Dear John,
On May 1st 1886, over 200,000 workers rallied in Chicago in Haymarket Square to protest for 3 days, demanding better and safer working conditions and to mandate an 8-hour workday. On May 4th, a bomb was thrown into the crowd and killed at least 4 workers and 7 policeman.
But workers kept pushing, and in 1889 President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday to be held on the 1st Monday in September. Since then, the Labor Movement has continued to fight on, achieving history-making victories in the struggle for fair, safe, equal working conditions for all workers.
Here are some recent worker victories worth celebrating this May Day:
📣 Starbucks workers have organized in 370 stores nationwide, including dozens of stores in Oregon. The company has publicly agreed to meet with workers to begin negotiations.
📣 In Oregon, legislative staff at the state Capitol have successfully organized a first-in-the-nation union of legislative aides through the IBEW. We congratulate them on achieving ratification of their first contract!
📣 In Tennessee, United Auto Workers was successful in turning a Volkswagen plant into a Union shop with over 4,000 workers. This has been called the most significant labor win in decades.
