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Knights Of Labor
Uriah Stephens forms the Knights of Labor in Philadelphia. Initially a secret society, the Knights are able to organize workers around the country under the radar of management. They will become an important force in the early days of labor organizing -
Anti-Labor Injunction
A federal court issues the first injunction against a union under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The case, brought against the Workingman's Amalgamated Council of New Orleans for interfering with the movement of commerce, hands managers a potent legal weapon -
First State Minimum Wage Law
Massachusetts adopts the first minimum wage law, setting a floor under the pay of women and minors. Other states will pass similar laws beginning the same year. People were beggers then and they are now. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets a 40-hour workweek with time-and-a-half for additional hours. It also establishes a national minimum wage and puts severe restrictions on child labor. -
Taft-Hartley Act
Congress overrides President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley bill, a landmark piece of legislation that rolls back many of the advantages labor gained in the 1935 Wagner Act. Many Democrats join with Republican lawmakers to curb the power of unions -
Kennedy Legalizes Public Employee Unions
An order by President Kennedy allows federal employees to organize, join unions, and bargain collectively with the government. It does not give them the right to strike. The move begins an era of public employee unionization. -
Equal Pay act
The Equal Pay Act prohibits discrimination in wages on the basis of sex. The result: women's earnings will climb from 62% of men's in 1970 to 80% in 2004. -
Postal Strike
More than 200,000 Post Office workers walk off the job in the first national strike of public employees. Though the action is illegal and President Nixon calls on the Army and National Guard to keep the mail moving, the two-week strike proves largely successful and ultimately leads to a modernization of the postal service. -
Major League Baseball Strike
Major League Baseball players strike. Team owners want to restore their own prerogatives by requiring a team to pay compensation to another when hiring a free agent. Players fight the move in a strike that wipes out almost 40% of the season before being settled by compromise in August, just in time to save the World Series from cancellation. -
UPS Strike
After a 16-day walkout, United Parcel Service agrees to a contract with the Teamsters, marking labor's first successful nationwide strike in two decades. One of the main issues leading to the strike is the company's practice of using part-time workers to avoid paying benefits -
Change to win
The Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, and other activist unions leave the AFL-CIO to form a new labor coalition called Change to Win. The move represents a new emphasis on organizing workers to bring them into a labor movement starved for members
