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PODCAST

Labor History in 2:00

The Rick Smith Show

A daily, pocket-sized history of America"s working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.

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All Episodes

01:59

August 16 - George Meany is Born

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/16

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. That was the birthday of the long-time leader of the AFL-CIO. George Meany grew up in the Bronx, with his Irish Catholic family.

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01:59

August 15 - The End of Bretton Woods

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/15

On this day in Labor History the year was 1971. That Sunday, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation in a speech that preempted the popular television show, Bonanza. His subject? The state of the economy. The speech was timed before the stock markets opened on Monday morning.

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01:59

August 14 - A Little Security for Workers

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/14

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936.That was the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. The act was a key piece of the President’s “New Deal” a series of federal programs responding to the ravages of the Great Depression. Social Security would provide an income for retirees and the disabled, to ensure they did no slide into complete destitution. On signing the bill, President Roosevelt, known for delivering memorable speeches, addressed

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01:59

August 13 - Miners Rebel Against Convict Labor System

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/13

On this day in labor history, the year was 1892. That was the day miners in Tracy City, Tennessee rebelled against the state’s convict lease system. Miners had been forced to work side by side with convict labor. The convicts, overwhelmingly African-American, were forced to live in deplorable stockade conditions. Their presence in the mines served to minimize paid labor, keep wages low and stunt union organizing throughout the state. Miners demanded that Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad give them

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01:59

August 12 - High Stakes in Cannery Organizing

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/12

On this day in labor history, the year was 1955. That was the day Teamsters organizer, 28-year old William Grami was kidnapped and beaten. Grami had arrived in Sebastopol, California to help organize about 350 workers in local canneries, drying plants and fruit sheds. The Teamsters had been on campaign footing for months, in an attempt to win union recognition, higher wages and benefits. They had lost a union representation election the previous fall, after Sebastapol Apple Growers moved quickly

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01:59

August 11 - The ILWU is Founded

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/11

On this day in labor history, the year was 1937. That was the day the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union was founded. After the victorious strike of 1934 that established the union hiring hall, West Coast union leaders embarked on an inland campaign to organize the thousands of warehouse workers who handled shipped goods. But West Coast dockworkers overwhelmingly chose to join the CIO after it was expelled from the AFL earlier that year. They found the ILA planned to abandon

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01:59

August 10 - Illinois Brotherhoods Join the ‘22...

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/10

On this day in labor history, the year was 1922. That was the day 1300 workers from the four railroad brotherhoods walked off the job in Joliet, near Chicago. The walkout threatened to paralyze freight service for steel mills in nearby Gary and other regional industries. Four hundred thousand railroad shopmen had been on strike across the country for nearly seven weeks. Newspaper headlines that day warned a general strike of two million trainmen loomed on the horizon. Brotherhood leaders

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01:59

August 9 - Titan II Fire Kills 53

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/09

On this day in labor history, the year was 1965. That was the day fifty-three construction tradesmen were killed in a fire at the Titan II ICBM launch complex near Searcy, Arkansas. It is considered one of the worst industrial accidents at a U.S. nuclear weapons facility. The complex was one of four sites containing Titan II missiles. Each missile weighed 340,000 pounds, measuring 103 feet in length and 10 feet in diameter. President Johnson had just committed more troops to the Vietnam War. The

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01:59

August 8 - Twin Cities Trades Elect First Black...

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/08

On this day in labor history, the year was 1902. That was the day more than 100 trade union delegates representing thousands of working people in St. Paul, Minnesota elected Charles James to be the president of the city’s Trades and Labor Assembly. Virtually forgotten by history, James is considered to be the first African American elected to a city labor council anywhere in America. He was born in 1866 in St. Paul and began working as a leather cutter for local shoe manufacturers at age 15. This

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01:59

August 7 - Love Canal

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/07

On this day in labor history, the year was 1978. That was the day President Jimmy Carter declared a federal health emergency at Love Canal, in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. Premier spokeswoman, housewife Lois Gibbs became the poster child for the citizen environmental justice movement virtually overnight. Niagara Falls Gazette journalists broke the story two years earlier. Their sump pump testings and health surveys found a number of toxic chemicals and unusually high rates

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01:59

August 6 - Catastrophic Fire at Chevron

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/06

On this day in labor history, the year was 2012.That was the day release of flammable vapor led to a fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California. A Level 3 Community Warning System Alert was issued for the cities of Richmond, San Pablo and North Richmond. Toxic black smoke could be seen for miles while the fire burned for hours. Nineteen workers were nearly incinerated trying to escape the fire. More than 15,000 area residents sought medical treatment for chest pain, breathing problems,

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01:59

August 5 - Funeral March for Frank Little

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/05

On this day in labor history, the year was 1917. That was the day IWW leader Frank Little was buried in Butte, Montana. Little had been lynched on August 1, by police agents thought to be working for the despised Anaconda Copper Company. He had arrived in town to help organize 14,000 striking copper miners. Devastated by the deaths of 168 miners in the June fire at Granite Mountain & Speculator Mines, mine workers formed the Metal Mine Workers’ Union and walked off the job. Frank Little had

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01:59

August 4 - The Night the Lights Went Out on Broadway

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/04

On this day in labor history, the year was 1941. That was the day Michael Siegel, Business Agent for New York City’s Local 3, IBEW announced the lights would be going out on Broadway for an half an hour. Electricians had been on strike for nearly a week to protest Consolidated Edison’s refusal to employ union electricians for work on its new Waterside plant. The company claimed it could only use members of the Brotherhood of Edison Employees, an ‘independent union.’ The walkout also affected

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01:59

August 3 - PATCO Members on Strike

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/03

On this day in labor history, the year was 1981 That was the day 13,000 workers in the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO, went on strike. Highly stressed workers had been driven to nervous exhaustion by long hours, problematic technology and brutal management. They wanted better pay and working conditions, and a 32 hour work week. PATCO workers had proven that militancy bred victories throughout the early 1970s. But public sector employers went on the offensive as the

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01:59

August 2 - Teamsters 574 Defy Martial Law

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/02

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934. That was the day striking Teamsters in Minneapolis defied martial law. They stopped scab trucks, forcing the release of their strike leaders. Armed with bayonets and machine guns, the National Guard had patrolled the streets for nearly a week. They seized scores of strikers and union leaders and threw them into military stockades. Drivers were outraged. They defied Governor Olson and Major General Walsh who, on behalf of the Citizens Alliance and

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01:59

August 1 - Teamsters 574 Fight for Their Future

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/08/01

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934. That was the day National Guard troops in Minneapolis raided Teamsters local 574 headquarters. Over 150 were arrested, including top strike leaders Bill Brown and the Dunne Brothers, who were imprisoned in military stockades. Troops also seized union records and files. Then they raided the Central Labor Union, seizing records and forcing out dozens of area labor leaders. Teamsters had been battling the trucking bosses and the Citizens Alliance

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01:59

July 31 - The Battle of East 140th Street

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/31

On this day in labor history, the year was 1939. That was the day striking autoworkers in Cleveland, Ohio defended their picket lines in what is known as “The Battle of East 140th Street.” Members of UAW Local 45 at GM’s Fisher Body plant had been on strike for three weeks. They had joined striking GM workers at 12 plants throughout Michigan. They demanded a supplemental agreement granting skilled workers wage increases, overtime adjustments and seniority, and apprentice provisions. In

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01:59

July 30 - The Mechanics Institute Massacre

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/30

On this day in labor history, the year was 1866. That was the day known as the Mechanics Institute Massacre.Black and white republicans in New Orleans called a constitutional convention to consider voting rights for African-Americans. It would be another three and a half years before the ratification of the 15th amendment. Freedmen, many of them Civil War veterans gathered in the Fauburg-Marigny and proceeded to march to the convention, held at the Mechanics Institute on Canal Street. Just before

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01:59

July 29 - Sanitation Workers Strike Charlotte

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/29

On this day in labor history, the year was 1969. That was the day AFSCME sanitation workers in Charlotte, North Carolina walked off the job. More than 85% of the sanitation workers were black in this predominantly white Southern city. It was their third garbage strike in a year. State statutes prohibited union contracts in municipal agencies. But AFSCME was determined to win union recognition and establish an agreement with the city. Southern Director for AFSCME, James Pierce thundered, “We’ll bring

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01:59

July 28 - The Silent Parade

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/28

On this day in labor history, the year was 1917. That was the day more than 10,000 African-Americans marched down New York City’s 5th Avenue in what is known as the Silent Parade. The protest came in the aftermath of the July 2, East St. Louis race riot and a number of lynchings in Texas. Organized by black scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson and the NAACP, the Silent Parade protested lynching and anti-black violence. Children led the march, dressed in white. Women, who were

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