May --Labor History Month
Webtrax Admin
A list of historical events that happened in the month of May.
(In 1995 and 1996 President Clinton proclaimed the month of May as Labor History Month. It is presumed that he will do so again in 1997.)
May 1
1830...Birth of Mother Jones. (actually, she was born in 1837, probably in mid-summer — this Mayday birthday is part of her mythology).
1886...March of the 80,000 up Michigan Avenue for the Eight Hour Day.
1951...Founding of the Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Union.
May 2
1911...Passage of the Illinois Workman's Compensation Law, which Dr. Alice Hamilton helped to get passed.
May 3
1886...Workers killed and injured by police at McCormick Reaper Plant.
May 4
1886...Haymarket Square Meeting, Police Attack, and the Bomb thrown by someone unknown.
May 5
1852...Founding of the Typographical Union.
1886...Police attack on Jewish Workers from the Chicago West Side as they tried to march into the Loop to protest slum conditions.
1888...Founding of the International Association of Machinists.
May 9
1916...Founding of the American Federation of Teachers.
1934...Longshoremen's General Strike on West Coast.
May 10
1937...Founding of Transport Workers Union.
May 11
1894...Pullman Strike begins.
May 12
1958...Founding of the Laundry and Dry Cleaning Union.
May 15
1893...Founding of the Western Federation of Miners, the union of Big Bill Haywood, later head of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
1935...Passage of the National Labor Relations Act.
May 16
1934...Teamsters Strike for Recognition in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
May 19
1937...Founding of Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union.
May 20
1926...Passage of the Railway Labor Act.
May 22
1895...Eugene V. Debs enters Woodstock, Ill., jail after trial for injunction violation during Pullman Strike.
May 25
1932...Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington, D.C., to protest unemployment.
May 26
1937...Battle of the Overpass--Walter Reuther and the UAW in Detroit.
May 30
1937...Memorial Day Massacre at Republic Steel in South Chicago.
NOTE...Compiled by WILLIAM J. ADELMAN, Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society