This week’s Labor History Today podcast: This week's show: Tom Morello holds the line. Last week's show: Communists and community in wartime Detroit.
November 19
Joe Hill, labor leader and song writer, executed in Utah on what many believe was a framed charge of murder. Before he died he declared: “Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize.” - 1915
The nation’s first automatic toll collection machine is used at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway - 1954
The National Writers Union is founded, representing freelance and contract writers and others in the trade. In 1992 it was to merge into and become a local of the United Auto Workers; it disaffiliated from the UAW in 2020 - 1981
November 20
First use of term “scab,” by Albany Typographical Society - 1816
Norman Thomas born, American socialist leader - 1884
The time clock is invented by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, N.Y. Bundy’s brother Harlow starts mass producing them a year later - 1888
Mine fire in Telluride, Colo., kills 28 miners, prompts union call for safer work conditions - 1901
78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, W. Va. - 1968
November 21
Six miners striking for better working conditions under the IWW banner were killed and many wounded in the Columbine Massacre at Lafayette, Colo. Out of this struggle Colorado coal miners gained lasting union contracts - 1927
The United Auto Workers Union strikes 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30 percent raise. 200,000 workers are out - 1945
A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas kills 85 hotel employees and guests and sends 650 injured persons, including 14 firefighters, to the hospital. Most of the deaths and injuries were caused by smoke inhalation - 1980
Flight attendants celebrate the signing into law a smoking ban on all U.S. domestic flights - 1989
Congress approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to take effect Jan. 1 of the following year - 1993
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act takes effect in the nation’s workplaces. It prohibits employers from requesting genetic testing or considering someone’s genetic background in hiring, firing or promotions - 2009
- David Prosten.