Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1886, The New York Times declared the struggle for an eight-hour workday to be “un-American” and called public demonstrations for the shorter hours, quote, “labor disturbances brought about by foreigners,” unquote. Other publications declared that an eight-hour workday would bring about “loafing and gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness.”
In 1969, Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and 100 others were arrested while picketing a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina in a demand for union recognition. The governor of South Carolina declared a state of emergency in Charleston and ordered more than 100,000 state troopers and members of the National Guard to break a strike by predominantly African American Medical University Hospital workers seeking recognition for their union, Local 1199B of the Retail Drug and Hospital Employees. In the end, the employer promised to rehire the striking workers they had fired, abide by a newly established grievance process, and provide modest pay increases.
And in 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that employers may not require female employees to make larger contributions to pension plans in order to obtain the same monthly benefits as men.
Today’s labor quote is by Ralph David Abernathy, Sr.
"Bring on your tear gas, bring on your grenades, your new supplies of Mace, your state troopers and even your national guards. But let the record show we ain't going to be turned around."
Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest friend.