Today in Labor History Feb 28 SCOTUS 8 hour workday is constitutional, Chinatown 4 month strike, mor

[Omaha Steve]

February 28

U.S. Supreme Court finds that a Utah state law limiting mine and smelter workers to an eight-hour workday is constitutional - 1898

(Actually Leap Year Feb. 29) The minimum age allowed by law for workers in mills, factories, and mines in South Carolina is raised from twelve to fourteen - 1915


Members of the Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in San Francisco’s Chinatown begin what is to be a successful four-month strike for better wages and conditions at the National Dollar Stores factory and three retail outlets - 1938

In response to the layoff of 450 union members at a 3M factory in New Jersey, every worker at a 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, walks off the job in sympathy - 1986.

And this: February 28, 1986 - The entire workforce of the 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, walked off their jobs to support the 450 members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union who were being laid off at a 3M plant in New Jersey. The South African workers -- all of them black -- were among the hundreds of thousands of union members whose militancy helped bring down the apartheid system.

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_2_28_2011