Today in Labor History July 8 Founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.)

July 8

First anthracite coal strike in U.S. - 1842

Labor organizer Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor born on Staten Island, NY. Among her activities: investigating child labor in glass factories and mines, and working undercover in meat packing plants to verify for federal investigators the nightmarish working conditions that author Upton Sinclair had revealed in "The Jungle" - 1862

The Pacific Mail Steamship Co. fires all employees who had been working an eight hour day, then joins with other owners to form the "Ten-Hour League Society" for the purpose of uniting all mechanics "willing to work at the old rates, neither unjust to the laborers nor ruinous to the capital and enterprise of the city and state." The effort failed - 1867


Founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W., or Wobblies) concludes in Chicago. Charles O. Sherman, a former American Federation of Labor organizer, is elected president - 1905 (Solidarity Forever: An Oral History of the IWW is a wonderful collection of IWW members’ oral histories interspersed with the authors’ comments about this fascinating and vitally important piece of American and labor history. Includes more than 50 photos and cartoons. Originally published in 1985, now in its fourth printing and available now in the UCS bookstore.)

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history

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