This Week in NATCA/Labor History
Tuesday, February 15, 2011


THIS WEEK IN NATCA HISTORY:

February 19, 1998 — NATCA affiliation: President Mike McNally, Executive Vice President Randy Schwitz and former General Counsel William Osborne Jr. appear before the AFL-CIO Executive Council to request direct affiliation.


THIS WEEK IN LABOR HISTORY:

1903: President Theodore Roosevelt creates the Department of Commerce and Labor. It was divided into two separate government departments 10 years later.

1926: Beginning of a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a five-day, 40-hour week.

1934: U.S. legislators pass the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, providing funds for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which funneled money to states plagued by Depression-era poverty and unemployment, and oversaw the subsequent distribution and relief efforts.

1937: Sixty-three sit-down strikers, demanding recognition of their union, are tear gassed and driven from two Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. plants in Chicago. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared sit-down strikes illegal. The tactic had been a major industrial union organizing tool.