Work or wages

Labor Timeline

By 104105
  • 1200 BCE

    First Recorded Labor Strike: 12th century BCE

    First Recorded Labor Strike: 12th century BCE
    The first ever recorded instance of a Labor Strike occurred in Egypt. For reasons unknown the Laborers had not received their normal amount of rations, resulting in their strike. The story was recorded on a Papyrus, and only one copy has been found.

  • First Labor Union 1818

    First Labor Union 1818
    The first recorded Labor Union was founded in Great Britian, Manchester. It was named the General Union of Trades, though it was later renamed to hide it’s true purpose and intentions. Labor Unions were outlawed in Britian at the time.

  • First American Labor Massacre 1850

    First American Labor Massacre 1850
    Two German immigrant tailors were beaten to death with clubs by police attempting to suppress a labor strike. Three hundred German Laborers participated in the strike.

  • Rocks Springs Massacre 1885

    Rocks Springs Massacre 1885
    Chinese immigrant miners and White American miners had a clash over jobs, it was racially motivated. Chinese miners were essentially slaves.

  • Thibodaux Massacre 1887

    Thibodaux Massacre 1887
    Louisiana militia, aided by townsfolk massacred black sugar workers, more than twenty were killed.

  • Pullman Strike 1894

    Pullman Strike 1894
    An attempt by Eugene V. Debs (A known labor unionist and Socialist) to Unionize the Pullman railroad car company. Ten thousand gathered to strike, burning railcars and rails. The strikers gathered into a 125,000 man army across the nation, the strikers were suppressed. The death count is over thirty.

  • Ludlow Massacre 1914

    Ludlow Massacre 1914
    John D. Rockefeller Jr organized a massacre against a strike being preformed by miners due to poor working conditions and poor pay. Modern analyzing of the massacre point to the Miners accounts.

  • Execution of Joe Hill 1915

    Execution of Joe Hill 1915
    Joe Hill was a Labor Organizer whom was accused of a crime he did not commit, and executed. Today, it is known that the crime was actually committed by a man named Frank Z Wilson. Joe Hill was likely targeted due to his politics.

  • October Revolution 1917

    October Revolution 1917
    Due to horrid working conditions, starvation and war. The Russian Empire had collapsed, leading to a liberal state, which would eventually collapse to the Bolsheviks. This was the first recorded instance of a “workers” state successfully seizing power in their respective country. The revolution was poisoned from the beginning. Followed by rapid development, a culmination of poor policies, human rights violations and economic isolation resulted in between 7-20 million dead between 1917-1991.

  • Blair Mountain Labor Massacre 1921

    Blair Mountain Labor Massacre 1921
    Due to poor working conditions, and repeated attempts by local law enforcement and large corporations to suppress labor organization attempts ten thousand miners gathered to bargain for better wages. The so-called revolt was crushed. The National Guard and private corporate armies engaged in warfare with the striking miners, even using bombers to suppress the movement. One hundred people died, making it one of the largest and most brutal anti-labor massacres to occur in U.S history.