Today in Labor History: March 29, 1852—Ohio prohibited employers from forcing women or children to work more than 10 hours in a day.
March 29, 1918—Union buster, Sam Walton, was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Despite his nativist “Buy American” campaign, Wallmart is now the single largest importer of foreign goods in the U.S.
March 29, 1948—Police attacked striking members of the United Financial Employees’ Union and arrested forty-three in the “Battle of Wall Street.” This was the first and only strike in the history of the New York or American Stock Exchanges.
Today in Labor History: March 29, 1951—A jury convicted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of conspiracy to commit espionage. The government executed them at Sing Sing in 1953. The Rosenberg’s sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol (adopted by the composer of “Strange Fruit,”), maintained their parents’ innocence. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, decoded Soviet cables showed that their father had collaborated. They continued to fight for the mother’s pardon, but Obama refused to grant it.
March 29, 1965—The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a company could close a recently unionized factory, even if it was done specifically to bust the union.
Today in Labor History: March 29, 1973 – Workers launched a wildcat strike and occupation of Fiat plants at Mirafiori. This came during a wave of Italian student and worker protests going back to the 1960s.
March 29, 2001—the 500,000-member United Brotherhood of Carpenters disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO.
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