On February 18, 2022, thousands of publicly-employed union workers, retirees, and university students participated in a national strike and march that spread throughout Puerto Rico, with the largest contingent filling streets in San Juan. Demonstrators marched behind a banner declaring ‘People …
Puerto Rican Workers' UnionCentral Workers' FederationUnited Auto WorkersElectrical Workers' UnionPuerto Rico Teachers' Unions+1 morepuerto-ricolabor-organizingstrikespromesaausterity+5 more
LUMA Energy officially took over operation of Puerto Rico’s electrical transmission and distribution system on June 1, 2021, triggering widespread protests under the rallying cry ‘Fuera LUMA’ (Out LUMA). The takeover represented the culmination of McKinsey’s privatization …
LUMA EnergyPuerto Rico Labor UnionsAngel Figueroa JaramilloJocelyn Velazquez RodriguezTodo Puerto Rico por Puerto Rico Coalition+1 morepuerto-ricoluma-energyprotestsprivatizationlabor-organizing+5 more
On March 3, 1972, workers at General Motors’ Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant authorized a 22-day strike after GM’s Assembly Division (GMAD)—which workers called “Get Mean And Destroy”—implemented brutal speedups that reduced task time to 35-second bursts with only 5-second …
United Auto Workers Local 1112General Motors Assembly DivisionGeneral Motors CorporationSenator Ted Kennedylabor-organizingdemocratic-resistancecorporate-exploitation
On September 8, 1965, Filipino American grape workers in the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee walked out on strike against Delano-area table and wine grape growers, protesting years of poverty wages and brutal working conditions, and asked Cesar Chavez’s National Farm Workers …
United Farm WorkersCesar ChavezAgricultural Workers Organizing CommitteeDelano Grape Growerslabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
In September 1962, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to organize California’s agricultural workers, who had been systematically excluded from New Deal labor protections and faced conditions resembling debt peonage. Farmworkers endured poverty …
Cesar ChavezDolores HuertaNational Farm Workers AssociationAgricultural Workers Organizing Committeelabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
The AFL-CIO achieves a major victory in its confrontation with the National Right-to-Work Committee’s coordinated efforts to extend right-to-work laws to six additional states through ballot initiatives. Union organizing and voter mobilization efforts result in the defeat of right-to-work …
AFL-CIONational Right to Work CommitteeCalifornia votersOhio votersWashington state voters+3 moreright-to-worklabor-organizingdemocratic-resistancestate-legislationballot-initiatives
The Congress of Industrial Organizations launches Operation Dixie in spring 1946, the most ambitious post-World War II campaign to unionize industry in the Southern United States, particularly targeting the textile industry across 12 Southern states. A permanent Southern Organizing Committee is …
Congress of Industrial OrganizationsVan BittnerGeorge BaldanziUnited Auto WorkersUnited Electrical Workers+4 morelabor-organizingoperation-dixieciocorporate-violenceracial-politics+2 more
Over five million American workers engage in strikes in the year after V-J Day - the largest strike wave in U.S. history and the closest thing to a national general strike of the 20th century. Workers demand wages to match 16% inflation while their pay rises only 7%. Major strikes include 750,000 …
United Auto WorkersUnited Mine WorkersUnited Steel WorkersWalter ReutherJohn L. Lewis+1 morelabor-organizingstrikescorporate-powerpostwar-economyunion-rights
On November 9, 1935, John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers met with leaders of eight unions—including Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and David Dubinsky of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union—to formally establish the Committee for Industrial Organization within the …
John L. LewisUnited Mine Workers of AmericaSidney HillmanDavid DubinskyPhilip Murraylabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act, enhancing previous antitrust legislation and explicitly exempting labor unions from antitrust laws. Alabama Democrat Henry De Lamar Clayton Jr. introduced the legislation in anticipation of the Commission on Industrial Relations report. The …
President Woodrow WilsonHenry De Lamar Clayton Jr.Samuel GompersAmerican Federation of LaborE. Y. Webbprogressive-eraantitrustlabor-organizingregulatory-reform
Polish women textile workers at the Everett Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts walked out after discovering their employer had reduced wages by $0.32 when Massachusetts enforced a law cutting mill workers’ hours from 56 to 54 per week. The strike spread rapidly to more than 20,000 workers …
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)Joseph EttorArturo GiovannittiAmerican Woolen Companylabor-organizingprogressive-eraimmigrant-rightscorporate-poweriww
From June 27 through July 8, 1905, two hundred socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and radical trade unionists convened at Brand’s Hall in Chicago to found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), launching the most significant challenge to corporate capitalism and conservative trade unionism …
William "Big Bill" HaywoodEugene V. DebsMother JonesLucy ParsonsDaniel De Leon+1 morelabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
Hard rock miners establish the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) in Butte, Montana, as a direct response to the catastrophic defeat of the 1892 Coeur d’Alene strike in Idaho and the brutal military repression that followed. The WFM emerges from miners’ recognition that existing labor …
Western Federation of MinersButte minersCoeur d'Alene strikersMining industry workerslabor-organizinggilded-agemining-industrymilitant-unionismwfm
Around 30,000 union members—half of New Orleans’ workforce and virtually all its unionized workers—strike on November 8, 1892, after the Board of Trade refuses to negotiate with the predominantly Black Teamsters union while offering contracts to white-dominated Scalesmen and Packers unions. …
Workingmen's Amalgamated CouncilTriple AllianceNew Orleans Board of TradeAmerican Federation of Laborlabor-organizinginterracial-solidaritycorporate-resistancegilded-age
The People’s Party formally organizes in Dallas on August 18, 1891, following years of escalating frustration among Farmers’ Alliance members who conclude that traditional parties are too attached to corporate interests and political office perks to be effective agents of reform. The …
Farmers' AllianceKnights of LaborPeople's Partypopulist-movementpolitical-realignmentlabor-organizingcorporate-resistance
Three hundred Tennessee coal miners successfully besiege the Briceville stockade after midnight on July 15, 1891, the anniversary of Bastille Day, freeing forty convict laborers and their guards and putting them on a train to Knoxville. Later that day, miners march on the Knoxville Iron Company mine …
Tennessee Coal Mining CompanyKnoxville Iron CompanyTennessee MinersJohn P. BuchananThomas J. Bradylabor-organizingconvict-lease-systemcorporate-resistanceinstitutional-racism
Forty-two delegates representing 13 national unions and various local labor organizations convene in Columbus, Ohio, to establish the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as the successor to the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (founded 1881). The convention elects Samuel Gompers, an …
Samuel GompersFederation of Organized Trades and Labor UnionsKnights of LaborCraft unionslabor-organizinggilded-ageaflcraft-unionslabor-rights+1 more
The Knights of Labor reaches its peak membership of over 700,000 workers (some sources report 750,000) under Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly, representing the largest and most inclusive labor organization in American history to that point. Founded in 1869 as a secret society and reorganized …
Terence V. PowderlyKnights of LaborJay GouldAmerican workerslabor-organizinggilded-ageknights-of-laborunion-membershiplabor-rights
American courts systematically suppress labor organizing throughout the early 19th century by prosecuting unions and strikes as criminal conspiracies under common law doctrine inherited from England. From the 1806 Philadelphia Shoemakers’ case through 1836, labor unions face conspiracy charges …
State courtsLabor unionsEmployersProsecutorslabor-suppressionworkers-rightscriminal-conspiracyjudicial-hostilitylabor-organizing
Workers from seventeen different trades in Philadelphia stage a general strike demanding a ten-hour workday, achieving victory after three weeks when the City Council agrees to institute ten-hour days for municipal workers and private employers soon announce they will implement the shorter workday …
Philadelphia workersPhiladelphia City CouncilSeventeen trade unionsPrivate employerslabor-organizingworkers-rightsten-hour-daygeneral-strikelabor-movement