Today's Labor History
Sojourner Truth addresses 1st Black Women’s Rights convention - 1851

The Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) is founded in Toledo, Ohio as the Tin, Sheet Iron and Cornice Workers’ International Association - 1888

United Mine Workers of America founded in Columbus, Ohio. The union’s constitution barred racial, religious and ethnic discrimination - 1890
200 miners are killed in an horrific explosion at the Harwick mine in Cheswick, Pa., Allegheny County. Many of the dead lay entombed in the sealed mine to this day - 1904

The Supreme Court upholds “Yellow Dog” employment contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions. Yellow Dog contracts remained legal until 1932 - 1915

16,000 textile workers strike in Passaic, N.J. - 1926

- David Prosten

Labor Quote: Andrea Blackwelder Stanley

Stanley is the IATSE 22 member who said that the display of flags on the National Mall at last week’s inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris -- set up by members of her local -- “represents opportunity. Opportunity to earn a living wage and to make something beautiful to lift the hearts and spirits of a nation that is mourning so much loss and division. To me, it represents all the people of the U.S. coming together as one to be healed.”