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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

July 8 - WPA Building Trades On Strike

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/08

On this day in labor history, the year was 1939. That was the day AFL president, William Green called all affiliates to meet in Chicago. Green sought to mobilize union leaders in a fight to restore prevailing wages on federal relief projects. Building tradesmen on WPA construction sites had started walking off the job in spontaneous strikes across the country three days earlier. The strike spread rapidly to 36 states, quickly turning into a nationwide walkout of over 150,000. Workers were

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01:59

July 7 - State Militia Confront Pullman Strikers

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/07

On this day in labor history, the year was 1894. That was the day thousands of Pullman strikers confronted state militia forces at the Grand Trunk Railroad Crossing in Chicago. The strike began May 11 after George Pullman slashed wages but refused to lower rents in his company town. In late June, Eugene Debs and the American Railway Union called for a national boycott of all Pullman trains. The boycott spread to 27 states, involving more than 150,000 workers. Attorney General Richard Olney

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01:59

July 6 - Industrial Murder in the North Sea

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/06

On this day in labor history, the year was 1988. That was the day 167 oil workers were killed in the Piper Alpha oilrig explosion in the North Sea. It is considered the world’s deadliest oilrig accident ever. Around 10 p.m., the platform essentially turned into a fireball so massive, rescue helicopters couldn’t get near it. Gas lines ruptured when the night crew accidentally activated a gas pump, down for repairs. Immediately, the platform was rocked with explosions, first wiping out the control

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01:59

July 5 - Bloody Thursday

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/05

On this day in labor history the year was 1934. That was the day known as Bloody Thursday. The historic West Coast Maritime Strike had been raging since May 9. Longshoremen refused to cede to the Industrial Association, determined to open the ports by force. The shipping bosses had rejected strikers’ demands, including a union hiring hall and recognition of offshore unions. By July 3, picketers had been fighting for hours to stop trucks sent into move cargo under police protection, as bosses

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01:59

July 4 - Founding of the National Unemployed Council

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/04

On this day in labor history, the year was 1930. That was the day some 1300 labor radicals and Communist Party supporters assembled in Chicago to establish The National Unemployed Council. That spring, Councils in major cities across the country held massive rallies for jobs and relief. They were responding to near catastrophic conditions created by the Stock Market crash. Delegates emerged from the founding convention with an organizational structure and demands for action. These included

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01:59

July 3 - The New Deal Against Sit-Downs

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/03

On this day in labor history, the year was 1937. That was the day Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins announced that sit-down strikes were “unsuited” to America and believed labor unions would abandon using the tactic altogether. Her declaration came in the form of an open letter to Republican Congressman William Ditter of Pennsylvania. In the wake of the Flint Sit-Down strike, he had insisted on clarification of her perspective towards sit-down strikes. 1937 had been rocked by sit-downs

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01:59

July 2 - A Foul Blot Upon the Labor Movement

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/02

On this day in labor history, the year was 1917. That was the day known as the East St. Louis Race Riot. It is considered the worst case of labor–related violence of the 20th century and one of the worst race riots in American history. At the time, East St. Louis, Illinois was an industrial hub along the Mississippi River, across from St. Louis, Missouri. Production demands for World War I intensified the Great Migration. As African-Americans emigrated from the South, filling the demand for

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01:59

July 1 - The Po-Boy is Born

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/07/01

On this day in labor history, the year was 1929. That was the day 1800 streetcar drivers and motormen walked off the job at New Orleans Public Service. The Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees, Division 194, had been in contract negotiations for months. They demanded higher wages, a closed shop and an end to arbitrary discharges. The company was looking to bust the Amalgamated with the creation of a company union. For the first few days, the strike was quiet. But then

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01:59

June 30 - Convict Lease System Ends in Alabama

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/30

On this day in labor history, the year was 1928. That was the day the state of Alabama outlawed the convict lease system, in practice for decades. Slave masters throughout the South had routinely loaned out enslaved people before slavery was finally abolished. The convict lease system continued this practice, as the South worked to rebuild in a rush of rapid industrial growth after the Civil War. African-Americans found themselves increasingly subject to sweeps by local and state authorities that

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01:59

June 29 - Fighting Insurmountable Odds

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1937.That was the day SWOC leader Philip Murray beat back reports that the Little Steel Strike had collapsed. Even as the Steel companies were championing that the strike had been broken, Murray insisted that of the 90,000 workers involved, only 20,000 had returned to work in mills that stretched across seven states. He added they were mostly supervisors and foremen, not production workers. Murray leveled charges against Ohio governor Martin Davey, that

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01:59

June 28 - Harry Bridges Act Signed into Law

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1940. That was the day President Roosevelt signed the Smith Act into law. Some initially dubbed it the “Harry Bridges Law,” after the radical labor leader, long targeted by the FBI for deportation. Politicians claimed it was designed to prosecute Fascists, Nazis and Communists. In fact, the Smith Act was first used to prosecute and convict Minneapolis Teamsters leaders and supporters of the Socialist Workers Party, recognized for their successful 1934

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01:59

June 27 - Founding of the IWW

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1905. That was the day over 200 Socialists, Anarchists and Marxists, representing over 40 organizations, met at Brand’s Hall in Chicago to convene the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World. Representatives from groups like the Socialist Party, Socialist Labor Party and Western Federation of Miners joined together for an eleven-day convention to discuss the future of industrial unionism and revolutionary struggle. Those present included Big Bill

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01:59

June 26 - Milwaukee Transit Workers Join the ‘34...

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1934. That was the day 1400 workers at the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company launched a four-day strike. Three unions, representing about a third of the total employees, were fighting to break the hold of the company union. The transit and power company had already fired 13 workers for union activity. IBEW, Operating Engineers and the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees unions led the walkout. They demanded

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01:59

June 25 - Congress Pushes for Wartime Labor Repression

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1943. That was the day the Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act was passed. In the years before Taft-Hartley, it was considered the foremost slave labor bill. It gave the president the power to seize and operate war industries confronted with strikes or lockouts interfering with war production. It also criminalized any future strikes in seized plants with $5000 fines and up to a year in prison. And it held unions in war-related industries liable for

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01:59

June 24 - Striking Against Taft-Hartley

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1947. That was the day spontaneous protest strikes began against the new Taft-Hartley Act. 250,000 soft coal miners walked out of the pits. 132,000 shipyard workers of the CIO’s Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers followed the miners’ example, on the East and Gulf coasts. The Greater Akron Area Council of Labor Unions, a joint AFL & CIO council representing 185,000 workers, demanded that top union leaders call a general strike in

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01:59

June 23 - Legislating Labor’s Destruction

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/23

On this day in labor history, the year was 1947. That was the day the despised Taft-Hartley Act became law. It was a direct retaliatory response to the 1946 post-war strike wave, where millions walked off the job after waiting years for basic demands. The labor movement mobilized against the slave labor bill through numerous rallies. The AFL joined the CIO in threatening 24-hour strikes across whole industries in protest, as the bill wound its way through Congress. 11,000 soft coal

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01:59

June 22 - A Long Road to Victory

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/16

On this day in labor history, the year was 1999. That was the day 5000 textile workers at six Fieldcrest Cannon Mills in North Carolina began voting for representation by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, better known as UNITE. The victory, later validated by the NLRB, was a significant win for Labor in the anti-union South. The union’s organizing director, Bruce Raynor stated, “It feels like we just organized G.M. Suddenly, we’ve got a beacon to show other textile

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01:59

June 21 - Miners Push Back Against Starvation Wages

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/16

On this day in labor history, the year was 1943. That was the day United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis issued strike orders at the nation’s mines, calling out more than half a million miners. The third general coal strike in three months defied the wartime ‘no strike’ pledge. Miners raised several demands, including wage increases, an end to the dangerous third-shift and portal-to-portal pay. High wartime inflation only worsened miners’ already low wages. Early that spring, Lewis

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01:59

June 20 - UAW Wins a First Contract at Ford

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/16

On this day in labor history, the year was 1941. That was the day Ford Motor Company finally signed with the United Auto Workers. Ford was last of the Big 3 to sign with the UAW. The hard-won victory came after nearly three decades of struggle to organize there. Anyone attempting to build a union had been met with the full force of Ford’s Service Department, led by thug Henry Bennett. Intimidation, Jew-baiting, redbaiting, firings, and beatings were common in the years leading up to

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01:59

June 19 - The Fight to Free the Hawaii Seven

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2024/06/16

On this day in labor history, the year was 1953. That was the day 26,000 members of the ILWU in Hawaii walked off the job. Their strike was a four-day protest against the witch-hunt convictions of the Hawaii Seven. Many docks and plantations immediately shut down. Stevedores refused to load military cargo headed to the war in Korea. At the height of the McCarthyite Red Scare, union militants continued to be the primary targets of the anti-Communist hysteria. Longshoreman leader Jack Hall and

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