English planters found Jamestown colony and complain about lack of laborers
1619
Slaves from Africa first imported to colonies
1664
First slavery codes begin trend of making African servants slaves for life
1676
Bacon’s Rebellion of servants and slaves in Virginia
1677
First recorded prosecution against strikers in New York City
1765
Artisans and laborers in Sons of Liberty protest oppressive British taxes
1770
British troops kill five dock workers in Boston Massacre
1773
Laborers protest royal taxation in the Boston tea Party
1775
American Revolution begins
1786
Philadelphia printers conduct first successful strike for increased wages
1787
Constitution adopted
1791
First strike in building trades by Philadelphia carpenters for a 10-hour day bill of Rights adopted
Struggles for freedom
Two young women in Lowell, Massachusetts
1800
Gabriel Prosser’s slave insurrection in Virginia
1805
Philadelphia shoemakers found guilty of conspiracy
1808
Slave importation prohibited
1834
First turnout of “mill girls” in Lowell, Mass., to protect wage cuts
1835
General strike for 10-hour day in Philadelphia
1842
Commonwealth v. Hunt decision frees unions from some prosecutions
1843
Lowell Female Labor Reform Association begins public petitioning for 10-hour day
1847
New Hamsphire enacts first state 10-hour-day law
1848
Seneca Falls women’s rights convention
1860
Great shoemaker’s strike in New England
1861
Abraham Lincoln takes office as president and Civil War begins
1863
President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation
1865
13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery
Origins of Today's Union Movement
Pullman Strike began on May 11, 1894.
1866
National Labor Union founded
1867
Congress begins reconstruction policy in former slave states
1869
Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor and Colored National Labor Union formed
1870
15th Amendment to the Constitution adopted; states the right to vote may not be abrogated by color
1877
National uprising of railroad workers Ten Irish coal miners ("Molly Maguires") hanged in Pennsylvania; nine more subsequently were hanged
1881
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions formed
1882
First Labor Day parade in New York City
1885
Successful strike by Knights of Labor on the Southwest (or Gould) System: the Missouri Pacific; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas; and the Wabash
1886
American Federation of Labor founded
1887
Seven "anarchists" charged with the bombing in Chicago's Haymarket Square and sentenced to death
1890
Carpenters President P.J. McGuire and the union strike and win the eight-hour day for some 28,000 members
1892
Iron and steel workers union defeated in lockout at Homestead, Pa. Integreated general strike in New Orleans succeeds
1894
Boycott of Pullman sleeping cars leads to general strike on railroads
1898
Erdman Act prohibits discrimination against railroad workers because of union membership and provides for mediation of railway labor disputes
The Progressive Era
AFL President Samuel Gompers (front, center) helped launch the International Labor Organization.
1900
AFL and National Civic Federation promote trade agreements with employers U.S. Industrial Commission declares trade unions good for democracy.
1902
Anthracite strike arbitrated after President Theodore Roosevelt intervenes
1903
Women’s Trade Union League formed at AFL convention
1905
Industrial Workers of the World founded
1908
AFL endorses Democrat William Jennings Bryan for President
1909
“Uprising of the 20,000” female shirtwaist makers in New York strike against sweatshop conditions Unorganized immigrant steel workers strike in McKees Rocks, Pa. And win all demand
1911
Triangle Shirtwaist factory in fire in New York kills nearly 150 workers
1912
Bread and Roses strike begun by immigrant women in Lawrence, Mass., ended with 23,000 men and women and children on strike and with as many as 20,000 on the picket line Bill creating Department of Labor passes at the end of congressional session
1913
Woodrow Wilson takes office as president and appoints the first secretary of labor, William B. Wilson of the Mine Workers
1914
Ludlow Massacre of 13 women and children and seven men in Colorado coal miners’ strike
1917
United States enters World War I
1918
Leadership of Industrial Workers of the World sentenced to federal prison oncharges of disloyalty to the United States
1919
One of every five workers walked out in great strike wave, including national clothing coal and steel strikes; a general strike in Seattle; and a police strike in Boston International Labor Organization founded in France
Repression and the Depression
Women won the right to vote in 1920.
1920
19th Amendment to the Constitution gives women the right to vote
1924
Samuel Gompers dies; William Green becomes new AFL president
1925
A. Philip Randolph helps create the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
1926
Railway Labor Act sets up procedures to settle railway labor disputes and forbids discrimination against union members
1929
Stock market crashes as stocks fall 40 percent; Great Depression begins
1931
Davis-Bacon Act provides for prevailing wages on publicly funded construction projects
1932
Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits federal injunctions in most labor disputes
1933
President Franklin Roosevelt proposes New Deal programs to Congress
Democratizing America
The National Labor Relations Act, signed by President Roosevelt in 1935, protected the right of American workers to organize and bargain collectively.
1934
Upsurge in strikes, including national textile strike, which fails
1935
National Labor Relations Act and Social Security Act passed Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed within AFL
1936
AFL and CIO create labor's Non-Partisan League and help President Roosevelt win re-election to a second term
1937
Auto Workers win sit-down strike against General Motors in Flint, Mich. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters wins contract with Pullman Co.
1938
Fair Labor Standards Act establishes first minimum wage and 40-hour week Congress of industrial Organizations forms as an independent federation
1940
John L. Lewis resigns and Philip Murray becomes CIO president
1941
A. Philip Randolph threatens march on Washington to pretest racial discimination in defense jobs
1941
U.S. troops enter combat in World Wal II National War Labor Board created with union members
1943
CIO forms first political action committee to get out the union vote for President Roosevelt
The Fight for Economic and Social Justice
The 1955 merger of the AFL under President George Meany and the CIO, headed by Walter Reuther, strengthened the efforts of union members wo win living wages for all American workers.
1946
Largest strike wave in U.S. history
1947
Taft-Hartley Act restricts union members' activities
1949
First two of 11 unions with Communist leaders are purged from CIO
1952
William Green and Philip Murray die; George Meany and Walter Reuther become presidents of AFL and CIO, respectively
1955
AFL and CIO merge; George Meany becomes president
1957
AFL-CIO expels two affiliates for corruption
1959
Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin) passed
1962
President John Kennedy's order gives federal workers the right to bargain
1963
March on Washington for jobs and Justice Equal Pay Act bans wage discrimination based on gender
1964
Civil Rights Act bans institutional forms of racial discrimination
1965
AFL-CIO forms A. Philip Randolph Institute César Chávez forms AFL-CIO United Farm Workers Organizing Committee
1968
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., during sanitation workers' strike
Progress and new challenges
Thousands of Americans were out of work in the 1970s, as industries increasingly shifted production to low-wage countries.
1970
Occupational Safety and Health Act passed
1972
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists formed
1973
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement founded
1974
Coalition of Labor Union Women founded
1979
Lane Kirkland elected president of AFL-CIO
1981
President Reagan breaks air traffic controllers’s strike AFL-CIO rallies 400,000 in Washington on Solidarity Day
1989
Organizing Institute created
1990
United Mine Workers of America win strike against Pittston Coal United Steelworkers of America labor Alliance created within the AFL-CIO
1992
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance created within AFL-CIO
1995
Thomas Donahue replaces Lane Kirkland as interim had of AFL-CIO (BULLEG) John Sweeney president of AFL-CIO
1997
AFL-CIO defeats legislation giving the president the ability to “Fast Track’ trade legislation without assured protection of workers’ rights and the environment
1997
Pride at Work, a national coalition of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender workers and their supporters, becomes an AFL-CIO constituency group AFL-CIO membership renewed growth
1999
More than 75,000 human service workers are unionized in Los Angeles County 30,000 to 50,000 working family activists take to Seattle streets to tell the World Trade Organization and its allies, “If the Global Economy Doesn’t Work for Working Families, It Doesn’t Work” 5,000 North Carolina textile workers gain a union after a 25-year struggle 65,000 Puerto Rico public-sector workers join unions Broad Campaign for Global Fairness pushes for economic and social justice worldwide Union movement organizes biggest program of grassroots electoral politics ever
(Timeline source: Democracy at Work: The Union Movement in U.S. History, coming this fall from the AFL-CIO, by Prof. James Green, University of Massachusetts-Boston Labor Resource Center.)
Ten Irish coal miners ("Molly Maguires") hanged in Pennsylvania; nine more subsequently were hanged
