July 30

Up to 40,000 New York construction workers demonstrated in midtown Manhattan, protesting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s awarding of a $33 million contract to a nonunion company. Eighteen police and three demonstrators were injured. "There were some scattered incidents and some minor violence," Police Commissioner Howard Safir told the New York Post. "Generally, it was a pretty well-behaved crowd." – 1998

Also on this date: Alabama outlaws the leasing of convicts to mine coal, a practice that had been in place since 1848. Walsh-Healey Act takes effect,  requiring companies that supply goods to the government to pay wages according to a schedule set by the Secretary of Labor. The storied Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers merges into the United Steelworkers of America.

More info & ammo for unionists is available
online from Union Communication Services.

http://www.unionist.com/