Labor History Timeline

1778	Printers take concerted action to win a wage increase.
1794	printers go on strike for shorter hours and higher pay in New York.
1794	Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) organize for equal pay for equal work
1796	Cabinet makers strike.
1797	Carpenters in Philadelphia go on strike.
1799	Cordwainers (shoemakers) go on strike.
1828	Working Men's Party, the world's first labor party, put up slates for city and state officers and political platforms (opposition to banks, abolition of imprisonment for debt, right to sue for wages owed, abolition of sweatshops, 10 hour day, restrictions on child labor, free and equal public education and abolition of prison labor).
1834	The National Trades' Union formed by workers in 5 cities but it was dissolved during the financial decline in 1837.
1835	10,000 workers in Philadelphia went on strike for the 10 hour day and won it for municipal employees.
1836	Unions show growth since 1827.
1847	After agitation by labor, New Hampshire became the first state to pass a law making 10 hours the legal work day unless otherwise agreed to by the parties.
1852	Printers establish first permanent national labor organization (destroyed during the depression of 1873).
1860	The Pemberton Mill collapsed, burying 670 workers with hundreds killed and many more injured.
1860	2 million union members.
1866	The National Labor Union formed by printers, machinists and stone cutters with a goal of a cooperative society. Dissolved during the depression of 1873.
1867	Massachusetts institutes the first factory inspections for safety hazards.
1869	Knights of Labor formed to abolish the wage system through education, legislation and workers cooperation (a union of everyone except lawyers, bankers, and bartenders) 1879 - 20,000 members.
1869	179 workers burned to death in the Avondale Mine in Luzerne County, Pa. because the mine owners had refused to build an escape exit.
1870	The Pennsylvania legislature passed the first mine safety act in the country (legislation that was rejected prior to the Avondale Mine disaster).
1872	National Labor Union transforms itself into the National Labor Reform Party (disappeared in the depression of 1873).
1877	Massachusetts enacts legislation requiring guarding of hazardous parts of machinery.
1881	The Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions (FOTLU) formed.
1882	Railroad workers strike and win demands lost in the strike of 1877.
1882	Sept. 5, 1882. The first Labor Day was celebrated in New York City. It was sponsored by the New York Central Labor Union and was organized by Machinist Matthew McGuire.
1884	18 delegates meet at FOTLU national convention and called for 8 hour day after May 1886.
1885	Two railroad strike victories help increase the Knights of Labor membership to 700,000.
1886	FOTLU changes into the American Federation of Labor.
1886	On May 1, 200,000 stuck for the 8 hour work day.
1886	80,000 strikers in Chicago on May 1.
1886	When railway brotherhoods failed to support the Great Southwest Strike (which failed) membership decreased sharply in the Knights of Labor.
1886	The FOTLU now the American Federation of Labor (AFL) 138,000 members.
1888	May 5, 1888. Thomas W. Talbot and 18 other machinists met in a railroad engine pit in Atlanta, Ga. They formed the Order of United Machinists and Mechanical Engineers of America, now the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
1889	First Grand Lodge Convention of the IAM is held in Atlanta. 16 lodges from 11 states were represented. (May 1889)
1889	2nd Grand Lodge Convention of the IAM held in Louisville. 80 lodges from 25 states represented.
1890	Sherman Antitrust Act passed to combat massive abuses of industrial (wall to wall representation) instead of craft (by trade).
1891	Coke oven workers unsuccessfully strike for the 8 hour day in Pennsylvania.
1892	March, 1892. Thomas Talbot was shot to death in a street scuffle in Florence, So. Carolina.
1892	Steelworkers in Homestead, PA strike against wage cuts by Carnegie Steel Company unsuccessfully due to use of federal troops and court injunctions. After the unions were defeated the work week for some workers nearly doubled to 84 hours.
1893	The first federal law requiring safety equipment on railroad engines.
1894	AFL passes a resolution that "women should be organized into trade unions to the end that they may scientifically and permanently abolish the terrible evils accompanying their weakened, unorganized state: and we demand that they receive equal compensation with men for equal services performed."
1894	Federal Society of Journeyman Cordwainers (shoemakers) formed.
1894	The American Railroad Union (not affiliated with the AFL and led by the socialist Eugene V. Debs) struck a Pullman Car manufacturing plant near Chicago, 125,000 railroad workers go out on sympathy strike. The federal government took action that led to the defeat of the strike.
1897	Union membership is about 447,000.
1898	Local Lodge 52 in Pittsburgh negotiated the IAM's first 9 hour work day.
1898	AFL membership about 250,000.
1901	AFL officials helped organize the National Civic Federation (business and labor leaders) whose goal was to maintain industrial peace by intervening in strikes.
1902	Unsuccessful steel strike leaves steel industry virtually union-free.
1902	British study of iron and steel workers showed 37% higher mortality figures than other workers.
1902	100,000 anthracite coal miners in northeastern Pennsylvania go on strike and the federal government takes action that leads to a wage increase and shorter work week.
1902	Danbury hatters call for a national boycott of non-union companies and in 1908 the Supreme Court rules that the boycott is an illegal conspiracy.
1903	The National Women's Trade Union League focused on organizing until 1913 when it focused on legislative solutions.
1904	It is estimated in the labor press that 27,000 workers are killed that year.
1904	AFL unions have a membership of 1,700,000.
1904	Union membership is about 2,070,000.
1905	International Workers of the World (IWW) formed with a goal of one big union embracing all industries and working class unity. Using direct action (not political action) its goal was worker control, abolition of the wage system through general strikes.
1906	Union membership drops below 2,000,000 due to economic slowdown and anti-union court decisions.
1906	Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" aroused public sympathy for workers in the packing house industry where the joints in the fingers of workers might be eaten by the acid or cuts mutilated their hands.
1907	Bureau of Labor estimates 15-17,500 of the 26 million male workers are killed that year.
1907	3,200 workers in coal mines and 4, 500 railroad workers are killed.
1907	26 states passed legislation making it easier for workers to sue employers if injured or killed on the job.
1909	20,000 mostly women textile workers strike and won a shorter workweek and wage increases.
1909	171 national unions (compared to 6 in the late 1880's).
1909	IWW conducts a series of free speech fights by attempting to make speeches on street corners and filling the fails with Wobblies.
1910	Workers Compensation acts are being passed in various states (1910-1920).
1910	The accident rate for non-English speaking employees at a steel mill was twice the average of the rest of the labor force.
1911	Fire at Triangle Shirtwaist factory where 146 women and children are killed in part because the fire escape doors were locked to prevent unauthorized breaks by workers.
1911	Studies indicate that due to increasing centralization and mechanization of the process that steel mills are filled with dust and intense heat.
1911	National Safety Council (pro business workplace safety organization) is established.
1911	Up till now states passed employer liability laws that modified common-law legal rules and made it easier for injured employees to recover money damages from their employers.
1912	International Workers of the World (IWW) organize a strike of 50,000 textile workers in and around Lawrence, MA which ultimately led to restored pay cuts and wage increases.
1912	"As many men are killed each fortnight in the ordinary course of work as went down with the Titanic".
1912	A U.S. Steel executive, who answered complaints about the excessive hours employees in the steel industry were forced to work with the pious chant that hours were set "by the laws of nature".
1913	IWW organize textile strikes in Patterson, NJ not successful in fighting wage cuts.
1914	Clayton Act passes, it prohibits use of injunctions against unions during wage strikes.
1915	Oil workers in Bayonne, NJ went on strike over heat stress that reached as high as 250 degrees.
1917	3,000,000 union members.
1918	U. S. enters World War 1 and the National War Labor Relations Board uses mediation, conciliation and arbitration to prevent labor disputes in essential industries by protecting the right to organize, no lockouts, prevailing wages and union security provisions protected.
1918	U. S. and Canadian insurance companies refused to sell life insurance policies to asbestos workers due to the high mortality rate.
1919	AFL unions have a membership of 4,000,000
1919	Strike against U. S. Steel for 12 hour day failed due to employer economic power and recruitment of strikebreakers.
1920	Postwar depression and AFL unions lose about 1,000,000 members.
1920	5.1 million union members.
1920	By 1920 all but eight of the states had passed workman compensation laws, preventing workers from suing their employers. Two of the biggest supporters were U. S. Steel and the National Association of Manufacturers.
1921	International Labor Organization sets up a safety service.
1924	AFL endorses 3rd party candidate, Progressive Robert LaFollettee (U. S. Senator from Wisconsin). He gets 17% of the vote.
1926	Railway Labor Act gave railway workers the right to organize.
1930	Up to 2,000 workers died between 1930-1936 while constructing a tunnel at Gauley Bridge, West Virginia.
1930	Union membership about 3,000,000.
1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President.
1932	Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibited government from interfering with workers right to organize and bargain collectively.
1933	National Recovery Administration's Section 7a gives unions the right to exist and to negotiate with employers, but no enforcement power. (found unconstitutional in 1935)
1933	Union membership about 2.6 million.
1933	The National Safety Council (business organization) says "safety can never be legislated and enforced into individuals. Safety must be sold and taught into individuals".
1933	Metropolitan Life Insurance Company identified 94 poisonous substances used in 900 different occupations up from 52 in 1922.
1935	John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers helps form the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) to organize workers by industry not by trade.
1935	National Labor Relations (Wagner) act which strengthened workers rights and found constitutional in 1937.
1935	Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed with the AFL to promote industrial unionism.
1935	Dr. Kenneth Lynch, professor of pathology, proposes that there is a causal relation between asbestos and lung cancer.
1035	Up to 2,000 workers died from exposure to high levels of Silica.
1935	108 black steelworkers (furnace cleaners) in northern Indiana sued subsidiaries of U. S. Steel for failing to provide healthful working conditions (leading to silicosis and other lung diseases). The settle out of court in 1938 for an undisclosed amount.
1936	Walsh-Healy (public contracts) Act is passed which is the first national standards for workplace safety (only for corporations getting federal contracts). An employer found guilty of violating the act could be "blacklisted" from federal contracts for 3 years.
1936	National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) provides for real protections for the right to organize.
1936	The first sit-down strike occurred at Firestone in Akron, OH which help win bargaining rights.
1937	Steelworkers organize and get first signed agreements.
1937	Union membership increases form 3.7 million to an AFL membership of 3.4 million and CIO membership of 3.7 million.
1938	When the CIO is expelled from the AFL the Congress of Industrial Organizations is formed.
1939	8.9 million union members.
1940	AFL membership is 4.2 million when affiliated unions began to organize industrial unions.
1941	Union growth due to help by the War Labor Relations Board seeking "labor peace" during World War II.
1941	10.4 million union members.
1942	War Labor Relations Board assists unions in gaining recognition including requiring employers to sign contracts containing union security clauses.
1943	Legislation providing for federal grants-in-aid to states to set up worker protection units failed in 1940 and 1943.
1945	14.7 million union members.
1945	A wave of major strikes including General Motors, coal steel and rubber and threat of nationwide railroad strike. 4,750 strikes involving 3.4 million workers (due in part to the ending of no-strike pledges and high inflation).
1946	Women janitors in New York demand that cuspidors in city office buildings be removed due to potential communicable disease exposure.
1046	Republicans take control of congress.
1946	Both the AFL and the CIO launch organizing campaigns in the south.
1847	The recently elected republican congress passes the Taft-Hartley Act which makes right to work laws legal and secondary boycotts (like the Danbury hatters) illegal.
1950's	Mechanization of the cotton industry increases incidence of respiratory symptoms similar to byssinosis.
1951	Senator Hubert Humphrey proposed federal legislation for the Department of Labor to develop safety standards. It failed to pass.
1952	Coal Mine Safety Act passed.
1952	Seven month strike by mine and mill workers in Lompoc County, CA over high dust levels won many of its objectives.
1955	AFL and CIO merge.
1955	It was proven unequivocally that exposure to asbestos causes lung cancer by the British Government.
1956	Union membership 17.4 million (33.4%).
1956	The World Health Organization discovered an alarming number of cases of mesothelioma (a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure) due to asbestos exposure that was less than the amount that causes asbestosis.
1956	Of 560 labor contracts surveyed in New York 53% did not mention the word "safety".
1959	Landrum-Griffin Act passed establishes rights of individual members and requires unions to file periodic reports of financial activities.
1959	Johns Manville asbestos manufacturer started a policy of personal medical exams (did not tell workers of results).
1960	Specific safety standards promulgated comprehensive safety and health regulations for shipyard and longshore industries.
1962	Union membership is 16.5 million (29.8%).
1962	President Kennedy issues an executive order giving federal employees the right to organize.
1964	The Civil Right Act is passed.
1965	Union growth through 1968 due to increased organizing of public sector workers.
1966	The NLRB rules that health and safety is a mandatory subject of bargaining.
1968	78 coal miners killed in mine explosion in Farmington, West Virginia.
1968	Union membership is 18.9 million (27.8%).
1968	United Auto Workers withdraw from the AFL-CIO due in part to disagreement over the aggressiveness in organizing unorganized workers.
1968	Surgeon General reports that 65% of workers studied were exposed to toxic materials or harmful physical agents with only 25% adequately protected.
1968	Research at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta found exceptionally high levels of byssinosis (brown lung) in inmates working textile operations in the prison.
1969	Construction Safety Act passed.
1969	42,000 of West Virginia's 44,000 coalminers carried out a wildcat strike for 3 weeks and marched on the state capital to get black lung compensation bill passed. Federal Coal Mine Safety Act is passed with the support of the Black Lung Association, the Association of Disabled Miners and Widows, progressive physicians and liberal members of Congress in open opposition of the UMW leadership.
1970	Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) enacted with the active support of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers, Ralph Nader, the Steelworkers, the UAW and the AFL-CIO (signed into law by President Nixon after his weaker bills were defeated.
1970	Postal workers go on strike.
1971	AFL-CIO requested OSHA to adopt emergency standard on asbestos.
1972	Black Lung Benefits Act is passed.
1972	Union membership is 19.4 million (26.4%). About 800,000 public employees are organized since 1962.
1974	OSHA adopted health standards for 14 carcinogens.
1974	Healthcare workers in non-profit hospitals win federal protections for the right to organize.
1974	Coalition of Labor Union Women formed (The AFL gave its endorsement in 1977).
1974	5 million public employees are unionized.
1974	Karen Silkwood dies in a mysterious car accident. Silkwood helped organize the union at Kerr McGee and was active in health and safety organizing when she died.
1975	California passes the Agricultural Labor Relations Act creating a process for elections to choose unionization.
1976	Jimmy Carter is elected President. Eula Bingham is appointed head of OSHA. New Directions grant program helps fund training for thousands of workers about workplace hazards and their legal rights.
1976	4.3 million women union members.
1978	Union membership in manufacturing decreases 400,000.
1978	Labor law reform is defeated despite a Democratic President and Congress.
1978	Civil Service Reform Act gave federal employees the statutory right to join unions and bargain collectively.
1978	The longest national coal strike (4 months) focused on the right to strike over safety and other grievances.
1978	OSHA issues its final cotton-dust standard.
1980	Ronald Reagan is elected President. Proposed federal right to know standard is shelved.
1980	AFL-CIO held its first nation Occupational Safety and Health Conference.
1981	Cities and States begin passing local right to know laws due to pressure from COSH and other groups.
1981	Solidarity Day draws 500,000 workers and allies to Washington to protest Reagan budget cuts and labor policies.
1086	After years of lawsuits and passage of local legislation, federal right to know standard is established.
1986	After years of lawsuits and passage of local legislation federal asbestos in schools regulations are established.
1991	Injured worker compensation benefits are reduced by Connecticut and other legislatures. Additional cuts are made in 1993.