12/6/2017 History

Today in Labor History – December 06, 1869 – African-American delegates meet in Washington, D.C., to form the Colored National Labor Union as a branch of the all-White National Labor Union created three years earlier. Unlike the NLU, the CNLU welcomed members of all races. Isaac Myers was the CNLU’s founding president; Frederick Douglass became president in 1872.

1884 – The Washington Monument is completed in Washington, D.C. On the interior of the monument are 193 commemorative stones, donated by numerous governments and organizations from all over the world; one of them is from the Int’l Typographical Union, founded in 1852. In 1986 the ITU merged into the Communications Workers of America.

1907 – A total of 361 coal miners die at Monongah, W.Va., in nation’s worst mining disaster.

1961 – Int’l Glove Workers Union of America merges into Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

1997 – United Mine Workers begin what is to become a 110-day national coal strike.