Today in 1900 Martin Irons dies near Waco, Texas. Born in Dundee, Scotland, he emigrated to the U.S. at age 14. He joined the Knights of Labor and in 1886 led a strike of 200,000 workers against the Jay Gould-owned Union Pacific and Missouri railroads. The strike was crushed, Irons was blacklisted and he died broken-down and penniless. Said Mother Jones: “The capitalist class hounded him as if he had been a wild beast.”
• A not-so-wonderful labor dispute • VT expert on construction workers’ mental health • Teamsters Wegmans ratify 7-yr.CBA covering 900 workers • Federal Reserve chair: America’s labor market is back in balance • Jane F. McAlevey, who empowered workers across the globe, dies at 59 • The Teamsters president is courting Trump - despite his anti-labor record • A disaster waiting to happen: Hazmat trucks illegally using Baltimore tunnels • The mouse gloves are off: Disney workers to vote on strike amid contact talks • Microsoft to pay $14M amid allegations of retaliation, discrimination against workers
