Portal:Organized Labour/Did You Know?

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Date of newest DYK entry December 9, 2010

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/1 - ...that Norwegian-born merchant seaman Harry Lundeberg became a labor leader in the United States?


/2 - ...that the steel strike of 1959 led to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history?


/3 - ... that the Texas State University labor historian Gregg Andrews is also a folk musician performing under the name "Doctor G"?


/4 - ...that the "Mohawk Valley formula," a strikebreaking plan devised during the Remington Rand strike of 1936–37, was declared by the National Labor Relations Board to be "a battle plan for industrial war"?


/5 - ...that six striking coal miners, nine of their family members, and one bystander were killed during the Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–11?


/6 - ...that the three-day S.S. California strike in 1936 triggered a wave of strikes by merchant seamen and led to the founding of the National Maritime Union?


/7 - ...that the free trade union SLOMR, established in opposition to the communist Romanian government, was suppressed one year before the creation of Solidarity, its more successful Polish counterpart?


/8 - ...that despite the relatively low level of academic output by Professor Gary Chaison, he is widely cited in the American mass media?


/9 - ...that the Auto-Lite Strike culminated in the "Battle of Toledo," a five-day melee between 6,000 striking workers and 1,300 members of the Ohio National Guard that left two dead and more than 200 injured?


/10 - ...that in Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. the U.S. Supreme Court held that preliminary work activities should be included as working time under the Fair Labor Standards Act?


/11 - ...that in 1954, the Federal Communications Commission sought to force union attorney Edward Lamb to surrender his broadcasting license on the grounds that he associated with communists?


/12 - ...that labor union activist Sam Pollock, who helped lead the Auto-Lite Strike, is the grandfather of noted experimental filmmaker Damon Packard?


/13 - ...that more than 200,000 railroad workers participated in the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886, and the strike's collapse directly led to the formation of the American Federation of Labor?


/14 - ...that the National Labor Board established the doctrine of representational exclusivity in American labor relations, a rule still used today?


/15 - ...that the Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 is the only time in American history when a governor used the state militia to support rather than suppress a strike?


/16 - ...that David Brody is credited with co-founding the field of "new labor history"?


/17 - ...that Herbert Gutman co-founded the "new labor history" school of thought, which focuses on the effects that ordinary people have had on the history of labor?


/18 - ...that Ralph Fasanella was pumping gas for money in 1972 when featured on the cover of New York Magazine as "...the best primitive painter since Grandma Moses"?


/19 - ...that the first comprehensive campaign of unionized labor was the subject of a 1979 Academy Award-winning film?


/20 - ...that Arnold Miller defeated W. A. Boyle in 1972 for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America after Boyle murdered union reformer Joseph Yablonski?


/21 - ...that noted labor historian Selig Perlman is the uncle of author Judith Martin, better known as "Miss Manners"?


/22 - ...that the Florida Education Association led the first statewide teachers' strike in American history in 1968?


/23 - ...that Sandra Feldman, former president of the American Federation of Teachers, was mentored by civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and arrested twice during the Freedom Rides?


/24 - ...that the Brazilian labour movement was predominantly anarchist until the 1920s?


/25 - ...that William Dronfield founded the United Kingdom Alliance of Organised Trades, which inspired the creation of the Trades Union Congress?


/26 - ...that American activist Nelson Cruikshank is considered the most important non-legislator responsible for the enactment of the U.S. Social Security Disability Insurance in 1956 and Medicare in 1965?


/27 - ...that at the 1974 Coalition of Labor Union Women convention, Myra Wolfgang declared "...there are 3,000 women in Chicago and they didn't come here to swap recipes!"?


/28 - ...that the Alliance for Retired Americans was instrumental in enacting Medicare?


/29 - ...that the Free Association of German Trade Unions was the only trade union in Germany to reject the Burgfrieden, a civil truce between the socialist movement and the German state during World War I?


/30 - ...that the 1968 Florida teachers' strike was the first statewide strike by teachers in United States history?


/31 - ...that before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the United Teachers of New Orleans was the largest trade union in the city?


/32 - ...that the Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local 28 in New York City negotiated the first pension plan in the construction industry?


/33 - ...that labor leader Victor Kamber created playing cards with public figures in 1968 and the "Rappin' Ronnie" music video depicting a rapping Ronald Reagan in 1984?


/34 - ...that actor Edward Chapman, known for his role as "Mr. Grimsdale" in many Norman Wisdom films, tried to have Sir John Gielgud thrown out of Equity?


/35 - ...that Edwin D. Hill was the first president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to be elected by secret ballot?


/36 - ...that on April 29, 1899, trade unionists in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho killed two men by steering an explosives-laden train to the site of a mill, in order to protest the firing of fellow union members?


/37 - ...that lobbying by the International Seamen's Union led to the abolition of the practice of imprisoning seamen who deserted their ship in the United States in 1915?


/38 - ...that Benjamin Aaron helped negotiate the first contract between a county and its public employee union in California history in 1968?


/39 - ...that partly because of issues highlighed by the London matchgirls strike of 1888, the Salvation Army opened up its own match factory in Bow, London in 1891, which used harmless red phosphorus and paid better wages?


/40 - ...that South African trade union legislation uses the term "conscientious objector" to refer to workers who do not want to join unions on the basis of personal beliefs?


/41 - ...that the Farm Labor Organizing Committee's 2004 collective bargaining agreement with the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. marked the first time an American labor union represented guest workers?


/42 - ...that the AFL–CIO Organizing Institute has trained over 10,000 trade union organizers since its 1989 founding?


/43 - ...that during the Hardin County onion pickers strike in 1934, anti-union vigilantes seized control of the town of McGuffey, Ohio, for a day?


/44 - ...that in the 1984 Brown v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New Jersey gaming law requiring union leaders to be of good moral character?


/45 - ...that Irish writer and trade unionist Brian Behan once took part in a swearing match at the British Museum?


/46 - ...that trade unions in Argentina have traditionally played a strong role in the politics of the nation, with approximately 40% of workers in the formal economy being unionized?


/47 - ...that the Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union, an Indian farm labourers movement, claims a membership of over 2.5 million?


/48 - ...that firing of Anna Walentynowicz, a Polish free trade union activist, was one of the events that led to the giant wave of strikes in Poland and eventually the creation of Solidarity?


/49 - ...that Indian trade unionist Dutta Samant led an estimated 200,000 workers on a year-long strike in 1982, causing the exodus of the textile mill industry from Mumbai?


/50 - ...that Emil Rieve was elected president of his local union when he was only 22 years old, and president of the Textile Workers Union of America when he was 46?


/51 - ...that Alexander Campbell in 1877 slapped a muddy handprint on to the wall of his prison cell declaring his innocence, and the mark would never go away, despite extensive efforts to have it removed?


/52 - ...that scandal erupted after the Department of Justice initiated prosecution of Jackie Presser only to abruptly end it once the press revealed Presser had been an informant for the FBI for over 10 years?


/53 - ...that George W. Taylor assisted unions by mediating more than 2,000 strikes, but also helped draft New York's Taylor Law—which banned strikes by public employees?


/54 - ...that in three days of nearly non-stop negotiations, Nathan Feinsinger mediated an end to a 1947 pineapple workers' strike which threatened the entire Hawaiian economy?


/55 - ...that fear of retaliatory terminations is a leading obstacle to union organizers in their efforts to unionize a workplace?


/56 - ...that the 1975 U.S. Supreme Court case NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc. allowed all workers in unionized workplaces to have a union representative present during management inquiries that might result in discipline?


/57 - ...that the Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before the Romanian Revolution of 1989?


/58 - ...that Canada's syndicalist One Big Union kept itself alive for some time by running an illegal lottery in its weekly bulletin?


/59 - ...that even though the 1952 steel strike lasted 53 days and cost the U.S. $4 billion in lost economic output, it was settled on nearly the same terms offered by the union at the strike's beginning?


/60 - ...that while anarcho-syndicalists are usually a minority in their respective labor movements, the anarcho-syndicalist General Confederation of Labour was not only the largest but the only union in post-World War I Portugal?


/61 - ...that the West End Street Railway fired Cyrus S. Ching in 1901 after he was nearly electrocuted on the job, only to appoint him manager two months later?


/62 - ...that while the majority of Benin's formal workforce are represented by trade unions, nationwide use of child labour and forced labour continues?


/63 - ...that Jamaican labor leader Helene Davis-Whyte was anti-union before being elected a delegate in her union?


/64 - ...that when 400 RNs unionized with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals on July 19, 2007, it was the largest successful organizing effort among nurses in the state since 2000?


/65 - ...that the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers lost 8,000 of its 15,000 members when Jamaica restructured local government services in 1984?


/66 - ...that the first trade union in Botswana was not recognised by the ruling Bechuanaland Protectorate until 1964, 16 years after its formation?


/67 - ...that while the first union was founded in 1927, Tanzania did not have a significant labor movement until the 1940s?


/68 - ...that although an Iron Workers union member planted the dynamite in the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, the 21 people who died in the explosion and fire were all workers and not managers?


/69 - ...that German leaders of the World Confederation of Labour were sentenced to Nazi concentration camps in the 1930s for their political opposition to the growth of authoritarian governments in Europe?


/70 - ...that the first labor investigations by a United States government body were prompted by petitions from the Lowell Mill Girls, textile workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, during the mid-nineteenth century?


/71 - ...that the first company union in the United States was created by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in response to the bad publicity generated by the Ludlow Massacre?


/72 - ...that the short-lived Industrial Syndicalist Education League was both the first and the largest syndicalist organisation ever in the United Kingdom?


/73 - ...that although he contributed to an anti-militarist resolution at a congress of the Second International in 1891, Christiaan Cornelissen was one of a few syndicalists to support the Allied effort in World War I in 1914?


/74 - ...that the Dutch National Labor Secretariat once lost many members because each union received one vote but had to pay dues for each member, severely disadvantaging larger unions?


/75 - ...that the 1998 Puerto Rican general strike paralyzed the island for two days, when 500,000 people took to the streets to protest against privatizing the Puerto Rico Telephone Company?


/76 - ...that the supply of natural gas and electricity in New Orleans, ceased as a result of the 1892 New Orleans general strike, plunging the city into darkness for four nights?


/77 - ...that Linda Chavez-Thompson was the first woman, colored person, and Hispanic elected an officer of the AFL–CIO?


/78 - ...that Pierre Monatte was one of the few French trade-unionists and members of the French Left to oppose the Union sacrée national bloc during World War I?


/79 - ...that Teamsters president Dave Beck invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 117 times before a U.S. Senate investigating committee?


/80 - ...that although William McFetridge retired as president of BSEIU in 1960, his successor, David Sullivan, fought him for control of the union until 1964?


/81 - ...that American trade union leader William McFetridge switched from Democrat to Republican in 1948 and supported Thomas E. Dewey for president even though Dewey had successfully prosecuted his predecessor for labor racketeering?


/82 - ...that although William Quesse was convicted of conspiracy in 1922, less than five years later his union was one of the most politically powerful organizations in Chicago?


/83 - ...that during the St. John's University strike of 1966–67, Jewish professor Israel Kugler sought an audience with Pope Paul VI to win his support?


/84 - ...that during a copper miners' strike in Michigan in 1913, labor leader Charles Moyer was shot in the back by unknown assailants and then expelled by Calumet city police while still bleeding?


/85 - ...that the U.S. Supreme Court held in Moyer v. Peabody (1909) that the U.S. government may imprison citizens without probable cause during an insurrection so long as it acts in good faith?


/86 - ...that in 1918, the National Federation of Federal Employees became the first labor union in the United States to win the legal right to represent federal employees?


/87 - ...that NHS Together, a group of unions which support Britain's National Health Service, are supported by celebrities such as football (soccer) player Geoff Hurst, adventurer Ranulph Fiennes, actress Tamsin Greig and comedian Arthur Smith?


/88 - ...that in 2007, Arlene Holt Baker became the first African-American AFL–CIO officer?


/89 - ...that strikebreakers are used more frequently in the U.S. than in any other industrialized country?


/90 - ...that the membership of the Ghanaian national labor federation Trades Union Congress fell by 58 percent after a law requiring civil servants to be members was repealed in 1966?


/91 - ...that the German national rail strike of 2007 is the largest strike in history affecting Deutsche Bahn?


/92 - ...that during the 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike, 21 people were killed and the strike ended only after union leaders were accused of taking bribes?


/93 - ...that Cornelius Shea, the founding president of the Teamsters, spent more than five years in Sing Sing prison for slashing and stabbing his mistress 27 times?


/94 - ...that during the Spanish Civil War, Solidaridad Obrera, published by an anarchist labor union, was Spain's highest-circulation newspaper?


/95 - ...that the New South Wales Court of Arbitration is claimed to be the first court devoted to resolving labour disputes in the world?


/96 - ...that during the Bisbee Deportation, Phelps Dodge Corporation executives seized control of the town's telegraph and telephones to prevent news of the kidnappings from being reported?


/97 - ...that James Duncan helped co-found both the American Federation of Labor and the International Labor Organization?


/98 - ...that the anarcho-syndicalist Argentine Workers' Federation was the country's first national labor confederation?


/99 - ...that the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan organised India's first May Day celebrations in 1923?


/100 - ...that the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wheeler that the Constitution alone did not give the government of the United States the authority to prosecute kidnappers?


/101 - ...that just three years after it was founded, the Spanish labor union Solidaridad Obrera became the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo?


/102 - ...that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that an employer lockout during a whipsaw strike is not an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act?


/103 - ...that an ongoing strike by Gaelic footballers and hurlers in County Cork, Ireland, has led to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern asking for the players and the county board to resolve their dispute?


/104 - ...that the U.S. Supreme Court held in NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co. that although employees cannot be fired for exercising their right to strike, they can be "permanently replaced" by strikebreakers?


/105 - ...that the coal strike of 1981 was the first against Cape Breton Development Corporation since their nationalization in 1967?


/106 - ...that Douglas Fraser's lobbying and member mobilization were critical in convincing the U.S. Congress to provide $1.2 billion in loans to a near-bankrupt Chrysler in 1979?


/107 - ...that Randi Weingarten, the openly gay president of the United Federation of Teachers, has been called one of the 25 most powerful women in New York City business?


/108 - ...that during the Chicago Federation of Labor's 1903 convention, seven major brawls broke out, hospitalising one man?


/109 - ...that the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect in the United States on April 28, 1971, the same day as Workers' Memorial Day?


/110 - ...that the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union called off a merger with the United Mine Workers just two hours before the unions planned to announce the agreement?


/111 - ...that Richard Nixon credited Tony Mazzocchi with being the primary force behind enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970?


/112 - ...that two people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed during the 2008 Egyptian general strike?


/113 - ...that Irish American mob informant Danny Greene drove a green car, wore green jackets, and had his union office repainted and recarpeted in green?


/114 - ... that Ben Gold was just 14 years old when he was elected assistant shop chairman by his local union during the first furriers' strike in the United States?


/115 - ...that the four large housing cooperatives that make up Cooperative Village on the Lower East Side of Manhattan were sponsored and financed by trade unions with ties to the Socialist Party of America?


/116 - ... that in 1919, the discharge of the chief of police of Berlin led to a general strike and accompanying fighting known as the Spartacist uprising, in which over 500,000 workers took part?


/117 - ...that in 1962 doctors went on strike in Saskatchewan for 23 days in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the introduction of universal health insurance?


/118 - ...that New Australia was a utopian settlement founded in Paraguay in 1893 by former members of the Australian labour movement?


/119 - ...that anarchism once was the strongest current in the Cuban labor movement?


/120 - ...that alleged labour injustices in Dubai have been criticised by various human rights groups?


/121 - ...that the Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers is a union that represents pizza-delivery drivers, and is one of the first unions in the United States to operate entirely over the Internet?


/122 - ...that the 1966 New York City transit strike at the start of the mayoralty of John V. Lindsay was led by the defiant Irish-born TWU founder Mike Quill, who was briefly jailed for leading the illegal strike, and died before the month was out?


/123 - ...that the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963, which left three people dead, was the deadliest confrontation in Canadian labour history?


/124 - ...that In re Debs was a 1895 Supreme Court case that resulted in a unanimous ruling affirming the right of the United States government to issue an injunction to halt strikes affecting interstate commerce and U.S. Mail?


/125 - ...that in Australia, many unions and employers are working around the WorkChoices law by using side letters to reach agreement on non-workplace-related matters?


/126 - ...that unions sometimes permit local or regional variations in master contracts in order to meet special economic, competitive, or other needs of employers?


/127 - ...that as of May 2008, the International Harvester strike of 1979–1980 is the fourth-longest national strike in the history of the UAW and the longest in the history of International Harvester?


/128 - ...that in 1929, BSEIU President Jerry Horan offered US$125,000 to bootlegger Roger Touhy in exchange for protection from Al Capone and the Chicago Outfit?


/129 - ...that when Andy Stern challenged Richard Cordtz for the presidency of the SEIU labor union, Cordtz fired him for insubordination?


/130 - ...that in 1922, the Chicago Police Department attempted to frame local labor leader Fred Mader for murder?


/131 - ...that in 1865, the Sons of Vulcan won the first union contract in the iron and steelmaking industry and what may be the first union contract of any kind in the United States?


/132 - ...that members of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance faced surveillance, interrogation, and harassment by the FBI?


/133 - ...that the Workers Committee for National Liberation, a communist labour group, was broken up by the Egyptian government in January 1946?


/134 - ...that Jens Jensen initiated the establishment in 1901 of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres?


/135 - ... that John Marius Trana went from being an illegal trade union leader during the German occupation of Norway to being chairman of the Norwegian Union of Railway Workers?


/136 - ... that Norwegian trade unionist Ludvik Buland, sentenced to death by the Nazi authorities in 1941, was later reprieved, only to die in a Nacht und Nebel camp four years later?


/137 - ... that during the Great Bombay Textile Strike of 1982, nearly 250,000 workers and more than 50 textile mills went on strike in Mumbai, India?


/138 - ... that Mieczysław Jagielski negotiated the agreement which recognized Solidarity as the first independent trade union within the Eastern Bloc?


/139 - ... that Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Irving Brown was dubbed "The Most Dangerous Man" by Time in 1952?


/140 - ...that George Hardy, who headed the Service Employees International Union from 1971 to 1980, did his first union organizing among janitors in San Francisco?


/141 - ...that approximately 10,000 communist miners left the Czechoslovak Miners' Union in 1923, after the union had accepted 9–13 percent cuts in salaries?


/142 - ...that during the Great Depression, Wisconsin dairy farmers conducted a series of strike actions aimed at increasing the prices paid to milk producers?


/143 - ...that the leftist Czechoslovak Chemical Workers' Union was expelled from the OSČ trade union centre in 1922?


/144 - ... that the Prague trade union centre Odborové sdružení českoslovanské was founded in 1897, as Czech unionists considered that the Austrian unions were neglecting them?


/145 - ...that the Central Commission of German Trade Unions organized 75 percent of unionized German workers in Czechoslovakia in 1921?


/146 - ...that Ron Carey was the first Teamsters General President elected by a direct vote of the membership?


/147 - ...that when Frank Fitzsimmons was named acting president of the Teamsters in 1967, a union insider said, "He's just a peanut butter sandwich; he'll melt in no time"?


/148 - ...that Alliance for Labor Action launched a $4 million organizing drive targeting African American workers in Atlanta, Georgia, in the fall of 1969?


/149 - ... that the 1981 warning strike in Poland was the biggest strike in the history of the Soviet Bloc, with 12 to 14 million participants?


/150 - ...that the Lublin 1980 strikes marked the beginning of important socio-political changes in Poland, such as the creation of Solidarity and democratization of the country?


/151 - ...that syndicalist trade unionist Frank Hodges once played a game of golf with George VI of the United Kingdom?


/152 - ... that paper locals, which can be used to extort money from employers or secure sweetheart contracts, are denounced by the AFL–CIO Code of Ethical Practices?


/153 - ... that the McClellan Committee served 8,000 subpoenas, took testimony from 1,526 witnesses (343 of whom invoked the Fifth Amendment), and compiled almost 150,000 pages of evidence?


/154 - ...that the Salad Bowl strike of 1970–1971 caused the price of iceberg lettuce to triple overnight, and thousands of acres of lettuce were plowed under as crops spoiled on the ground?


/155 - ...that the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act establishes collective bargaining for farmworkers in that state?


/156 - ...that former U.S. Under Secretary of Labor John F. Henning has been commended by Nancy Pelosi as "one of organized labor's greatest leaders"?


/157 - ...that the 1998–99 NBA lockout forced the cancellation of 464 regular-season National Basketball Association games?


/158 - ... that Donald Richberg helped co-author the Railway Labor Act, Norris–La Guardia Act, National Industrial Recovery Act, and Taft–Hartley Act?


/159 - ... that the shooting death of striking miner Tom Manning in the 1920 Anaconda Road massacre in Butte, Montana, is still officially unsolved?


/160 - ...that as Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Wayne L. Horvitz played a major role in negotiating labor disputes ranging from coal strikes to musicians at the Metropolitan Opera?


/161 - ... that William E. Simkin, longest-serving head of the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, first got involved in arbitration when a professor asked him to assist with a hosiery industry dispute?


/162 - ... that in 1960, top US labor mediator Joseph F. Finnegan said employers shouldn't be stuck with "antiquated rules" nor should workers hit by automation be handled as "a robot to be cast on a trash heap"?


/163 - ... that Gladys Bustamante became a leading Jamaican trade unionist after she took a job as a secretary for her future husband, Sir Alexander Bustamante?


/164 - ... that a U.S. Senate committee once claimed that Joseph Glimco ran "the nation's most corrupt union"?


/165 - ...that Indian communist politician K. P. Prabhakaran was in the forefront of a trade union of toddy tappers in Kerala for 55 years?


/166 - ...that in August of 1948 the Labour Party of Indonesia merged with the Communist Party?


/167 - ... that the ILO's Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 neither authorizes nor prohibits union security agreements, "such questions being matters for regulation in accordance with national practice"?


/168 - ... that the F.N.B.P.B. bakery workers' union, founded in 1960, is the oldest member of the Confédération générale du travail du Burkina trade union centre in Burkina Faso?


/169 - ...that at the heart of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Communications Workers of America v. Beck is a dispute over a US$10-a-month agency shop fee?


/170 - ...that the West African trade union centre CGTA, a splinter-group of the French CGT, rejected the notion of class struggle, stating that there were no antagonistic classes in Africa?


/171 - ...that after the merger of UNITE and HERE in 2004, the merged union UNITE HERE owned the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago?


/172 - ... that the AFL–CIO gained its latest member union when the 265,000-member UNITE HERE reaffiliated on September 16, 2009?


/173 - ... that as of 2009, Liz Shuler is the first woman and youngest person to hold the position of AFL–CIO Secretary-Treasurer, and the highest-ranking woman in the labor federation's history?


/174 - ... that breaker boys were at risk for acid burns, asthma, black lung disease, accidental amputation, and death by smothering or crushing while working in coal breakers?


/175 - ...that Giuseppe Giulietti, a leader of the Italian seamen's union, once hijacked a ship in order to give weapons to the White movement in Russia?


/176 - ...that a century ago this year, 20,000 women participated in a successful strike in New York's garment industry?


/177 - ... that the September 1988 unemployment statistics for the United Kingdom were briefly over-recorded due to delays in the receipt of information because of the 1988 United Kingdom postal workers strike?


/178 - ... that although efforts to create a transportation trades department in the AFL–CIO began in the 1960s, the idea did not gain momentum until after the Teamsters reaffiliated with the AFL-CIO in 1987?


/179 - ...that the Algerian communist trade union centre UGSA disbanded itself in 1957, after the rival nationalist UGTA had participated in the Leipzig congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions?


/180 - ... that during his 25 years on the U.S. National Labor Relations Board John H. Fanning took part in more than 25,000 decisions?


/181 - ... that Paul M. Herzog's grandfather-in-law, Oscar Straus, and his step-son, Alexander Trowbridge, were both United States Secretary of Commerce?


/182 - ... that one former Chair of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board described the position as "more like a bully pulpit than a position of authority"?


/183 - ... that a massive general strike organized by the Argentinian F.O.I.C. meat-packers union secured the release of its jailed leadership in September 1943?


/184 - ... that Barack Obama nominated former United Mine Workers official Joe Main to serve as the head of Mine Safety and Health Administration?


/185 - ... that at the 1949 congress of the government-sponsored Iranian trade union centre ESKI, only two out of 36 delegates were workers?


/186 - ... that on December 14, 1947, a rival government-supported Iranian union, ESKI, carried out an attack on a club building of the Central Union of Workers and Peasants of Iran?


/187 - ... that May Day was first celebrated in Persia in 1922, and during the 1920s thousands of people participated in the May Day rallies of the Central Council of Trade Unions in Tehran?


/188 - ... that although formally banned, the Iranian communist Central Council of United Trade Unions was able to revive its activities under the rule of Mohammad Mosaddegh in the early 1950s?


/189 - ... that Guyanese president Forbes Burnham was president of the Guyana Labour Union twice, from 1952 to 1956 and again from 1963 to 1965?


/190 - ... that the strike of the Calton weavers, during which six people died, was the first major industrial dispute in Scottish history?


/191 - ... that many of the Paterson, New Jersey, textile mill workers who struck in 1835 demanding shorter working hours were children?


/192 - ... that Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, J. Warren Madden was the first Chair of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, and said of his service on the Board, "It was all very frustrating"?


/193 - ... that some historians consider a 1619 strike by Polish craftsmen in the Jamestown Settlement to be the first strike in North American history?


/194 - ... that Wilma B. Liebman, the second woman ever to be Chair of the National Labor Relations Board, was named to the position by President Barack Obama on his first day in office?


/195 - ... that Carl Jeppesen organized the female match workers' strike in Kristiania in 1889?


/196 - ... that the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization in 1989 sought to end the assimilationist approach of the governments in dealing with indigenous peoples?


/197 - ... that Finnish communists founded the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada in 1924?


/198 - ... that after the Avondale Mine disaster, legislation was passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that made Pennsylvania the first U.S. state to have laws regarding mine safety?


/199 - ... that in 1931 three people were killed in Estevan, Canada, when police opened fire on a Mine Workers' Union of Canada rally?


/200 - ... that the miners' union leader Óscar Salas Moya was a candidate for vice-president of Bolivia in 1985?


/201 - ... that over 200 Paraguayan trade union leaders were arrested by the Stroessner government in connection with a 1958 general strike?


/202 - ... that Jenaro Flores Santos was the first peasant organizer to lead the Bolivian national trade union centre COB?


/203 - ... that Vesla Vetlesen became a government minister for Norway's Labour Party in 1986, thirty years after renouncing communism and joining the party together with her husband Leif Vetlesen?


/204 - ... that when Bolivian veteran trade unionist Román Loayza Caero announced his presidential aspirations in 2009 CSUTCB, the union he had led for nine years, publicly denounced his candidature?


/205 - ... that lesbian union organizer Mary Kay Henry was elected the first woman president of the Service Employees International Union on May 8, 2010?


/206 - ... that a gangster threw sulfuric acid in the face of crusading newspaper columnist Victor Riesel on a public street in New York City in April 1956, causing his blindness?


/207 - ... that long-time Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions leader Konrad Nordahl has been called one of the most powerful people of the Norwegian labour movement?


/208 - ... that Dorsey Dixon's song "Babies in the Mill" is about the Southern United States textile industry's exploitation of child labor in the early 20th-century?


/209 - ... that United Public Workers v. Mitchell (1947) is the only U.S. Supreme Court decision prior to 1965 to address the meaning of the Ninth and Tenth amendments substantively?


/210 - ... that the United Public Workers of America was expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1950 for being communist-controlled, and its president convicted of contempt of Congress?


/211 - ... that through the Trade Union Propaganda League Swedish leftwing socialists sought to win the Swedish Trade Union Confederation over to a revolutionary line?


/212 - ... that although his father was director of industrial relations at Ford Motor Company, Bob King joined the union at Ford and was elected president of the United Auto Workers of America in June 2010?


/213 - ... that United Auto Workers of America president Stephen Yokich was taken to his first strike picket line when he was just 22 months old?


/214 - ... that in 1947, 72 out of 126 trade unions in Singapore were affiliated to the communist-led Singapore Federation of Trade Unions?


/215 - ... that the All Burma Trade Union Congress was banned in the wake of the March 1948 crackdown on the Communist Party of Burma?


/216 - ... that in spite of hesitations due to the growing influence of Nazism in Germany, the International Federation of Trade Unions moved its headquarters to Berlin in 1931?


/217 - ... that the leftist Collective Labor Movement was the largest trade union centre in the Philippines in the years just before World War II?


/218 - ... that the Unión Obrera Democrática Filipina held a mass anti-imperialist rally on May 1, 1903, the first May Day rally in the Philippines, in spite of being denied permits by the Taft administration?


/219 - ... that the Philadelphia transit strike of 1944 started when black transit workers were allowed to hold jobs previously reserved for whites?


/220 - ... that Public Employees Federation president Kenneth Brynien was elected in 2006 by a margin of 850 votes out of 14,898 cast, but was unopposed for reelection in 2009?


/221 - ... that the general strike against Leopold III of Belgium broke out a few days after he returned to the throne in 1950?


/222 - ... that Elias Volan was edged out as national trade union leader in 1940 by members of the Trade Opposition of 1940?


/223 - ... that Michael Puntervold, Magnus Nilssen, Arne Magnussen and Olav Kringen were the Norwegian delegates at the Labour and Socialist International founding congress in 1923?


/224 - .. that Japanese trade union leader Ritsuta Noda was a pioneer in the underground birth control movement in Osaka?


/225 - ... that 196 activists of the Japanese Hyōgikai trade union movement were jailed in 1926 for organizing strikes?


/226 - ... that Jens Tangen, who was ordered by Nazis to become a trade union leader, was later deposed but escaped death, unlike his deputy chairman and judicial office leader?


/227 - ... that the British Labour Party politician and trade unionist Richard Kelley opposed allowing coal miners to leave work early if they had finished their day's tasks?


/228 - ... that Sverre Iversen, Norway's first director of the Director of Labour, took voice classes in order to work himself up from being a mason?


/229 - ... that the removal of Omar Gjesteby as a deputy trade union leader in 1940 was partially investigated by his son, a Norwegian police investigator, some years later?


/230 - ... that Betty S. Murphy was the first woman to serve on and the first woman chair of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, and the first woman to lead the Dept. of Labor's Wage and Hour Division?


/231 - ... that the merger between the Norwegian Labour Party-led Workers' Sport Federation and the Communist-led 'Red Sports' has been described as an early example of the popular front line?


/232 - ... that Konocti Harbor, a now-closed resort and music venue in Lake County, California, was originally founded in 1959 as low-cost vacation housing for members of a plumbers union?


/233 - ... that in Colombia there were 2,832 murders of trade unionists between 1 January 1986 and 30 April 2010, making it the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a trade unionist?


/234 - ... that British Labour Party Member of Parliament J. H. Hall worked in the trade union movement for over 40 years?


/235 - ... that trade unionist Lt-col. David Watts Morgan CBE DSO MP JP was known by the miners he represented as "Dai Alphabet"?


/236 - ... that the Slovenian-Italian brotherhood was one of the platforms of the United Trade Unions of the Free Territory of Trieste?


/237 - ... that although the U.S. Supreme Court denied Clyde Summers the right to practice law in Illinois in 1945 in In re Summers, Summers later was a highly influential scholar in the field of labor law?


/238 - ... that though Theodore W. Kheel negotiated deals to end numerous strikes in New York City, Mayor Ed Koch blamed Kheel for too-generous pay packages that led to the city's fiscal crisis in the 1970s?


/239 - ... that only six of the U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices participated in a 1950 anti-communist oath case?


/240 - ... that Cornell University labor law professor James A. Gross has worked as a labor relations mediator for the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball?


/241 - ... that John Mills Houston, a stage actor, was one of 19 men selected to act as President Woodrow Wilson's honor guard during World War I?


/242 - ... that Harold I. Cammer represented his legal partner, Nathan Witt, before HUAC in 1950 when his former legal partner, Lee Pressman, accused Witt of being a communist?


/243 - ... that National Labor Relations Board Chief Economist David J. Saposs was accused of being a Communist, and Congress defunded his position and division in October 1940?


/244 - ... that Ingeborg Borgerud, former jurist for the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, was lambasted by these unions some years later for a report about working environment?


/245 - ... that Nathan Witt, U.S. National Labor Relations Board Secretary from 1937 to 1940, drove a taxicab for two years so he could earn enough money to attend Harvard Law School?


/246 - ... that a 1953 strike organized by the plantation workers trade union Sarbupri forced the Indonesian government to raise wages of estate labourers by 30 percent?


/247 - ... that due to the Scottish football referee strike, foreign officials from Israel, Luxembourg and Malta were used as replacements?


/248 - ... that the Indonesian trade union centre SOBRI decided to join the World Federation of Trade Unions following the death of Stalin in 1953?


/249 - ... that by 1962 the communist-led Indonesian forest workers union Sarbuksi claimed to have a quarter of a million members?


/250 - ... that James Gross considers NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., NLRB v. Columbian Enameling & Stamping Co., and NLRB v. Sands Mfg.Co. the most significant Supreme Court rulings on the National Labor Relations Act since the Court upheld the Act?


/251 - ... that American lawyer Lloyd K. Garrison was chairman of the "first" National Labor Relations Board, the National War Labor Board, and the New York City Board of Education?


/252 - ... that in 1955 the Indonesian film workers union Sarbufis launched a campaign to ban American newsreel film?


/253 - ... that Eliseo Medina is the first Mexican American to serve on the executive board of the Service Employees International Union?


/254 - ... that Tom Kahn organized American unions' $300,000 aid to the Polish labor-union Solidarity in 1979–81, despite Secretary of State Muskie's warnings that this aid might provoke a new Soviet invasion?



/255 - ...that Anna Walentynowicz and Alina Pienkowska transformed a strike over bread and butter issues into a solidarity strike in sympathy with other striking establishments giving birth to Solidarity in 1980?


/256 - ... that Cher Scarlett is one of the leaders of #AppleToo, a workers' rights movement at Apple Inc.?



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Organized Labour/Did You Know?
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