On November 23, 1891, a miner in Alaska named Patrick Whalen was injured in a mining accident. After a lower court awarded him financial compensation, the Supreme Court stepped in to make sure that in
On October 25, 1949, longshoremen in Hawaii won a 177 day strike that got them union recognition, the most important thing a newly organized set of workers can achieve. It also established the princip
On October 20, 1969, a construction worker named Clarence Borel filed suit against eleven companies for asbestos exposure. This key moment in the movement against asbestos is a way to get at the expos
On October 12, 1933, Mexican workers went on strike in the Los Angeles garment industry. This was a foundational moment in Mexican American labor history, one that presaged their growing presence in t
On September 30, 1919, a shootout occurred between armed guards protecting a union meeting of sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas and whites seeking to intimidate them. The next day, the governor ordere
On September 21, 1982, the National Football League Players Association walked off the job in the first strike that cost games in professional football history. The players didn’t win all they w
On August 25, 1734, a slave insurrection in St. John was put down with maximum violence, ending nine months of hard-won freedom from slaves and concluding possibly the most important slave rebellion b
On August 16, 1928, Josephine Roche signed a collective bargaining agreement with the United Mine Workers of America, the first time the UMWA had won a contract in Colorado. This came about due to an