Tag Archives: Unions

1984: Try Again Jack

“Blind workers on strike; A guide dog leads employees of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and supporters in a picket at the organization’s offices on Bayview Ave.; south of Lawrence Ave. yesterday. They are members of Local 204 … Continue reading

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1961: A Song Bob Dylan Never Wrote

From Dylan’s Chronicles Volume One (2004): I can’t say when it occurred to me to write my own songs. I couldn’t have come up with anything comparable or halfway close to the folk song lyrics I was singing to define … Continue reading

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1159 BC: The First Strike in History

In his first two decades on the throne, Ramesses III had repelled invasions, restored Egypt’s temples and re-established national pride. The court now looked forward to the king’s thirty-year jubilee, determined to stage a celebration worthy of so glorious a … Continue reading

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1921: Beware the Ides of March

The National Association for the Promotion of Labor Unionism Among Negroes was founded in 1918 by A. Philip Randolph—the great union organizer who would later form the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters—and writer Chandler Owens; it was promoted through their … Continue reading

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1937: Local 174

This mural showing the early history of UAW local 174 was painted by Walter Speck and Barbara Wilson in 1937 and originally hung in the local’s union hall at 2730 Maybury Grand St., in Detroit, Michigan. After moving with the … Continue reading

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1944: The Removal of Sewell Avery

In 1942, in an effort to avoid strikes in war-related industries, Franklin Roosevelt reinstated the War Labor Board and directed it to oversee and arbitrate negotiations between unions and employers. Most unions had also agreed not to strike during the … Continue reading

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1959: Capital and Labor

Sister Concilla sets the record straight on labor unions. Note the union bug indicating the comic was printed in a union shop.              

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1954: Zombies, Unite!

For Labor Day: a grave-digger’s strike leads to disasterous consequences in this 1954 story from Voodoo comics:            

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1945: With These Blows of My Hammer

On September 14, 1945, trade unionist Paul Bebert, a former concentration camp prisoner, destroyed the swastikas that Nazis has affixed to union offices in Hamburg. He read this statement to the crowd: With these blows of my hammer I will … Continue reading

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1987: Basebenzi Masimanyane

Congress of South African Trade Unions: 1987 Calendar In 1987, COSATU conducted a two-day strike during the general elections in May as part of its Living Wage Campaign. More than 2.5 million workers took part. Later that month, their headquarters … Continue reading

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