US Labor History
1930-1939
- 1930
- National Unemployed Council formed
- Imperial Valley, California, Farmworkers' Strike
-
- 1931
- Congress passes Davis-Bacon Act providing for payment of prevailing
wages to workers
- wmployed on public works projects
- "Scottsboro Boys" arrested in Alabama
- Harlan County, Kentucky, Miners' Strike
- Tampa, Florida, Cigar Workers' Strike
-
- 1932
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected
- Congress passes the Norris-LaGuardia Act, which prohibits federal
injunctions in labor disputes
- and outlaws yellow-dog contracts
- Bonus March of World War I veterans on Washington, DC
- American Federation of Government Employees founded
- California Pea Pickers' Strike
- Century Airlines Pilots' Strike
- Davidson-Wilder, Tennessee, Coal Strike begins
- Ford Hunger March in Detroit, Michigan
- Four workers killed as protesters march on Ford Rouge Plant near
Detroit seeking jobs during
- the Great Depression
- Vacaville, California Tree Pruners' Strike
-
- 1933
- Congress passes the National Industrial Recovery Act, Section 7(a)
of which guarantees rights
- of employees to organize and bargain collectively
- Frances Perkins becomes secretary of labor and the first woman named
to a presidential cabinet
- Newspaper Guild founded
- Briggs Manufacturing Strike
- California Farmworkers' Strikes
- Detroit, Michigan, Tool and Die Strike
- Hormel, Iowa, Meat-Packing Strike
- New Mexico Miners' Strike
-
- 1934
- Southern Tenant Farmers' Union founded
- Harlem, New York City, Jobs-for-Negroes Boycott
- Imperial Valley, California, Farmworkers' Strike
- Minneapolis Teamsters' Strike
- Newark Star-Ledger Newspaper Strike begins
- Rubber Workers' Strike
- San Francisco Longshoremen & General Strike
- Textile Workers' Strike
- Toledo, Ohio, Auto-Lite Strike
-
- 1935
- US Supreme Court declares the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional
- Congress passes the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects
the rights of
- workers to organize and bargain collectively.
- FD Roosevelt signs the labor-backed Social Security Act into law
- Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed inside the American
Federation of Labor
- Negro Labor Committee founded
- United Auto Workers founded
- Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri Metal Workers' Strike
- Pacific Northwest Lumber Strike
- Southern Sharecroppers' and Farm Laborers' Strike
-
- 1936
- President Franklin Roosevelt reelected
- Steel Workers' Organizing Committee formed
- Atlanta, Georgia, Auto Workers' Sit-Down Strike
- Berkshire Knitting Mills Strike
- First sit-down strike by auto workers starts at Bendix Products
in South Bend, Indiana
- General Motors Sit-Down Strike
- RCA Strike
- Rubber Workers' begin the nation's first major sit-down strike at
the Firestone tire plant in
- Akron, Ohio
- Seamen's Strike
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer Newspaper Strike
-
- 1937
- US Supreme Court declares the NLRA constitutional
- American Federation of Labor expels the CIO unions
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union
founded
- General Motors Sit-Down Strikes in US and Canada - stikes end after
workers win first UAW
- contract
- Battle of the Overpass, Ford Motor Co. thugs beat Walter Reuther
and other UAW organizers
- in Dearborn, Michigan
- Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chocolate Workers' Strike
- Little Steel Strike and Memorial Day Massacre, ten strikers shot
at Republic Steel in Chicago
- US Steel signs a first contract with the Steel Workers Organizing
Committee
-
- 1938
- Congress passes the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes
the forty-hour work week,
- the minimum wage, and bans child labor in interstate commerce
- Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) is founded with John
L. Lewis as president
- Chicago Newspaper Strike begins
- Hilo, Hawaii, Massacre
- Maytag Strike
- US Supreme Court issues decision permitting employers to permanently
replace strikers
-
- 1939
- Chrysler Auto Strike
- General Motors Tool and Diemakers' Strike
-
-
-
- Back to Main Page