Today in Labor History Dec 15, 6000 protesting women who were attacking non-striking miners

[Omaha Steve]

December 15

December 15, 1792 - The U.S. Bill of Rights was adopted. Article I guarantees freedom of speech, religion, the press and "the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

AFL convention passes a one-cent per capita assessment to aid the organization of women workers. (Exact date uncertain) - 1913

The Kansas national guard is called out to subdue from two thousand to six thousand protesting women who were going from mine to mine attacking non-striking miners in the Pittsburgh coal fields. The women made headlines across the state and the nation: they were christened the "Amazon Army" by the New York Times - 1921

Eight days after the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, the AFL pledges that there will be no strikes in defense-related plants for the duration of World War II - 1941

Meeting in its biennial convention, the AFL-CIO declares “unstinting support” for “measures the Administration might deem necessary to halt Communist aggression and secure a just and lasting peace” in Viet Nam - 1967

Congress approves the labor-backed Age Discrimination in Employment Act - 1967


Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers union organizer Clinton Jencks, who led New Mexico zinc miners in the strike depicted in the classic 1954 movie “Salt of the Earth,” dies of natural causes in San Diego at age 87 - 2005

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_12_15_2009