July 8

The Pacific Mail Steamship Co. fires all employees who had been working an eight hour day, then joins with other owners to form the "Ten-Hour League Society" for the purpose of uniting all mechanics "willing to work at the old rates, neither unjust to the laborers nor ruinous to the capital and enterprise of the city and state."  The effort failed – 1867

 Also on this date: The first strike by anthracite coal miners in the U.S. occurs when workers from Minersville in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania march on Pottsville to protest low wages. Labor organizer Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor born on Staten Island, NY. Founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W., or Wobblies) concludes in Chicago. Some 35,000 members of the Machinists union begin what is to become a 43-day strike that shuts down five major U.S. airlines, about three-fifths of domestic air traffic.

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