Today in Labor History May 9 Hollywood studio mogol Louis B. Mayer recognizes the Screen Actors Guil

May 9

Japanese workers strike at Oahu, Hawaii’s Aiea Plantation, demanding the same pay as Portugese and Puerto Rican workers. Ultimately 7,000 workers and their families remained out until August, when the strike was broken - 1909

Legendary Western Federation of Miners leader William “Big Bill” Haywood goes on trial for murder in the bombing death of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg, who had brutally suppressed the state’s miners. Haywood ultimately was declared innocent - 1907


Longshoremen’s strike to gain control of hiring leads to general work stoppage, San Francisco Bay area - 1934

And this: May 9, 1934 - West Coast longshoremen walked off their jobs, with the action eventually culminating in a four-day general strike in San Francisco. The ranks of the workers held firm, despite police violence and attempts by national union leadership to cave into employer demands. The strikers responded by electing new leaders. Prominent among the new faces was San Francisco longshoreman Harry Bridges, who later became president of the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union and for decades was a militant voice for the movement.

Read more about the strike at http://www.shapingsf.org/ezine/labor/genstrike/index.html

Hollywood studio mogol Louis B. Mayer recognizes the Screen Actors Guild. SAG leaders reportedly were bluffing when they told Mayer that 99 percent of all actors would walk out the next morning unless he dealt with the union. Some 5,000 actors attended a victory gathering the following day at Hollywood Legion Stadium; a day later, SAG membership increased 400 percent - 1937

United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther and his wife May die in a plane crash as they travel to oversee construction of the union’s education and training facility at Black Lake, Mich. - 1971

4,000 garment workers, mostly Hispanic, strike for union recognition at the Farah Mfg. Co. in El Paso, Tex. - 1972

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_05_09_2010