March 25

Toronto printers strike for the 9-hour day in what is believed to be Canada’s first major strike - 1872

First “Poor People’s March” on Washington, in which jobless workers demanded creation of a public works program.  Led by populist Jacob Coxey, the 500 to 1,000 unemployed protesters became known as “Coxey’s Army” - 1894

146 workers are killed in a fire at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a disaster that would launch a national movement for safer working
conditions - 1911

An explosion at a coal mine in Centralia, Ill. kills 111 miners. Mineworkers President John L. Lewis calls a six day work stoppage by the nation’s
400,000 soft coal miners to demand safer working conditions - 1947

The U.S. Supreme Court rules employers may sometimes favor women and members of minority groups over men and whites in hiring and promoting in order to achieve better balance in the work force - 1987

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

http://www.unionist.com/