Today in Labor History June 23, 1947: The anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act was passed, overriding President Harry Truman’s veto. The act rolled back many of the labor protections created by the 1935 Wagner Act. Taft-Hartley weakened unions in numerous ways, including the banning of the General Strike. It also allowed states to exempt themselves from union requirements. Twenty states immediately enacted anti-union open shop laws.
@Free_Press I hope the #USPS at least gave him hazard pay and a lifetime pension and #benefits for his family. And paid a death benefit for his funeral equal to one year's pay.
As opposed to this being the sad death of another #worker who is underpaid and undervalued, working in an organization that regularly understaffs its locations to cut costs. Average #salary for a postal worker is ~$65,000. And junk mail isn't worth dying over.
Today in Labor History June 4, 1947: The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The legislation allows the president of the United States to intervene in labor disputes. Even worse, it banned wildcat strikes, solidarity or secondary strikes, and political strikes, effectively eliminating the General Strike from workers’ arsenal. The law was a direct response to the strike wave of 1945-1946, the largest wave of strikes in U.S. history. It was particularly a response to the Oakland General Strike of 1946, the last General Strike that has occurred in the U.S. And it is one of most effective anti-labor laws ever enacted in the U.S.
Today in Labor History May 9, 1934: Longshoremen began a strike for a union hiring hall and union recognition, ultimately leading to the San Francisco general strike. After World War One, West Coast longshore workers were poorly organized or represented by company unions. The IWW had tried to organize them and had some successes, like in San Pedro, in 1922, but they were ultimately crushed by injunctions, imprisonment, deportation and vigilante violence. While longshoremen lacked a well-organized union, they retained a syndicalist sentiment and militancy. Many Wobblies were still working the docks. On May 9, 1934, longshoremen walked off the job at ports up and down the West Coast, soon to be followed by sailors. Goons shot at strikers in San Pedro. There was also violence in Oakland and San Francisco. Street battles between the cops and strikers continued in San Francisco, heating up on July 3. Things came to a head on Bloody Thursday, July 5, when police shot 3 workers (two of them died). The attack led to a four-day general strike that effectively shut down commerce in San Francisco, despite police violence and attempts to weaken it by national unions.
If this were really a democracy, headlines like this wouldn't be written. Billionaires and lack of wealth distribution have corroded the system. They control the elections.
Today In Labor History May 1, 1886: The first nationwide General Strike for the 8-hour day occurred in Milwaukee and other U.S. cities. In Chicago, police killed four demonstrators and wounded over 200. This led to the mass meeting a Haymarket Square, where an unknown assailant threw a bomb, killing several cops. The authorities responded by rounding up all the city’s leading anarchists, and a kangaroo court which wrongfully convicted 8 of them, including Albert Parsons, husband of Lucy Parsons, who would go on to cofound the IWW, along with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, and others. Worldwide protests against the convictions and executions followed. To honor the wrongfully executed anarchists, and their struggle for the 8 hour day, May first has ever since been celebrated as International Workers Day in nearly every country in the world, except the U.S.