May 5

National Typographical Union founded, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was renamed the
International Typographical Union in 1869, in acknowledgment of Canadian
members. When the ITU merged into CWA in 1986 it was the oldest existing
union in the U.S. - 1852

On Chicago’s West Side, police attack Jewish workers as they try to march
into the Loop to protest slum conditions - 1886

Some 14,000 building trades workers and laborers, demanding an eight-hour
work day, gather at the Milwaukee Iron Co. rolling mill in Bay View, Wisc.
When they approach the mill they are fired on by 250 National Guardsmen
under orders from the governor to shoot to kill. Seven die, including
13-year-old boy - 1886

Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are
arrested in Boston for murder and payroll robbery. Eventually they are
executed for a crime most believe they did not commit - 1920

Heavily armed deputies and other mineowner hirelings attack striking miners
in Harlan County, Ky., starting the Battle of Harlan County - 1931

John J. Sweeney, president of the Service Employees Intl. Union from 1980 to
1995, then president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009, born in The Bronx,
N.Y. - 1934

Lumber strike begins in Pacific Northwest, will involve 40,000 workers by
the time victory is achieved after 13 weeks: union recognition, a 50 cent
per hour minimum wage and an eight-hour day - 1937

The U.S. unemployment rate drops to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent; the rate
for blacks and Hispanics is the lowest ever since the government started
tracking such data - 2000

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