Approximately 1,000 former Great Northern Paper workers in Millinocket and East Millinocket, Maine began receiving bankruptcy settlement checks representing ‘a small fraction’ of the pensions, vacation pay, and severance they spent decades earning at the once-dominant paper mills. …
Brookfield Asset ManagementCate Street CapitalGreat Northern Paper Companycorporate-lootingpension-theftbankruptcy-abuseworkers-rightsdeindustrialization+2 more
President Ronald Reagan fires 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who refused to return to work, permanently banning them from federal service. When 13,000 PATCO members went on strike August 3 seeking better pay, improved working conditions, and a reduced workweek, Reagan declared the strike a …
Ronald ReaganProfessional Air Traffic Controllers OrganizationPATCOFederal Aviation Administrationlaborunionspatcoreaganstrike-breaking+1 more
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 begins when Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers walk off the job in response to a 10% wage cut—the second reduction in eight months during the severe economic depression following the Panic of 1873. The strike spreads rapidly across the nation’s rail …
Baltimore & Ohio RailroadRutherford B. HayesU.S. ArmyRailroad workersState militiaslabor-suppressiongilded-agerailroad-strikefederal-interventionmilitary-force+1 more
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