On May 16, 1910, the federal government created the U.S. Bureau of Mines to investigate the terrible conditions that killed thousands of miners a year and to attempt to regulate those conditions. It w
On May 10, 1913, white gold miners in the Transvaal region of South Africa went on strike in one of the first major strikes in that nation’s history and also one where workers allowed their raci
On April 20, 1946, the International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America (IFAWA) Local 46, a communist led union of largely Native Alaskans, walked off the job to demand wage increases, shorter wo
On April 2, 1984, 17,000 workers walked off the job in Las Vegas, bringing America’s gaming paradise. The longest and most bitter strike in Las Vegas history, the casinos largely won, establishi
On March 20, 1882, workers at Homestead Steel won their strike, bringing the union into the steel works for the first time. One of the biggest victories for workers in the Gilded Age, it would lead to
On March 9, 1911, railroad brotherhoods in Kentucky and Tennessee went on strike to protest the hiring of Black workers. This is a prime example of the way in which skilled white workers would choose
On January 29, 1834, President Andrew Jackson orders the U.S. military to suppress workers attacking each other over scarce jobs along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. This is the first time in Americ
On January 25, 1915, the Supreme Court decided the case of Coppage v. Kansas, allowing employers to force workers to sign yellow-dog contracts, making not joining a union a condition of employment. Th