American Labor History Timeline
'timeline of labor issues & events' page at Wikipedia
"A Brief History of Unions" [1.5 minute short] from PA-AFLCIO on YouTube
XIXth Century {just below} • XXth Century • XXIst Century • recent events
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XIXth Century
- 1847 July 1: Provisions of the Factories Act of 1847 took effect; the law as passed by U.K.'s Parliament restricted women and children to working a maximum of ten hours per day, and 63 hours per week.
- 1860 Jan 8: The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts collapsed and caught fire, killing up to 145 workers, mostly female immigrants from Scotland and Ireland.
- 1861 Jan 28: Formation of the American Miners' Association at a convention in St. Louis, Missouri; the union broke apart circa 1868.
- 1876: Formation of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers by merger of the Sons of Vulcan, the Iron & Steel Heaters Union, the Iron & Steel Roll Hands Union, and the Nailers Union.
- 1877 July 14: The Great Railroad Strike began in Martinsburg, WV and expanded nationally. It lasted for 45 days, until federal troops ordered by Pres. Hayes suppressed the demonstrators.
- 1881: Founding of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions.
- 1882 September 5: The first Labor Day Parade, in New York City.
- 1884: Bureau of Labor established, within the Department of Interior.
- 1886 May 4: While Chicago, IL police watched a peaceful labor rally in Haymarket Square, someone tossed a bomb at the police line, causing a riot. The 'Haymarket Massacre' resulted in the deaths of 11 strikers and 8 policemen. A show trial – there was no evidence – convicted eight labor leaders: one was sentenced to 15 years in prison; two were sentenced to death but received commutations to life in prison; one committed suicide in prison; and four died of slow strangulation in a botched hanging.
- 1886 Dec 8: The F.O.T.L.U. was reorganized as the American Federation of Labor, in Columbus, Ohio; Samuel Gompers [1850-1924] was president for over 40 years.
- 1888 June 13: Congress established the Department of Labor.
- 1890 January 25: Founding of the United Mine Workers of America in Columbus, Ohio.
- 1892 June-Oct: The Homestead Strike: The Carnegie Steel Mill in Homestead, PA locked out its union workers. Stirkers overpowered Pinkerton agents and forced them to surrender on July 6th, and ran them out of town. On July 12th, 4,000 state militia arrived, retook the property, and allowed strike breakers to reopen the mill. Strike leaders were charged with conspiracy, riot, murder & treason; counter charges were made against management. The strike collapsed and the militia pulled out on October 13.
- 1893 June 20: Founding of the American Railway Union in Chicago, IL by Eugene V. Debs [1855-1926].
- 1894 May 11: The Pullman Strike began when 50,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers in Illinois went on a wildcat strike.
- 1894 June 24: Congress passed a bill making Labor Day a national holiday, on the First Monday of September; signed into law by President Garfield.
- 1894 July 3: Federal troops were called out against the Pullman strikers.
— July 7: Eugene V. Debs [1855-1926] & other union officials arrested, indicted & jailed under $10,000 bail each.
— August 2: Pullman Co. reopened; strike declared over the next day. Rehired workers were forced to sign a pledge not to unionize (effectively blocking the railroad labor movement until The Great Depression).
- 1896: Intl. Assn. of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental & Reinforcing Iron Workers established.
- 1900 May 1: The Winter Quarters Mine near Scofield, Utah exploded due to accumulation of coal dust; at least 200 miners were killed, and possibly as many as 246; worst U.S. mining disaster at the time, now ranks fifth. {Wikipedia}
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XXth Century
- 1901: Founding of the Team Drivers International Union; some members broke away in 1902 to form the Teamsters National Union.
- 1902 May 19: The Fraterville Mine Disaster in Tennessee killed 216 miners.
- 1903 February 14: Department of Commerce & Labor established, which included the Bureau of Labor.
- 1903 June 30: Hanna_Mine_Disaster in Wyoming killed 169 miners; deaths are blamed on the Union Pacific Coal Company's greed-based 'gouging' practices intended to get coal out of the mine faster.
- 1903 August: Formation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a re-merger of T.D.I.U. & T.N.U. led by Samuel Gompers of the A.F. of L.
- 1905 June 27: Founding of the Industrial Workers of the World [I.W.W., aka 'wobblies'] trade union in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1907: The International Beigel Bakers’ Union was formed in New York City; the union became obsolete in the 1950s with the invention of bagel-making machines (the few bakers/workers who make bagels by hand are not enough to sustain a union).
- 1907 Dec 6: The Monongah Mine Disaster in West Virginia killed 362 men and boys; still the worst mining disaster in U.S. history.
- 1907 Dec 19: The Darr Mine Disaster in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania killed 239 men and boys (recent research suggest nthat the death toll was hundreds higher).
- 1909 Nov 13: The Cherry Mine Disaster in Illinois killed 259 men and boys, the result of a series of blunders: an electrical outage resulted in use of kerosene lanterns, which ignited a load of hay for mules working in the mine; moving the hayload ignited timbers of the mine, and reversing the above-ground air-fan caused the fan machinery to catch fire. Twenty-one miners managed to erect a barricade against the fire and smoke and subsisted on trickles of water for eight days before being rescued.
- 1911 March 25: The tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City – 146 workers died due to unsafe work conditions, including fire doors nailed shut. The event emboldened the 'muckraker' journalist movement and led to laws for safety and against child labor.
- 1911 Dec 9: An explosion killed 84 workers inside the Cross Mountain Coal Mine near Briceville, Tennessee; five men were rescued.
- 1912 Jan 11: 'Bread and Roses Strike' began at American Woolen Company factories in Lawrence, Massachussets, with support of the I.W.W.; 20,000 workers - mostly women and children - stayed out for two months.
- 1912 Feb 23: Release of Edison's 13-minute "Children Who Labor" docudrama silent short.
- 1912 April 30: Release of Thanhouser Film Company's silent two-reeler "The Cry of The Children", which stirred controversy because it included footage of actual child laborers in actual factories; inspired by the 1843 poem by Elizabeth Barret Browning.
- 1912 June 4: Massachusetts passed a milestone of U.S. labor law, the nation's first minimum-wage law.
- 1912 Nov 26: Acquittal by a local jury in Lawrence, Massachussets of two union leaders accused as accessories in the killing of a policeman who was beating strikers three miles away.
- 1913 Feb 13: Silk-workers labor strike in Paterson, New Jersey, supported by the I.W.W.; the work stoppage lasted six months and ended in failure.
- 1913 March 14: Legislation establishing the Department of Labor was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Taft.
- 1914: The Miners Union Hall in Butte, Montana was destroyed and the town occupied by the National Guard.
- 1914 April 20: Colorado National Guard and hired hoodlums opened fire with machine guns on a tent city of 1,200 strikers and their families outside Ludlow, Colorado. The 'Ludlow Massacre' resulted in the deaths of 9 strikers and 2 women and 11 children.
The Ludlow Massacre Memorial Monument is just off I-25 at Exit 27 in SE Colorado
- 1915 November 19: Execution by firing squad of I.W.W. labor leader Joe Hill in Utah.
- 1917 March 19: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 8-hour work day for railroad workers.
- 1917 July 12: Two thousand copper miners in Bisbee, AZ were herded to Warren baseball field under suspicion of I.W.W. sympathies; 800 recanted and returned to their jobs, the remaining 1,200 were shipped in cattle cars {in scorching desert heat} to New Mexico.
- 1917 Dec 6: A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia killed 362 men and boys; the event remains the worst mining disaster in American history.
- 1919: Witnessed the largest number of labor strikes of any year in U.S. history.
- 1920 May 19: Striking miners and local police met hoodlums hired by mine owners (thru the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency) at the Matewan, West Virginia train station. The gunfight resulted in 10 deaths, including the mayor.
- 1921 August 1: Union organizer Ed Chambers and Sid Hatfield (the heroic police chief of Matewan, WV) were murdered on the steps of the McDowell County [WV] Courthouse in revenge for the deaths of two Felts brothers at Matewan. The identity of the murderers was known (one was an employee of Baldwin-Felts), but no one was ever brought to trial.
- 1921 August 7: Activist Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones [1830-1930] rallied the striking coal miners of West Virginia to march on Logan & Mingo Counties to set up a union by force. By August 20, over 10,000 armed miners had gathered in Kanawha County and began moving toward Logan. The Battle of Blair Mountain began on August 25th and lasted until September 2nd, when federal troops (sent by President Harding) arrived. The insurrection resulted in 60-130 deaths and many more injured. 985 men were indicted on charges of murder, conspiracy & treason against the State of West Virginia; the leaders were acquitted for lack of evidence, but hundreds of miners were convicted and imprisoned, until paroled by the Governor in 1925.
- 1927 Nov 21: State police fired on striking coal miners at the Columbine Mine in northern Colorado; six miners were killed and dozens were injured.
- 1933 November 13: Workers at the packing plant of George A. Hormel & Co. in Austin, Minnesota held the first sit-down strike in American history.
- 1934 July: West Coast longshoremen went on strike; owners brought in armed goon squads, tear gas, and the National Guard, provoking pitched battles in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and San Pedro. Hundreds of strikers – and bystanders – were beaten and-or arrested. July 5 is designated Bloody Thursday in honor of two striking workers who were shot and killed; a total of six workers were shot or beaten to death on the West Coast by police or company goons during the course of the strike.
- 1935 November 9: John L. Lewis [1880-1969] and others formed the Committee for Industrial Organization [C.I.O.], later renamed Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- 1935 August 14: The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt.
- 1936 May 30: Memorial Day Massacre at Republic Steel in Chicago, Illinois: ten workers shot in the back by police.
- 1936 June 7: Formation of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in Pittsburgh, PA which joined with Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers to organize the steel industry.
- 1937: United Mine Workers was expelled from the A.F.L.
- 1937 Feb 11: United Auto Workers of Flint, Michigan won their 6-week sit-down strike when General Motors agreed to recognize the union.
- 1937 May 30: Police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago, Illinois; ten people were killed, hundreds crippled; known as the Republic Steel Memorial Day Massacre.
- 1938: First national minimum wage established at 25 cents per hour.
- 1940 October 24: The 40-hour work week went into effect, under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
- 1941 May 29: Members of the Screen Cartoonists Guild went on strike at Disney Studios in Burbank; Walt Disney considered the employees disloyal and the cause of the strike to be a socialist/communist plot; Walt left on a scheduled good will tour to South America, which let things cool down; federal mediators found in favor of the strikers and the studio signed an agreement; after four months of picketing, everyone went back to work on September 21.
- 1942: United Mine Workers withdrew from the C.I.O.
- 1942 May 22: The Steel Workers Organizing Committee [est. 1935] and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers disbanded & formed the United Steel Workers.
- 1946 January 25: United Mine Workers rejoined the A.F.L.
- 1947 March 25: A coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois killed 111 workers.
- 1947 June 4: U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Taft-Hartley Act, revising labor law in favor of management; vetoed by President Truman, then overridden by Congress; signed into law by Truman on June 23.
- 1947 Dec 12: John L. Lewis refused to agree to the Taft-Hartley Act; the United Mine Workers withdrew from the A.F.L.
- 1949 Oct 1: The United Steelworkers of America began a 42-day strike over the issue of retirement benefits.
- 1949 Oct 26: President Truman signed a law raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents per hour.
- 1951 Dec 21: Explosions killed 119 men at the New Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort, Illinois.
- 1952 April 8: President Truman issued an executive order seizing the American steel industry to avert a nationwide strike. (The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that he exceeded his authority, opening the way for a seven-week strike.)
- 1952 June 2: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer case that President Truman exceeded his authority in ordering the nationalization of the American steel industry to avert a strike. The United Steelworkers of America union went on strike that same day.
- 1952 July 16: President Truman signed the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act into law.
- 1952 July 24: The United Steelworkers of America strike was settled after seven weeks, on terms proposed by the union four months prior.
- 1955 Dec 5: The A.F. of L. and the C.I.O. labor organizations merged under George Meany as president.
- 1956 March 20: Union workers at Westinghouse Electric Corp. ended a 156-day strike.
- 1957 Dec 6: A.F.L.-C.I.O. members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on charges of corruption.
- 1959 Jan 22: Twelve workers drowned in the Knox Mine Disaster in Pennsylvania.
- 1962 Sept 30: First meeting of the National Farm Workers Assn., forerunner of the United Farm Workers labor union, in Fresno, California.
- 1962 Dec 6: An explosion at U.S. Steel's Robena No. 3 coal mine at Carmichaels, Pennsylvania killed 37 miners.
- 1969 Dec 9: Incumbent U.M.W.A. president W.A. 'Tony' Boyle received nearly twice as many votes - 63.6% to 36.4% - as challenger Joseph 'Jock' Yablonski in an election for union president that is generally considered a fraud.
- 1969 Dec 31: U.M.W.A. labor leader Joseph Yablonski and his family were assassinated in their home by thugs hired by corrupt U.M.W.A. president Tony Boyle. (Boyle was convicted of the crime in April 1974.)
- 1970 Dec 28: Passage of Occupational Safety & Health Act, which established O.S.H.A. as part of the U.S. Dept. of Labor effective 28 April 1971.
- 1973 Dec: Former U.M.W.A. president Tony Boyle was convicted of embezzlement during the 1968 union election.
- 1973 Dec: Former U.M.W.A. president Tony Boyle was convicted of murder in the assassination of Joseph Yablonski and his family in December 1969; Boyle was sentenced to three consecutive life terms.
- 1978 Feb: Former U.M.W.A. president Tony Boyle was re-tried and again convicted for the murder of Joseph Yablonski and his family in December 1969.
- 1980 Aug 31: Beginning of Poland's Solidarity (Solidarnosc) labor union movement at the conclusion of a 17-day strike at the Gdansk Shipyards.
- 1982 Sept 21: National Football League players began a 57-day strike against management; they signed an agreement on November 16.
- 1984 Dec 19: The Cottonwood/Wilberg Mine in Southern Utah exploded in a ball of flames during the owners' attempt at a one-day production record; the cause was traced to two defective safety devices on an air compressor; Energy West Mining Company rejected blame for the deaths of 27 miners.
- 1985 March 3: British coal miners voted to end a year-long strike; it was the longest and most violent walkout in British history.
- 1985 August: Workers of U.F.C.W.I.U. Local P-9 struck the Hormel Foods Corp. main plant in Austin, Minnesota; Hormel refused to negotiate, many union members eventually crossed the picket lines and accepted lower wages, and the strike fell apart in June 1986.
- 1987 Sept 21: National Football League players began a 24-day strike against management, mostly over the issue of free agency.
- 1987 Oct 24: The Teamsters Union was readmitted to the A.F.L.-C.I.O., 30 years after expulsion for corruption.
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XXIst Century
jump to recent events
- 2002 July 24: Nine coal miners became trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County of Western Pennsylvania; all nine men were rescued 77 hours later.
{Wikipedia}
- 2002 Oct 8: A federal judge approved President George W. Bush's order to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy $1-2 billion a day.
- 2003 Oct 11: Southern California U.F.C.W. members struck Safeway/Vons, prompting Albertson's & Kroger/Ralphs & Vons/Safeway to lock union workers out.
- 2004 Feb 26: Southern California grocery workers ratified a two-tier settlement with store management after a twenty-week strike; both sides claimed victory.
- 2005 June 15: Founding of the breakaway Change To Win Coalition, comprised of the Teamsters, UNITE-HERE, L.I.U., U.F.C.W.U. & S.E.I.U. unions, soon followed by the U.B.C.J.A. Carpenters & U.F.W.A..
- 2007 Sept 24: 73,000 members of the U.A.W. struck General Motors across the nation, their first such strike since 1976. G.M. caved the next day.
- 2009 Jan 29: The 'Lilly Ledbetter Law' extending the statute of limitations for filing pay discrimination claims against employers was signed into law by President Obama.
- 2010 April 5: Upper Big Branch Coal Mine (operated by a subsidiary of Massey Energy) in Raleigh County, West Virginia exploded from a spark igniting lethally-high levels of methane gas; 25 miners were declared dead, with four men missing; several days of venting the gases were required before rescue crews could enter the mine; total deaths were 29 men.
{Wikipedia}
- 2010 June 10: Largest one-day strike of nurses in the U.S., by 12,000 in Minnesota.
- 2011 April 4: First annual "We Are One Day", with over 1,000 rallies nationwide confirming the stand of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. for solidarity with all labor unions (on the anniversary of his assassination during the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968).
- 2011: 45,000 union members walked off the job and struck Verizon on the east coast.
- 2011 Sept 8: One-day wildcat longshoreman strike shut down the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Longview, Everett, and Anacortes in Washington State; the matter was settled on September 14, with unions obtaining the right to work at the new state grain center.
- 2011 Dec 6: Parent company Alpha Natural Resources agreed to pay a $209 million penalty for Massey Energy's part in the lethal Upper Big Branch Coal Mine Disaster of April 2010; the record judgment includes a fine of $35 million, $1.5 million to the family of each of the 29 dead miners (and two severely-injured miners), plus $80 million toward safety improvements & disaster prevention.
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- 2012 Aug 14: Houston, Texas janitors and the S.E.I.U. settled their 5-week strike for a paltry annual 25-cent wage increase for 4 years.
- 2012 Sept 10: Beginning of the Chicago Teachers Union strike; teachers agreed to a new pact on September 18 and went back to work the next day; concessions won included addressing the 70% of school buildings without working air conditioning or heat, all schoolbooks available for students on Day One, and working computers (to take attendance) for teachers on Day One.
- 2012 Nov 9: 5,000 members of the bakers union went on strike against Hostess Brands, Inc.; workers refused to take cuts in pay and healthcare and pensions while management gave themselves 80-percent pay increases. Hostess was already in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced November 16 that the company will now liquidate, a loss of 18,500 jobs nationwide. {Follow-up: New owners of Hostess brands are re-opening five plants, with food deliveries expected in July 2013.}
- 2012 Nov 23: 'Black Friday' shopping day protests against Wal-Mart's vile labor practices by both union and non-union picketers.
- 2012 Nov 29: One-day strike by New York City fast food workers for pay above minimum wage, coordinated by FastFoodForward as well as the Service Employees International Union; participants estimated at 200.
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- 2013 April 4: Second one-day strike by New York City fast food workers for pay above minimum wage, coordinated by New York Communities for Change; participants estimated at 400.
- 2013 April 24: One-day strike by fast food workers in Chicago for a wage increase to $15/hour, coordinated by Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (website Fight For 15 / Lucha por 15); many hundreds participated.
- 2013 May 9: One-day strike by fast food workers in St. Louis, Missouri for a wage increase to $15/hour from current $7.35, thus the name of their movement: "Can't Survive on $7.35".
- 2013 May 10: One-day strike by fast food workers in Detroit, Michigan - organized by Detroit 15.
- 2013 May 22: One-day strike by fast food workers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a wage increase to $15/hour from current $7.25 - organized by Wisconsin Citizen Action - Raise Up Milwaukee.
- 2013 Nov 7: Five hundred WalMart workers & clergy & other supporters assembled in Downtown Los Angeles to protest Wal-Mart's poverty-level wages, watched by 100 L.A.P.D. personnel in riot gear; when the parade permit time expired, police arrested 54 protestors, some of whom were kept in jail overnight.
- 2013 Nov 26: Voters in the City of SeaTac (Seattle-Tacoma Airport) in Washington State narrowly passed a referendum raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, effective January First.
- 2013 Thursday Dec 5: The U.S. fast-food strike for a living wage expanded, with strikers in 110 cities across the country, and support protests in 100 other cities.
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- 2014 Feb 19: Clothing retailer Gap Inc. raised the nationwide minimum wage for its employees to $9/hour as 'a strategic investment', with a raise to $10/hour set for 2015.
- 2014 Feb 26: United Parcel Service fired a Maspeth, New York employee that was known for being a union activist; some 250 other U.P.S. drivers walked off the job in protest, for which U.P.S. fired them all.
- 2014 April 1: Over 300 workers of International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (I.A.M.) Local 2515 went on strike against their employer Trax International of Las Vegas, Nevada over terms of a new contract for work at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; Trax quickly offered better terms and the employees went back to work on April 9th.
- 2014 Nov 13: A federal grand jury in Charleston, SC handed up a four-count indictment against Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship relating to the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster of April 2010; charges included conspiracy to violate safety and health laws, conspiracy to provide advance warning of government inspections, and making false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about Massey’s safety practices prior to the explosion.
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- 2015 Feb 19: Retailer Wal-Mart, Inc. announced pay raises effective in April to at least $9 an hour for 500,000 full-time & part-time associates, more than a third of its work force at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. By next February 1, their pay will increase to at least $10 an hour.
- 2015 March 2: Facing pressure from labor groups, retailer Target Stores announced that it will increase the minimum pay of its workers to at least $9 an hour, joining retailers like Wal-Mart, Inc. and T.J.X. in raising their minimum hourly wage.
- 2015 April 1: Fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. announced that they will raise the minimum wage for employees to an average of $9.90 by July 1, "up from $9.01"; the move will cover roughly 90,000 people but does not include the 90 percent of McDonald’s 14,350 locations that are franchised: the company is unable to dictate wage hikes at franchise locations, but "it’s possible that franchisees could follow [corporate's example]".
- 2015 May 19: The Los Angeles City Council voted to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, up from the current $9 an hour, becoming the largest American city to set such a target.
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- 2016 April 13: 40,000 members of the Communications Workers of America union walked off the job and struck Verizon and Verizon Wireless on the east coast (Massachusetts to Virginia), the largest U.S. strike since the one against Verizon in 2011; management wants employees to accept a 60% pay cut and loss of health benefits while the CEO receives a $20M per year salary.
- 2016 May 31: Verizon announced settlement of the 40,000-member strike by the Communications Workers of America union, agreeing to 1,300 new call center jobs and an 11% pay increase over four years, but also getting health insurance concessions.
- 2017 June 29: Hundreds of New York Times employees staged a brief walkout on Thursday afternoon to protest planned cuts of news staff, marching around the building with intentionally misspelled signs.
- 2017 Sept 25: Target Corp. announced that it is raising the minimum wage for its workers to $11 an hour starting next month and then to $15 by the end of 2020.
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- 2018 Feb 22: Teachers across West Virginia walked off the job over pay and benefits, causing more than 277,000 public school students to miss classes; educators swarmed the state Capitol in Charleston to protest and all 55 counties in the state closed schools; the strike lasted nine days because the union decided to wait for the legislature to actually make their promises into law; final result: most state workers got a 5% increase, not just teachers.
- 2018 March 22: Tens of thousands of French citizens took to the streets across France as railway workers, teachers, students, and air traffic controllers went on strike to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s economic and social policies.
- 2018 April 2: Schools shut down in Oklahoma and Kentucky and Arizona as teachers walked out on strike and rallied at state capitols to demand more funding for public education.
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- 2019 Feb 11-15: Teachers in Denver, Colorado went on strike to protest a performance pay structure that they said was confusing and hard to predict; their first strike in 25 years ended with an agreement with the school system that will provide an extra $23 million for pay and give teachers an average salary increase of nearly 12 percent next year.
- 2019 Midnight September 15-16: By previous vote and because General Motors executives demanded cuts in employee pay & benefits to renew the contract expiring on September 14th (while giving themselves millions in extra pay), U.A.W. members from nearly 70 General Motors facilities in 19 states walked out and formed picket lines; the Teamsters Union stood in support of the U.A.W. strike, refusing to deliver completed vehicles; G.M. chose to immediately terminate the health coverage for 55,000 employees, forcing the union to pay for continued coverage as is available via the COBRA program.
- 2019 December: After the labor union representing food service workers at Loyola-Marymount informed the Democratic candidates last week about a strike with Sodexo, all of the debate participants said that they would boycott the forum to avoid crossing the picket line; Unite Here Local 11 said in a statement on December 17th that it had reached a tentative agreement, including 'a 25 percent increase in compensation and a 50 percent drop in health-care costs'.
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- 2021 Jan 4: The Alphabet Workers Union launched public existence in an op-ed for the The New York Times by the union's executive chair Parul Koul and vice chair Chewy Shaw, both of whom are Google software engineers; 200 workers at Google's parent company Alphabet 'organized in secret for the better part of a year and elected its leadership last month'; the union leaders said that the labor group will be open to all Alphabet employees and contractors.
- 2021 Oct 4: I.A.T.S.E. (The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), which has been fighting for sorely overdue job protections and pay raises for months, authorized a strike, meaning that its 60,000 strong unit could walk off of film sets at any time if the major studios don't agree to bargain fairly with them.
- 2021 Dec 20: Kellogg’s cereal workers approved a new contract, ending an 11-week strike and averting threatened job losses.
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- 2022 Sun Sept 11:
 Two railroad unions complained that major U.S. freight railways are halting some cargo shipments to increase their leverage ahead of this week's deadline to finalize new labor agreements, which have hit a contract impasse; the railroads announced late last week they they would halt shipments of hazardous and toxic materials beginning on Monday due to safety concerns in the event of a strike; the unions have until midnight Friday September 16-17 to reach tentative deals with the railroads, which include Union Pacific, Berkshire Hathaway's BNSF, CSX, and Norfolk Southern.
- 2022 Thu Sept 15: A massive railroad strike was averted after unions and management reached a tentative deal; the strike had threatened to cripple U.S. supply chains and push prices higher for many goods; the tentative agreement came after an all-night bargaining session between the unions' leadership - representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors - and the railroads' labor negotiators; they met with the clock ticking down to a national strike that had been set to start after Midnight on Friday.
- 2022 late Thursday Sept 15: The White House issued a statement that rail worker unions and freight railways have hammered out a tentative labor agreement to avert a strike that had threatened to disrupt commuter & passenger train service and worsen supply-chain delays. President Biden said that the tentative agreement would "keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruption of our economy", with rail workers getting better pay, working conditions, and health-care-cost 'peace of mind', while railways would win by being able to "retain and recruit more workers". The agreement came after Amtrak began canceling long-distance passenger trains starting Thursday, and industry groups began halting some grain shipments.
- 2022 Oct 10: Members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, who build and maintain railroad tracks and bridges, voted down a national tentative agreement with the freight rail carriers; just under 12,000 of the union’s 23,900 freight rail workers voted, with 56 percent voting against the deal; union leaders said they’re hoping to return to the bargaining table.
- 2022 Oct 14: The Boilermakers Union voted down a tentative agreement with railway carriers, the third such union to do so, increasing the likelihood of an industry-wide rail strike.
- 2022 Monday Nov 14: In the largest strike of 2022, some 48,000 teaching assistants, postdocs, researchers, and graders at California’s prestigious public University of California system went on strike at U.C.'s ten campuses; they are seeking child-care benefits and better pay; the work stoppage was scheduled to continue on Tuesday; U.C. officials called for the union to continue negotiations.
 
- 2022 Nov 16: Starbucks Coffee workers, seeking better pay and conditions, staged walkouts at more than 100 U.S. stores in 25 states, according to organizer Starbucks Workers United; the labor action is happening on Starbucks' annual Red Cup Day, a busy day when the coffee chain gives free reusable cups to customers who buy special holiday drinks; this is their biggest labor action since the start last year of a campaign to unionize Starbucks workers. Starbucks has more than 9,000 company-owned U.S. outlets and the corporation has strongly opposed the effort to unionize its employees, saying it's 'best for everyone' when it deals directly with its workers.
- 2022 Nov 16: Instructors at The New School University [est. 1919] in New York City went on strike, saying that "nearly 90 percent of the university's instructors are part-time, but The New School pays 2.3 times the national average on administration".
- 2022 Saturday Nov 19: Service workers from across the Southern United States signed union cards at the conclusion of a three-day summit in Columbia, South Carolina, where they agreed to join forces to combat exploitative corporations and the politicians who enable them; the workers, who are employed at fast food restaurants, gas stations, retail stores, and other workplaces, joined the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and an affiliate of the nationwide economic justice group Fight For $15.
- 2022 Monday Nov 21: Rank-and-file members of the SMART Transportation Division, the nation’s largest rail union, narrowly rejected a tentative labor contract with the Association of American Rail-roads, which represents the major freight railroads; the union represents the industry’s freight conduc-tors. The nation’s second-largest rail union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, which represents engineers, voted to approve the agreement, with 53.5 percent backing the deal. The latest deal increases salaries by 25 percent over five years, but rail workers say their main issue is tough, unpredictable schedules. Retailers warned that a strike would be 'a self-inflicted economic disaster' that would disrupt the supply chain and worsen inflation, costing the U.S. economy about $2 billion per day; the ripple effect of a shipping stoppage of that magnitude could lead to global food shortages and more: the American Chemistry Council says that about $2.8 billion in chemical ship-ments - including fertilizer - would be impacted each week.
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- 2024 March:, workers at the Waffle House in Conyers, Georgia, went on strike. It’s not difficult to see why: They are paid wages as low as $2.90 per hour before tips, with a $3.00 per shift “meal credit” taken from their already meager wages regardless of whether they have eaten a meal at the restaurant. But that is not all—worker safety is also at issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House
American restaurant chain with over 1,900 locations in 25 states
- 2024 May 9: The United Auto Workers labor union reached a deal with automaker Daimler Truck for a new contract that will raise wages more than 25% and also adds profit sharing.
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