Today in Labor History June 16 FDR signed the National Industrial Recovery Act & more

June 16

Eight local unions organize the International Fur Workers Union of U.S. and Canada. The union later merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen - 1913


Railroad union leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs speaks in Canton, Ohio on the relation between capitalism and war. Ten days later he is arrested under the Espionage Act, eventually sentenced to 10 years in jail - 1918 (read more in The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene V. Debs, Ray Ginger's biography of Debs, founder of one of the nation’s first industrial unions, the American Railway Union, who went on to help launch the Industrial Workers of the World -- the Wobblies. In the UCS bookstore now.)

National Industrial Recovery Act becomes law, establishes the right to unionize, sets maximum hours and minimum wages for every major industry, abolishes sweatshops and child labor - 1933

And this:
June 16, 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act. One of its provisions recognized the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively through unions. The legislation, though later found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, helped spurred massive union organizing. Finally, in 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, the foundation of today's labor law.

Charles Morris' book, The Blue Eagle at Work, is an insightful analysis of the NIRA and how it is still useful today. Read a review of his book at http://www.nathannewman.org/laborblog/archive/002541.shtml

Inacom Corp., once the world's largest computer dealer, sends most of its 5,100 employees an e-mail instructing them to call a toll-free phone number; when they call, a recorded message announces they have been fired - 2000

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_06_16_2011