Nation.

1933

• President Roosevelt installs Francis Perkins as Secretary of Labor. She is the First woman to ever serve in a US cabinet position

1935

• The National Labor Relations, or Wagner act becomes law. This is the first National law to protect a workers right to organize and bargain collectively.

1935

• The Committee for Industrial Organization if formed within the American Federation of Labor. They would later become the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

1936

• Rubber workers for Goodyear, and auto workers for GM find they have more Power by sitting down on the job within factory gates than they do on the picket line. So they conduct sit down strikes and win union recognition, higher wages and better benefits. The Byrnes Act becomes law also known as the anti-strikebreaker act. This law prevented the aid to transport of strikebreakers in interstate or foreign trade. The Walsh-Healey Act, or the Public Contract Act also becomes law, which establishes a minimum wage, overtime pay, child and convict labor provisions, and safety regulations on all federal contracts.

1937

• GM recognizes the UAW. US steel recognizes the United Steel Workers. 10 workers killed, and over 60 wounded by Chicago Police as they peaceably march on the Republic steel works. This was the last mass execution of striking workers by authorities protecting the interest of big business. Why? Because the Movie Tone News Cameras was their to catch every detail.
• CIO expelled from the AFL.
• The National Apprenticeship Act Becomes law. This establishes a bureau of apprentship within the Bureau of Labor.

1938

• The Fair Labor Standards Act creates a .25 cent minimum wage and time and Half for overtime.

1941

• The Ford Motor Company recognizes the United Autoworkers of America after decades of bitter struggle. Henry Ford hired his own private security known as Ford Service Men. Their job was to beat, intimidate, and harass union organizers, and sympathizers.
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and thus the US enters World War II. Trade Union membership increases. Women enter the workforce in large numbers.

1942

• On labor day the Liberty Ship SS Peter J. McGuire is launched at Richmond Yards in San Francisco. Liberty ships would supply US troops, and allies with supplies to fight the war.
• President Roosevelt gives an executive order creating a committee on fair employment to eliminate discrimination in the war industries.

1943

• The SS Santiago Iglesias is launched in Baltimore, Maryland. Named after a Puerto Rican Senator and Union Carpenter.

1944

• Union membership reaches it historic peak of over 18,000,000 workers.

1945

• World War II ends starting the post war boom brining the standard of living up for most all Americans. Especially with Union membership.CIO, Congress of Industrial Organizations affiliates with the World Federation of Trade Unions.

1946

• Largest Strike wave in the history of the U.S.

1947

• The Taft-Hartley Act becomes law despite a veto from President Truman. Also Known as the Labor Management Relations Act. This law would have a chilling effect on labor organizing, and labor relations. It gave States the right to outlaw the close shop. Secondary boycotts became illegal, and labor organizations have to file financial reports with the bureau of labor. United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis called the Taft-Hartley act " the first ugly savage thrust of fascism in America."

1948

• The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is amended to prohibit child labor for the first time in US history.
• The Congress of Industrial Organizations begin to expel union with communist leadership.

1955

• The AFL-CIO merge electing George Meany as it first President Meany rose out of the New York Plumber's union to become great stereotypical cigar chopping union boss the media loves to hate.

1957

• The AFL-CIO expels the Teamsters, and Laundry Workers unions for corruption.

1958

• The United Brotherhood of Carpenters reaches it's peak of 850,000 members

1959

• The Landrum - Griffin Act, also known as The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act becomes law. Another stab at the heart of labor, restricts certain types of picketing, and tightens restrictions on secondary Boycotts.

1963

• Equal Pay Act becomes law. Prohibits wage differences based on sex.

1964

• Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in workplace based on sex, color, religion, and National origin.

1968

• The Age Discrimination Act becomes law.

1970

• Rise of new and improved open shop drive by Big Business.
• Anti-Union activity increases. The ABC and other open shop contractors gain work with double breasted shops. Lowers safety, and wage standards.

1974

• Coalition of Labor Union Women founded in Chicago.
• Labor's Community Service is founded to meet the needs of down and out Union members.

1977

• The University of Oregon establishes the Labor Education and Research Center.

1980's

• Ronald Raygun and the "New Right" with it's anti-union sector gain economic and political power. BE&K, PCL, Fluor Daniel, Brown & Root, and ect.Reagan breaks the Air Traffic controllers union kicking off a large scale attack on labor unions form business all over the Nation.
• Joyce Miller become the first woman appointed to the AFL-CIO executive Board.

1987

• Oregon Public Employees strike for and win pay equity for women workers.

1989

• The UBC starts an intensive National training, and organizational programs.

1990's

• Portland Jobs with Justice is founded. Labor supported drives to raise minimum wages is successful making Oregon the highest level in the Nation.
• Labor defeats a series of legislative attacks form anti - union forces lead by Bill Sizemore and his puppet masters of the Oregon Business Roundtable.

2001

• September 11 Terrorist attack the Pentagon, and the World Trade Centers killing over 3000 people. 17 of those murdered were union carpenters working in their daily jobs. Several escaped then returned to help with rescue efforts.

2003

• IT'S ON YOU NOW! Go make history. Educate, agitate, and organize!

Recommended Books and Videos about Labor History
By Gene Lawhorn

1. Labor's Untold Story
   By Richard O. Boyer & Herbert M Morais. This is one of the very best Labor history primers available.
   
    
2. A Peoples History of the United States
   By Howard Zinn
   
    
3. Toil & Trouble: A History of American Labor By
   Thomas R Brooks
   
    
4. History of the Labor Movement in the United States Ten Volumes
   By Philip Foner
   
    
5. We Were There: The Story of Working Women in America
   By Barbara Wertheimer
   
    
6. Rebels in the Woods: The IWW in the Pacific Northwest
   By Robert L Tyler
   
    
7. Big Trouble
   By J. Anthony Lukas This is a big book, but very a thorough examination of the attempted frame up of Western Federation of Miners leaders for the murder of Ex-Governor of Idaho in 1905.
   
    
8. Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry
   By Priscilla Long. This is an amazing book!!!
   
    
9. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires
   By Kevin Kenny This is the most thorough examination of the Mollies to date.
   
    
10. The Labor Spy Racket
    By Leo Huberman
    
     
11. Strike!
    By Jeremy Brecher
    
     
12. The Road to Dignity (Carpenters History)
    by Thomas R. Brooks
    
     
13. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters
    By Walter Galenson
    
     
14. Empire in Wood: A History of the Carpenters Union
    By Robert A. Chrsitie This book is very-very hard to find!
    
     
15. Fear at Work: Job Blackmail, Labor, and the Environment
    By Richard L. Grossman & Richard Kazis

VIDEOS

1. Matewan
   Written & Directed by John Sayles This is the absolute best acted and well written story about labor history!!! It is a work of Genus!
   
    
2. Salt of the Earth
   This movie was banned and blacklisted, do we need a better reason to see it? The cast of the movie was composed of actual strikers, and black listed actors.
   
    
3. Roger & Me
   by Michael Moore This is dark comedy about the shut down of the GM plants is Flint Michigan. See this movie you will never by another GM automobile!
   
    
4. Norma Rae
   Based on a true story, Sally Fields does an excellent job in this movie.
   
    
5. Silkwood
   Hollywood heavy hitters Meryl Streep, Cher, and Kurt Russell tell the true story of Oil & Chemical workers activist Karen Silkwood, and her efforts to expose illegal activities at a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant.
   
    
6. The Killing Floor This movie explores race, and work at a Chicago Meat packing plant.
   
    
7. Harlin County USA
   Documentary explores the conflict between union miners and management is Bloody Harlin County Kentucky.

Most of these books can be purchased at Powell's Books, the only union bookstore in the State. The videos can be purchased on Ebay. You can also find many hard to come by labor books on ebay as well as www.abebooks.com.