October
2006
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| The Pennsylvania Turnpike, America's
first example of a toll superhighway, officially opened for service
on this day. The year before, this new form of superhighway was featured
at the 1939 New York City's World Fair, and was greeted by skepticism
by many groups who doubted the merits of the extravagant project. Inspired
by Germany's 100mph autobahns, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was constructed
at great expense to serve the needs of its users, leveling any terrain
obstructions that hindered efficient travel along the limited-access
superhighway. For a three-hour reduction of travel time between Pittsburgh
and Harrisburg, the turnpike asked travelers to pay tolls, creating
revenues that helped cover the turnpike's high construction and maintenance
costs. Despite worries about the $70 million price tag of this unproven
type of highway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike proved a huge success, hosting
an average of over 2,000,000 vehicles every year--a figure nearly twice
the original estimate by its planners. |
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| After years of scandal and corruption, as well as the passage of anti-union legislation, the years following World War II were frustrating for organized labor. The movement scored a victory on this day, when 500,000 disgruntled steelworkers called a strike that would eventually win them improved retirement benefits. |
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On October 3, 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coal field operators in an attempt to settle the anthracite coal strike, then in its fifth month. The country relied on coal to power commerce and industry and anthracite or "hard coal" was essential for domestic heating. Pennsylvania miners had left the anthracite fields on May 12, demanding wage increases, union recognition, and an eight-hour workday. As winter approached, public anxiety about fuel shortages and the rising cost of all coal pushed Roosevelt to take unprecedented action. When he met with miners and coal field operators in Washington that day, Roosevelt became the first president to personally intervene in a labor dispute. Presenting himself as a representative of the millions of people affected by the strike, he urged both parties to resolve their differences and return the miners to work. While United Mine Workers of America president John Mitchell agreed to negotiate, the coal field operators reiterated their opposition to the miners' demands generally and to the union specifically. For weeks into October, operators resisted dealing with the workers' union representatives. Finally, in order to avert what he saw as a national catastrophe, Roosevelt threatened to send military forces to operate the Pennsylvania mines. On October 23, 1902, the miners returned to work after both sides agreed to settle the strike based on the recommendations of a commission appointed by the president. Ultimately, the miners won a ten percent increase in pay with a
concomitant reduction in the number of hours worked each day. The
commission failed to recommend union recognition, however, or to
address the problems of child labor and hazardous working conditions.
Still, for the first time the federal government acted to settle,
rather than break, a strike. President Roosevelt's efforts to end
the dispute met with public approval--especially important in an
election year. Urging a crowd of New Yorkers to return a Republican
majority to Congress that November, Secretary of War Elihu Root declared: Although the commission denied formal recognition of the United
Mine Workers in 1902, workers in the anthracite region continued
to organize under the leadership of the UMW. Labor unrest returned
to the region in the 1930s complicated by decreased demand for anthracite
coal and discord between competing unions. In 1913, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the coal miners of John D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation at Ludlow, Colorado. An ethnically diverse group which had been galvanized by the murder of labor organizer Gerry Lippiatt, the miners overcame barriers of language and culture and voted to strike together. Their demands included a safe workplace, wages of $3.45 a day, and the right to buy provisions outside of company stores. Evicted from company housing, the workers spent a harsh Colorado winter in tent colonies set up by the UMW. Throughout that winter and into the spring, the miners remained near the mines, warding off strikebreakers and the armed assaults of the Baldwin-Fets Detective Agency. Even after the Colorado National Guard appeared on the scene, lending weight to the company's hired guns, the miners refused to admit defeat. On April 20, 1914, guardsmen began firing on the tent village. That evening, eleven children and two women died in a fire set by the National Guard. A public relations fiasco, in the wake of the Ludlow Massacre management began to avoid direct confrontation with strikers in favor of negotiated settlements. |
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| The Ford Motor Company and officials for the United Auto Workers hammered out a new contract on this day, finally bringing a three-week strike to a close. The nation's second largest automaker gave in to almost all of labor's demands, including a boost in the number of paid vacation days and improved retirement and unemployment benefits. |
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Thirty-two thousand Boeing machinists hit the picket lines in three states on this day to call for a pay raise and job guarantees. After years of frustration and failed walkouts, labor had little reason to be hopeful about the strike's outcome, but workers successfully halted production on planes and forced airlines to roll back their schedules. As a result, sixty-nine days after the beginning of the strike, union officials agreed to a new contract that met the machinists' demands. The deal came complete with a pay increase that averaged an estimated $19,200 in wages and benefits over four years, safeguards against job cutbacks, and a full extension of health premiums through the end of 1998. Following the agreement, giddy union officials rushed to declare victory. Spokesman Matt Bates called the agreement a "slam dunk" for the machinists and chief negotiator Bob Gregory hailed the episode as proof that the labor movement was "alive and well." |
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On October 11, 1939, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) declared its opposition to U.S. involvement in World War II. Far from a radical response to America's potential engagement in the war, the AFL's stance was in line with majority opinion. At the time, President Roosevelt was a major proponent of keeping U.S. troops at home. The AFL was not, however, an entirely passive observer of the war. At the same time that they announced their opposition to U.S. involvement, the union also chose to begin a boycott of German, Japanese and Russian goods. |
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| The U.S. House of Representatives gave its seal of approval to what was then termed "labor's charter of freedom"--the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. In essence, the Clayton Act legally sanctioned unions, removing them from the jurisdiction of anti-trust laws. No longer viewed as barriers to trade, unions are free to strike, boycott, and picket their various gripes with management. |
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| Following a five month walk-off, which required intervention by an official arbitration committee, the striking members of the United Mine Workers agreed to terms with anthracite mine bosses on this day. |
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After a long and frustrating struggle to win government and popular support, proponents of the forty-hour work week finally saw their dreams become legislative reality in 1940. On this day, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 passed into law, mandating shorter work hours. |