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This month in labour history

1-08-1917 Frank H. Little, anti-war activist & IWW organiser is lynched in Butte, Montana. He was on IWW's Exec Board when he was killed. [more]

1-08-1942 American Federation of Musicians strikes against recording companies over royalty payments, most settling within a year. [more]

3-08-1981 The PATCO strike begins, effectively shutting down air travel in the US. 2 days later President Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers and broke the union. [more]

3-08-1821 Uriah Smith Stephens born. A tailor, he led 9 garment workers in founding the Knights of Labor in 1869. [more]

4-08-1997 185,000 members of the Teamsters begin a successful 15-day strike at UPS. [more]

5-08-1981 President Reagan sacks 11000 federal air traffic controllers for striking and refusing his order to return to work. [more]

7-08-1890 Birth of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW organiser and founder of the ACLU. [more]

7-08-1919 Actors Equity becomes a recognised union after stagehands honour actors' picket lines. [more]

7-08-1894 Eugene Debs & three union leaders arrested following the Pullman strike. [more]

8-08-1881 United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America forms & becomes one of the largest trade unions in the US. [more]

9-08-1890 Knights of Labor strike on the New York Central railroad; ends in defeat due to scab labour. [more]

10-08-1935 Transport workers in New York descend on a courthouse with money from their own pockets to bail out Mike Quill, their president, arrested after attending a picket line. [more]

11-08-1828 Workingmen’s Party, first US labour party, forms in Philadelphia. [more]

11-08-1894 Troops force 1200 jobless workers out of Washington, DC, including Jack London & Big Bill Haywood. [more]

17-08-1985 A yearlong strike begins at the Hormel meat packing plant in Austin, Minnesota. [more]

17-08-1918 95 members of the IWW were jailed for resistance to the First World War. [more]

18-08-1927 Radio station WEVD - named for IWW labour leader Eugene V Debs – goes on the air in New York City. [more]

19-08-1909 IWW issues first edition of the “Little Red Song Book”. [more]

21-08-1831 Nat Turner's slave rebellion begins, Southampton County, Virginia, 56 slaves executed, 120 killed. [more]

22-08-1965 5 flight attendants form an association to defend themselves against an industry requiring women not to marry, retire at 32 and comply with criteria of weight, height and appearance; it becomes the AFA. [more]

23-08-1970 Led by César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, largest farm worker strike in US history, begins. [more]

25-08-1950 President Truman ordered the federal government to seize control of the railroads in order to prevent a planned strike by 1.7m union members. [more]

25-08-1925 The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, led by A. Phillip Randolph, is founded. [more]

26-08-1935 United Auto Workers union founded. [more]

28-08-1987 John Sayles's film “Matewan” about attempts to organise a union by coal miners is released. [more]

29-08-1921 West Virginia miners marching to free their imprisoned comrades face state forces and private detectives in the five-day "Battle of Blair Mountain." [more]

31-08-1939 Mexican-American women workers walkout at California Sanitary Canning Company, winning a union contract and wage increase. [more]

31-08-1933 Italian-American labour organizer Giovanni Pippan murdered during organizing campaign of bread wagon drivers in Chicago. [more]

31-08-1999 Detroit teachers start 9-day wildcat strike, winning "books, supplies, smaller class sizes" & 4% raise. [more]