View source for Timeline of labour issues and events

{{short description|None}}
{{Globalize|article|USA|2name=the United States|date=June 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
The following is a timeline of labor history, organizing & conflicts, from the early 1600s to present. {{Labour|expanded=all|clear=none}}

==1600s==
;1619 (United States)
:[[1619 Jamestown Polish craftsmen strike]].

;1636 (United States)
:[[Maine]] Indentured Servant's and Fisherman's Mutiny.<ref name="fillippelli_p019">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing, Inc.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xix}}</ref>

;1648 (United States)
:[[Boston]] Coopers and Shoemakers form guilds.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1661 (United States)
:[[Virginia's Indentured Servants' Plot]].<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1663 (United States)
:[[Maryland]] Indentured Servants' Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1675 (United States)
:[[Boston]] Ship Carpenters' Protest.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1676 (United States)
:[[Bacon's Rebellion]] in [[Virginia]].<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />
[[File:Howard Pyle - The Burning of Jamestown.jpg|thumb|alt=Howard Pyle - The Burning of Jamestown|''The Burning of Jamestown'' by Howard Pyle depicts the burning of Jamestown, Virginia during [[Bacon's Rebellion]] (1676&ndash;77).]]

;1677 (United States)
:New York City Carter's Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1684 (United States)
:New York City Carter's Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

==1700s==

;1741 (United States)
:New York City Bakers' Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1768 (United States)
:[[Florida]] Indentured Servants' Revolt.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1774 (United States)
:[[Hibernia, New Jersey]], Ironworks Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1778 (United States)
:Journeymen printers in New York combine to increase their wages.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1781 (Austria)
:Holy Roman Emperor, [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]], issues the [[Serfdom Patent (1781)|Serfdom Patent of 1781]], to abolish serfdom throughout the Habsburg lands.

;1791 (United States)
:[[Philadelphia]] carpenters conduct first strike in the building trades in the United States.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />
;1792 (United States)
:Philadelphia has first local union in the United States organized to conduct collective bargaining.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />
;1794 (United States)
:Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers formed in [[Philadelphia]].<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1797 (United States)
:Profit sharing originated at [[Albert Gallatin]]'s [[New Geneva Glass Works|glassworks]] in [[New Geneva, Pennsylvania]].

;1799 (England)
: [[Combination Act 1799]] ([[39 Geo. 3]]. c. 81) outlawed trade unionism and collective bargaining by workers.<ref name="thompson_1963_p239">{{cite book |last=Thompson|first=E.P.|title=[[The Making of the English Working Class]]|orig-year=1963| year=1966|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-14-013603-6|pages=181}}</ref>

== 1800-1829 ==
;1805 (United States)
:Journeymen Cordwainers union includes a closed-shop clause in its constitution in New York City.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1806 (United States)
:''[[Commonwealth v. Pullis]]'' was the first known court case arising from a labor strike in the United States. After a three-day trial, the jury found the defendants guilty of "a combination to raise their wages" and fined.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1816 (England)
:Food riots broke out in [[East Anglia]]. Workers demanded a double wage and for the setting of triple prices for food.<ref name=thompson_1963_p225_226>{{cite book |last=Thompson|first=E.P.|title=The Making of the English Working Class|url=https://archive.org/details/makingenglishwor00thom|url-access=limited|orig-year=1963| year=1966|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|isbn=9780394703220|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingenglishwor00thom/page/n111 225]–226}}</ref>

;1824 (England)
:The [[Combination Act 1799]] ([[39 Geo. 3]]. c. 81) was repealed.<ref name="thompson_1963_p239"/>

;1824 (United States)
:[[Pawtucket, Rhode Island]], Textile Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1825 (United States)
:United Tailoresses of New York organized in New York City.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1825 (United States)
:Boston House Carpenter's Strike <ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1827 (United States)
:Mechanics' Union of Trades' Associations formed in Philadelphia.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1827 (United States)
:Philadelphia Carpenter's Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" />

;1828 (United States)
:[[Workingmen's Party]] was organized in [[Philadelphia]] by the Mechanics' Union of Trades' Associations.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" /><ref name="foner_1978_p127">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=127–129}}</ref>

;23 April 1829 (United States)
: [[Committee of Fifty (1829)|Committee of Fifty]], a group of prominent trade unionists in New York City, organized to resist efforts by business owners to revoke the 10-hour workday and reinstate the 11-hour workday.<ref name="foner_1978_p130">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=130}}</ref> Their efforts lead directly to the forming of the [[Workingmen's Party of New York]].<ref name="foner_1978_p130" />

;1829 (United States)
:[[Workingmen's Party of New York]] formed.<ref name="fillippelli_p019" /><ref name="foner_1978_p130" />

==1830s==
;1831 (United States)
:New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics, and other Workingmen formed.<ref name="fillippelli_p020">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xx}}</ref>

;9 January 1831 (England)
:Twenty-three workers from Buckingham were sentenced to death for destruction of a paper machine by one of a number of Special Commissions sent to East Anglia to suppress insurgent workers by the Whig Ministry.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226>{{cite book |last=Thompson|first=E.P.|title=The Making of the English Working Class|url=https://archive.org/details/makingenglishwor00thom|url-access=limited|orig-year=1963| year=1966|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|isbn=9780394703220|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingenglishwor00thom/page/n111 226]}}</ref>

;11 January 1831 (England)
:Three workers in Dorset were sentenced to death for extorting money and two workers were sentenced to death for robbery by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

:Fifty-five workers in Norwich were convicted of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

:Three workers in Ipswich were convicted of extorting money by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

:In Petworth, 26 workers were found guilty of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions the Whig Ministry sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

:"Upwards of thirty" workers in Gloucester were convicted of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

:Twenty-nine workers in Oxford were convicted of "machine breaking and rioting" by one of the Special Commissions sent by the Whig Ministry to suppress insurgent workers.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

;1832 (United States)
:Boston Ship Carpenters' Ten-Hour Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1833 (United States)
:[[Lynn, Massachusetts]]' Shoebinders' Protest begins.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

[[File:Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth taking leave of their lovers who are going to Botany Bay.jpeg|thumb|right|Women in England mourning their lovers who are soon to be transported to [[Botany Bay]], 1792]]

;1834 (England)
:The [[Tolpuddle Martyrs]], agricultural workers who formed a trade union in [[Tolpuddle]] in [[Dorsetshire]], were sentenced by a Whig Ministry Special Commission to [[Penal transportation|transportation]] to a penal colony in Australia.<ref name=thompson_1963_p226 />

;March 1834 (United States)
:[[National Trades' Union]] formed in New York when the New York General Trades' Union solicited labor organizations from around the country to send delegates to a national convention.<ref name="foner_1978_p114">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States|volume=1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=114}}</ref> This union was the first attempt to create a national labor federation.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1834 (United States)
:[[Lowell Mill Girls#Strikes of 1834 and 1836|Lowell, Massachusetts Mill Women's Strike]].<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1834 (United States)
:[[Manayunk, Pennsylvania]] Textile Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1835 (United States)
:Carpenters, masons, and stone-cutters began a strike as part of the Ten-Hour Movement among skilled workers.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" /> They drafted a strike circular in Boston outlining their demands and seeking assistance from other tradespeople.  Wherever this circular was distributed, a strike in favor of the ten-hour workday erupted.  The [[1835 Philadelphia general strike]], in which workers successfully struck for shorter working hours and higher wages, was influenced by the Boston circular.<ref name=foner_v01>{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the labor movement in the United States. |volume=1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers Co.|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=116}}</ref>

;3 July 1835 (United States)
:Textile workers, many of whom were children of Irish descent, launched the [[1835 Paterson textile strike]] in the silk mills in [[Paterson, New Jersey]] fighting for the 11-hour day, 6 days a week.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1836 (United States)
:National Cooperative Association of Cordwainers formed in New York City.  This association was the first national union for a specific craft.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1836 (United States)
:[[Lowell Mill Girls#Strikes of 1834 and 1836|Lowell, Massachusetts, Mill Women's Strike]].<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1836 (United States)
:New York City Tailors' Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1836 (United States)
:Philadelphia's Bookbinders' Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

== 1840s ==
;1840 (United States)
:Ten-hour day for federal employees on federal public works projects without loss of pay established by President [[Martin Van Buren]] by executive order.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" /><ref name="foner_1978_p163">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=163}}</ref>

;1842 (United States)
:Ten-hour Republican Association was formed by New England mechanics to pressure the Massachusetts legislature to establish a ten-hour workday throughout the state.<ref name="foner_1978_p202">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=202}}</ref>

;March 1842 (United States)
:''[[Commonwealth v. Hunt]]'' was a landmark legal decision by the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]] on the subject of labor unions.  Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that unions were legal organizations and had the right to organize and strike. Before this decision, labor unions which attempted to 'close' or create a unionized workplace could be charged with conspiracy.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" /> See ''[[Commonwealth v. Pullis]]''

[[File:FGA Constitution.jpg|thumb|right|1836 Constitution of the Lowell Factory Girls Association]]

;1844 (United States)
:[[Lowell Mill Girls#Lowell Female Labor Reform Association|Lowell Female Labor Reform Association]] formed.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

; April 1844 (United States)
:Fall River Mechanics' Association established 'The Mechanic', a weekly paper dedicated "to advocate the cause of the oppressed Mechanic and Laborer in all its bearings."<ref name="foner_1978_p203">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Republic|year=1978| orig-year=1947|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=203}}</ref>

;1847 (Scotland)
:The [[Educational Institute of Scotland]], the oldest teachers' trade union in the world, was founded.

;1847 (United States)
:[[New Hampshire]] is first state to establish the ten-hour workday.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1848 (United States)
:[[Pennsylvania]]'s child labor law establishes the age of 12 as the minimum age for workers in commercial occupations.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1848 (Germany)
Founding of the Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverbrüderung (General German Workers-Brotherhood) <ref name="roth_p159">Roland Roth, Dieter Rucht (edt), ''Die Sozialen Bewegungn in Deutschland seit 1945, Ein Handbuch'' (Frankfurt/New York, Campus Verlag, 2009), Page 159</ref>

== 1850s ==
;1850 (United States)
:New York City Tailor's Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;13 June 1850 (United States)
:[[American League of Colored Laborers]] established in [[New York City]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bradley |first=Jonathan |date=January 4, 2011 |title=American League of Colored Laborers (1850-?) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/american-league-colored-laborers-1850/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205065637/https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/american-league-colored-laborers-1850/ |archive-date=February 5, 2024 |access-date=April 26, 2024 |website=[[BlackPast.org]]}}</ref>

;July 1851 (Australia)
:[[Eureka Rebellion]] in the [[Colony of Victoria]], [[Australia]].

[[File:Eureka_stockade_battle.jpg|thumb|alt=Eureka Stockade Riot|''Eureka Stockade Riot'' by John Black Henderson (1854).]]

;July 1851 (United States)
:Two railroad strikers are shot dead and others injured by the state militia in Portage, New York.

;1852 (United States)
:[[International Typographical Union|Typographical Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;21 April 1856 (Australia)
:Stonemasons and building workers in [[Melbourne]] achieve an [[eight-hour day]], the first organized workers in the world to achieve an 8-hour day, with no loss of pay.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Jeff|last2=Sparrow|first2=Jill|title=A secret history|date=2002|publisher=Vulgar Press|location=Carlton North, Vic.|isbn=0957735243|edition=reprinted|url=http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/fight-rights/workers-rights/winning-8-hour-day|access-date=7 September 2015}}</ref>

;1859 (United States)
:[[International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America|Iron Molders' International Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

== 1860s ==
[[File:Labor Day Parade. Union St., N.Y, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg|thumb|alt=Labor Day Parade, Union St., N.Y., ca. 1859-1899 |Labor Day Parade. Union St., N.Y, circa 1859&ndash;1899, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views]]
;1860 (United States)
[[New England Shoemakers Strike of 1860]]
:800 women operatives and 4,000 workmen marched during a shoemaker's strike in [[Lynn, Massachusetts|Lynn]], [[Massachusetts]].

;1863 (United States)
:The first railroad labor union, The Brotherhood of the Footboard (later renamed the [[Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers]]) is formed in [[Marshall, Michigan|Marshall]], [[Michigan]].<ref name="fillippelli_p020" /> It is headed by [[William D. Robinson]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ble-t.org/blet150/history.aspx |title=History|publisher=Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen|access-date=2013-07-31}}</ref>

;1864 (Europe)
:[[International Workingmen's Association]] (often called the First International) is founded.

;1864 (United States)
:[[Cigar Makers' Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1864 July 21 (United States)
:[[Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1866 (United States)
:[[National Labor Union]] formed - 1st national labor federation in the US.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1866 (United States)
:Molders' Lockout takes place.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

[[File:NationalColoredUnionConventionHarpersWeekly1869.jpg|thumb|alt=National Colored Union Convention, Harpers Weekly,1869|February 6, 1869 Illustration from Harper's Weekly of the Colored National Labor Union convention in Washington, D.C. Store Web page states: "from Harper's Weekly magazine with 6&nbsp;×&nbsp;9 [inch] wood-engraved illustration of the National Colored Convention in Session at Washington, D.C."]]

;1867 (United States)
:[[Order of the Knights of St. Crispin]], a union for factory workers in the shoe industry, founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1868 (Germany)
:The [[Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund]] (ADGB)(Federation of General German Civil Servants) was founded and represented 142,000 workers.<ref name="ICTUR">{{cite book | year = 2005
 | title = Trade Unions of the World | editor = [[International Centre for Trade Union Rights|ICTUR]]| edition = 6th | publisher = John Harper Publishing  | location = London, UK | isbn = 0-9543811-5-7|display-editors=etal}}</ref>

;1868 (United States)
:First U.S. federal eight-hour law passed. This law only applied to laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed by the U.S. federal government.<ref name="fillippelli_p020" />

;1869 (United States)
:[[Colored National Labor Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxi}}</ref>

[[File:Uriah-stephens-circa-1900.gif|thumb| alt=Uriah Stephens, pre-1882 | [[Uriah Stephens]], pre-1882. Stephens (1821 - 1882) was a U.S. labor leader. He led nine Philadelphia garment workers to found the Knights of Labor in 1869, a more successful early national union.]]

;1869 (United States)
:[[Uriah Smith Stephens]] organized a new union known as the [[Knights of Labor]].<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1869 (United States)
:[[Collar Laundry Union|Collar Laundry Union Strike]] in [[Troy, New York]].<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

== 1870s ==
;1870 (United States)
:The first written contract between coal miners and coal miner operators signed.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1872 (Europe)
:[[Karl Marx]] ejects [[Mikhail Bakunin]] and the other anarchists from the [[International Workingmen's Association]]

;1873 (United States)
:In 1873 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was established. In 1906 it became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen.

;13 January 1874 (United States)
:The original [[Tompkins Square Riot (1874)|Tompkins Square Riot]] occurs in New York City.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" /> As unemployed workers demonstrated in New York City's Tompkins Square Park, a detachment of mounted police charged into the crowd, beating men, women and children indiscriminately with billy clubs and leaving hundreds of casualties in their wake.

;1874 (United States)
:[[Peter M. Arthur]] elected Grand Chief of the [[Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers]].  He remained in office until his death.<ref name="foner_p560">{{cite book |last=Foner|first=Philip S.|title=History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Volume 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor|orig-year=1947| year=1978|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0717803767|pages=560}}</ref>

;1875 (United States)
:The [[Molly Maguires]] are convicted for the anthracite coalfield murders.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1875 (United States)
:[[Anthracite Coal Strike]] takes place.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1876 (United States)
:[[Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1876 (United States)
:[[Workingmen's Party]] is founded.  It later becomes the [[Socialist Labor Party]].<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

[[File:AlexanderCampbell.png|thumb|alt=Alexander Campbell|Photograph of Alexander Campbell "Father of the Greenback Party"]]

;1876 (United States)
:[[Greenback Party]] is founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1877 (United States)
:[[Cigar Makers' International Union]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1877 (United States)
:San Francisco [[San Francisco riot of 1877|Anti-Chinese Riots]] occur.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;12 February 1877 (United States)
:The [[Great Railroad Strike of 1877]]<ref name="fillippelli_p021" /> -- U.S. railroad workers began strikes to protest wage cuts.{{Ref|yellen}} It started in [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]], and then spread to many other states.

;14 July 1877 (United States)
:A general strike halted the movement of U.S. railroads. In the following days, strike riots spread across the United States. The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the nationwide strike. At the "[[Battle of the Viaduct]]" in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, between protesting members of the Chicago German Furniture Workers Union, now Local 1784 of the Carpenters Union, and federal troops killed 30 workers and wounded over 100.

[[File:1877-slp-congress.jpg|thumb|right|260px|The [[Socialist Labor Party of America]] does not seem to have used its distinctive arm-and-hammer logo until it appeared on the front page of ''The Workmen's Advocate'' in 1885.]]

;1878 (United States)
:[[Socialist Labor Party of America]] founded when the [[Workingmen's Party of the United States]] voted to change its name at its December 1877 convention.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1878 (United States)
:[[Greenback Labor Party]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1878 (United States)
:[[International Labor Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

== 1880s ==
;1881 (United States and Canada)
:[[Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions]], the ender of the [[American Federation of Labor]], was founded in the United States and Canada.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1881 (United States)
:[[Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners]] was founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />
 
;1881 (United States)
:[[Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party]] was founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1882 (United States)
:Cohoes, New York, Cotton Mill Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;5 September 1882 (United States)
:Thirty thousand workers marched in the first [[Labor Day]] parade in New York City.

[[File:1919-TALC-Canada.jpg|thumb|600px|Thirty-fifth annual meeting of the Trades and Labour Congress, Hamilton, 1919.]]

;1883 (Canada)
:The [[Trades and Labour Congress of Canada]] (TLC), a Canada-wide central federation of trade unions was formed.

;1883 (United States)
:[[International Working People's Association]] formed.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1883 (United States)
:Lynchburg, Virginia, Tobacco Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1883 (United States)
:The [[Cowboy Strike of 1883]] begins in the Texas panhandle, in which cowboys seek better compensation from ranch owners.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=LS Ranch |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ls-ranch |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>
 
;1883 (United States)
:Molder's Lockout began.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1884 (United States)
:The [[Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions]], forerunner of the [[American Federation of Labor]], passed a resolution stating that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886."

;1884 (United States)
:[[United States Department of Labor#History|Federal Bureau of Labor]] established in the [[U.S. Department of the Interior]].<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1884 (United States)
:Fall River, Massachusetts, Textile Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1884 (United States)
:Union Pacific Railroad Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1885 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Foran Act]] outlawing immigration of laborers on contract.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />
 
;1885 (United States)
:Cloakmakers' General Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1885 (United States)
:McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1885 (United States)
:[[Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886#Causes and history of the strike|Southwest Railroad Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1885 (United States)
:Yonkers, New York, Carpet Weaver' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p021" />

;1885 (United States)
:Ten coal-mining activists ("[[Molly Maguires]]") were hanged in [[Pennsylvania]].

;1886 (United States)
:[[Augusta, Georgia]] Textile strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxii}}</ref>

;1886 (United States)
:Cowboy Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1886 (United States)
:McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1886 (United States)
:Troy, New York, Collar Laundresses Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:Great Railway Strike 1886 - E St Louis.jpg|thumb|right|U.S. Marshals attempt to start a train during the strike in [[East St. Louis, Illinois]].]]

;March 1886 (United States)
:The [[Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886]] was a labor union strike against the [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]] and [[Missouri Pacific Railroad|Missouri Pacific]] railroads involving more than 200,000 workers.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1 May 1886 (United States)
:Workers protested in the streets to demand the universal adoption of the [[eight-hour day]]. Hundreds of thousands of American workers had joined the [[Knights of Labor]].  The movement ultimately failed.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:JMRusk.jpg|thumb|left|Representative Jeremiah M. Rusk]]

;1 May 1886 (United States)
:[[Bay View Tragedy]]: About 2,000 Polish workers walked off their jobs and gathered at St. Stanislaus Church in [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]], angrily denouncing the [[eight-hour day|ten-hour workday]]. The protesters marched through the city, calling on other workers to join them. All but one factory was closed down as sixteen thousand protesters gathered at Rolling Mills.  Wisconsin Governor [[Jeremiah Rusk]] called the state militia. The militia camped out at the mill while workers slept in nearby fields.  On the morning of 5 May, as protesters chanted for the eight-hour workday, General Treaumer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, some of whom were carrying sticks, bricks, and scythes, leaving seven dead at the scene, including a child.<ref name="WLHS">[http://www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org/bayview.html Wisconsin Labor History Society: Bay View Story] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108103123/http://www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org/bayview.html |date=8 November 2005 }}</ref><ref name="LttP">[http://linkstothepast.com/milwaukee/bayviewmassacre.html Bay View Massacre, Milwaukee County Genealogy]</ref>

:The ''[[Milwaukee Journal]]'' reported that eight more would die within twenty-four hours, adding that Governor Rusk was to be commended for his quick action in the matter.

[[File:Samuel Gompers cph.3a02952.jpg|thumb|Samuel Gompers]]

;1886 (United States)
:[[American Federation of Labor]] founded. [[Samuel Gompers]] served as first president.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:Haymarket Flier.jpg|thumb|Haymarket Flier]]

[[File:HaymarketRiot-Harpers.jpg|thumb|Haymarket Riot]]

[[File:The Haymarket Martyrs.jpg|thumb|The Haymarket Martyrs]]

;4 May 1886 (United States)
:Anarchist rally lead to the [[Haymarket Riot]] in Chicago, [[Illinois]], the origin of international [[May Day]] observances.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;22 November 1887 (United States)
:In the [[Thibodaux massacre]] in [[Thibodaux, Louisiana]] a local militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders.

;1887 (United States)
:Seven of the [[Haymarket Riot]] bombing defendants sentenced to death, of which five are executed.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1887 (United States)
:Port of New York Longshoremen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:Union labor party LCCN2003656923.jpg|thumb|alt=1888 Union Labor Poster |Union Labor Party campaign poster (1888)]]

;June 1888 (United Kingdom)
:The [[London matchgirls strike of 1888]] was a [[Industrial action|strike]] of the women and [[teenage]] girls working at the [[Bryant and May Factory, Bow|Bryant and May Factory]] in [[Bow, London|Bow]], London. The strike was prompted by the poor working conditions in the [[match]] factory, including fourteen-hour work days, poor pay, excessive fines, and the severe health complications of working with yellow (or white) [[phosphorus]], such as [[phossy jaw]].

;1888 (United States)
:United States enacted first federal labor relations law; the law applied only to railroads.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1888 (United States)
:[[International Association of Machinists]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1888 (United States)
:[[Burlington Railroad Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1888 (United States)
:Cincinnati Shoemakers' Lockout occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1889 (United States)
:Baseball Players' Revolt began.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1889 (United States)
:Fall River, Massachusetts, Textile Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1889 (Europe)
:The [[Second International]] is founded. Declaration of 1 May as [[International Workers' Day]].

== 1890s ==

;1890 (United States)
:[[United Mine Workers of America]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1890 (United States)
:[[United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America]] Strike occurred; the union demanded an eight-hour work day.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;25 July 1890 (United States)
:New York garment workers won the right to unionize after a seven-month strike. They secured agreements for a closed shop, and firing of all [[strikebreakers]].

;1891 (United States)
:Savannah, Georgia, Black Labourers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1891 (United States)
:Tennessee Miners' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:Longshoremen-1901.jpg|thumb|200px|alt=International Longshoremen's Union banner|International Longshoremen's Union banner]]

;1892 (United States)
:[[International Longshoremen's Association]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1892 (United States)
:[[International Seamen's Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1892 (United States)
:[[New Orleans General Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;6 July 1892 (United States)
:[[Homestead Strike]]:<ref name="fillippelli_p022" /> [[Pinkerton National Detective Agency|Pinkerton]] Guards, trying to pave the way for the introduction of [[strikebreakers]], opened fire on striking Carnegie mill steel-workers in [[Homestead, Pennsylvania]]. In the ensuing battle, three Pinkertons surrendered and were set upon and beaten by a mob of townspeople, most of them women. Seven guards and eleven strikers and spectators were shot to death.<ref name="yellen" />

;11 July 1892 (United States)
:[[Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892]]: Striking miners in [[Coeur d'Alene, Idaho]] dynamited the Frisco Mill, leaving it in ruins.

;August 1892 (United States)
:[[Buffalo switchmen's strike|Buffalo Switchmen's Strike]] collapses after two weeks when 8,000 New York State militia enter the city and peer unions fail to come to the strikers' aid.

;1893 (United States)
:[[American Railway Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1893 (United States)
:[[Western Federation of Miners]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1893 (United States)
:Federal court in Louisiana rules that the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]] applies to unions and finds that [[Secondary action|sympathy strikes]] restrain trade.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1893 (United States)
:[[National Civic Federation]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

; 1893 (United States)
:Unions helped win the passage of the Safety Appliance Act. Among other things, the Act outlawed the "old man-killer link and pin coupler" by railroads.

;1894 (United Kingdom)
:''[[History of Trade Unionism]]'', the influential book by [[Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield|Sidney]] and [[Beatrice Webb]] is first published.

;1894 (United States)
:[[Coxey's Army]] marched on Washington, D.C.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;7 February 1894 (United States)
:In [[Cripple Creek, Colorado]], miners [[Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894|went on strike]] when mine owners announced an increase from eight to ten hours per day, with no increase in wages.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" /> This strike marked perhaps the only time in American history that a state militia was called out to protect miners from sheriff's deputies.

;21 April – June 1894 (United States)
:[[Bituminous Coal Miners' Strike of 1894]] -- A two-month nationwide strike by miners of hard coal in the United States.  This unsuccessful strike almost destroyed the [[United Mine Workers]] union.

[[File:Pullman-strike.djvu|thumb|alt=Pullman-strike|Pullman strikers outside Arcade Building in Pullman, Chicago. The Illinois National Guard can be seen guarding the building during the Pullman Railroad Strike in 1894.]]

;11 May – 10 July 1894 (United States)
:[[Pullman Strike]]: A nation-wide strike against the Pullman Company begins with a wildcat walkout<ref name="fillippelli_p022" /> on 11 May after wages are drastically reduced.  On 5 July, the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago's [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]] was set ablaze, and seven buildings were burned to the ground. The mobs burned and looted railroad cars and fought police in the streets, until 10 July, when 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeeded in putting down the strike, killing 34 [[American Railway Union]] members.  Leaders of the strike, including [[Eugene Debs]], were imprisoned for violating injunctions, causing disintegration of the union.<ref name="yellen" />

;1895 (France)
:The [[Confédération Générale du Travail]] (CGT), was formed. This French union is the oldest confederation still in existence.

;April 1895 (United States)
:[[American Industrial Union]] established by former American Railway Union Vice President [[George W. Howard]]. The union proves to be short-lived, disappearing in the second half of 1896.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15309045/american_industrial_union_organization/ "American Industrial Union: Organization with Unlimited Aims Begins Its Existence,"] ''Chicago Inter Ocean,'' 22 April 1895, pg. 5.</ref>

;June 1895 (United States)
:[[U.S. Supreme Court]] rules in ''In re Debs'' to uphold an injunction against the [[Pullman Strike]]rs on the grounds that the federal government is empowered to regulate interstate commerce.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1895 (United States)
:[[Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1895 (United States)
:Haverhill, Massachusetts, Show Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;21 September 1896 (United States)
:The state militia was sent to [[Leadville]], Colorado to [[Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike|break a miner's strike]].<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:Lattimer massacre.jpg|thumb|Lattimer massacre: Mine workers began their protest march near Harwood and many were eventually killed by the Luzerne County sheriff in Lattimer.]]

;10 September 1897 (United States)
:[[Lattimer massacre]]: 19 unarmed striking coal miners and mine workers were killed and 36 wounded by a posse organized by the Luzerne County sheriff for refusing to disperse near [[Hazleton, Pennsylvania]].<ref name="fillippelli_p022" /> The strikers, most of whom were shot in the back, were originally brought in as strike-breakers, but later organized themselves.

;1898 (United States)
:The Erdman Act was passed providing for mediation and voluntary arbitration on the railroads.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" /> It made it a criminal offense for railroads to dismiss employees or to discriminate against prospective employees because of their union membership or activity. It provided legal protection of employees' rights to membership in a labor union, a limit on the use of injunctions in labor disputes, lawful status of picketing and other union activities, and requirement of employers to bargain collectively. Subsequently, a portion of the [[Erdman Act]], which would have made it a criminal offense for railroads to dismiss employees or discriminate against prospective employees based on their union activities, was declared invalid by the [[United States Supreme Court]].

;1898 (United States)
:[[American Labor Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1898 (United States)
:Marlboro, Massachusetts, Shoe Workers' Strike began.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

[[File:Miner extracting ore from Bunker Hill mine.jpg|thumb|Miner extracting ore from Bunker Hill mine]]

;1899 (United States)
:Miners in Idaho [[Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899|dynamite a mill]] in retaliation for the [[Bunker Hill Mining Company]] firing 17 union members.<ref name="fillippelli_p023">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxiii}}</ref>

;1899 (United States)
:[[Teamsters Union|Brotherhood of Teamsters]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1899 (United States)
:Buffalo, New York, Grain Shoveler's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1899 (United States)
:Cleveland, Ohio, Street Railway Worker's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1899 (United States)
:[[Newsboys Strike of 1899]] occurred in New York City.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

== 1900s ==
;1900 (United States)
:[[International Ladies' Garment Workers Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1900 (United States)
:[[Anthracite Coal Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1900 (United States)
:Machinists' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1901 (United States)
:[[Textile Workers Union of America|United Textile Workers]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1901 (United States)
:Machinists' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1901 (United States)
:National Cash Register Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1901 (United States)
:San Francisco Restaurant Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1901 (United States)
:[[U.S. Steel Recognition Strike of 1901]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

[[File:Coal miners in Hazleton PA 1900.jpg|thumb|alt=Coal miners in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, 1902|Coal miners in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 1902]]
[[File:Wrau-coal-strike-commission.jpg|thumb|alt=Wrau coal strike commission, 1902 |Anthracite Coal Strike Commission Appointed 1902 by President Roosevelt, a stereo card of the commission appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to resolve the [[Coal Strike of 1902]].]]

;15 May 1902 (United States)
:[[Coal Strike of 1902]]<ref name="fillippelli_p023" /> -- [[United Mine Workers of America]] in the [[anthracite coal]] fields of eastern [[Pennsylvania]] struck in seven counties, from May through October.  The strike caused a nationwide coal shortage.  [[President of the United States|President]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]] imposed the first mediated agreement of its kind.

;1902 (United States)
:Chicago Teamsters' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1903 (United States)
:U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor created.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1903 (United States)
:[[Women's Trade Union League]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1903 (United States)
:[[Oxnard Strike of 1903|Oxnard, California, Sugar Beet Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1903 (United States)
:[[Carbon County Strike]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;23 November 1903 (United States)
:[[Colorado Labor Wars]]: Troops were dispatched to [[Cripple Creek, Colorado|Cripple Creek]], Colorado to defeat a strike by the [[Western Federation of Miners]],<ref name="fillippelli_p023" /> with the specific purpose of driving the union out of the district. The strike had begun in the ore mills earlier in 1903, and then spread to the mines.

[[File:Mother Jones 02.jpg|thumb|alt=Mother Jones 02 |American labor activist Mother Jones (1837&ndash;1930)]]

;July 1903 (United States)
:Labor organizer [[Mary Harris Jones|Mary Harris "Mother" Jones]] leads child workers in demanding a 55-hour work week.

;1904 (United States)
:New York City Interborough Rapid Transit Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1904 (United States)
:[[United Packinghouse Workers of America]].<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1904 (United States)
:Santa Fe Railroad Shopmen's Strike.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;8 June 1904 (United States)
:A battle between the Colorado Militia and striking miners at Dunnville ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Seventy-nine of the strikers were deported to Kansas two days later.

;1905 (United States)
:[[Industrial Workers of the World]] founded in [[Chicago, Illinois]].<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;17 April 1905 (United States)
:The Supreme Court held in [[Lochner v. New York]] that a maximum hours law for New York bakery workers was unconstitutional under the due process clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th amendment]].<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1906 (United States)
:An eight-hour workday is widely adopted in the printing industry.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1907 (United States)
:[[Goldfield, Nevada#Labor relations during the boom years|Goldfield, Nevada, Miners' Strike]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

[[File:1908-WTUL-laborday.jpg|thumb|alt=Labor Day Parade, float of Women's Trade Union League, New York, 1908 September 7 |Labor Day Parade, float of Women's Trade Union League, New York, 1908 September 7]]

;1908 (United States)
:The Federal Employers' Liability Act was passed. Also that year, the [[Adair v. United States|Erdman Act]] was further weakened by the Supreme Court when Section 10, related to use of "yellow dog" contracts, was declared unconstitutional (see 1898).<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1908 (United States)
:[[U.S. Supreme Court]] rules in ''Danbury Hatters Case'' that a boycott launched by the United Hatters Union is a conspiracy in restraint of trade under the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]].<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1908 (United States)
:[[U.S. Supreme Court]] rules in ''Muller vs. Oregon'' that an Oregon law that limited the working hours for women was unconstitutional.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1908 (United States)
:[[Free speech fights#.22Free speech fights.22 and the IWW|IWW Free Speech Fight]] began in [[Missoula, Montana]].<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1909 (United States)
:[[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1909 (United States)
:[[Free speech fights#.22Free speech fights.22 and the IWW|IWW Free Speech Fight]] began in [[Spokane, Washington]].<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

[[File:McKees-constables-1909.jpg|thumb|alt=McKees constables on horseback, 1909|Pennsylvania constabulary, mounted on horses, at McKee's Rock, {{Circa|1909}}]]

;1909 (United States)
:[[Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909|McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, Steel Strike]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p023" />

;1909 (United States)
:Watertown, Connecticut, Arsenal Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxiv}}</ref>

[[File:Women Picket during Ladies Tailors Strike, 02-1910 (11192045794).jpg|thumb|alt=Ladies tailors strikers|Two women strikers on picket line during the "Uprising of the 20,000", garment workers strike, New York City. Strikes, ladies tailors, N.Y., Feb. 1910, picket girls on duty]]

;22 November 1909 (United States)
:The [[New York shirtwaist strike of 1909]] (Uprising of the 20,000) began. Female garment workers went on strike in New York; many were arrested. A judge told those arrested: "You are on strike against God".<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

== 1910s ==
;1910 (United States)
:Bethlehem Steel Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1910 (United States)
:Cloakmakers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1910 (United States)
:[[1910 Chicago Garment Workers' Strike|Chicago Clothing Workers' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1910 (United States)
:The 1910 Accident Reports Act was passed and a 10-hour work day and standardization of rates of pay and working conditions were won by the Railway Brotherhoods.

:Union membership topped 8 million workers in 1910.

[[File:Photo-los-angeles-times-building-post-bombing.jpg|thumb|Rubble of the ''Los Angeles Times'' building in 1910]]

;1 October 1910 (United States)
:The [[Los Angeles Times bombing]] killed twenty people and destroyed the building. Calling it "the crime of the century," the newspaper's owner [[Harrison Gray Otis (publisher)|Harrison Gray Otis]] blamed the bombing on the unions, a charge denied by unionists.

;1 November 1910 (Spain)
:The [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo]] was founded.

;25 December 1910 (United States)

{{Main|McNamara brothers}}
:A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Iron works in Los Angeles, where a strike was in progress.  In April 1911 [[James B. McNamara]] and his older brother John F. McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the [[International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers]], were charged with the two crimes. James McNamara pleaded guilty to murder and John McNamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the dynamiting of the Llewellyn Iron Works.<ref name="gompers"/>

;1911 (United States)
:The Locomotive Inspection Act passed. Four years later, the Hours of Service Act passed. The Railroad Brotherhoods had won an eight-hour day.

:The Supreme Court in ''[[Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co.]]'' (221 U.S. 418) affirmed a lower court order for the AFL to stop interfering with Buck's Stove and Range Company's business or boycotting its products or distributors.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

:On 24 June 1912 in the second contempt trial, the defendants (Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and [[Frank Morrison (labor unionist)|Frank Morrison]]) were again found guilty and sentenced to prison.  The Supreme Court overturned the convictions because the new proceedings had not been instituted within the three-year statute of limitations (233 U.S. 604 1914).<ref name="gompers">[http://www.history.umd.edu/Gompers/fnnp.htm The Samuel Gompers Papers]</ref>

;1911 (United States)
:Illinois Central and Harriman Line Rail Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1911 (United States)
:Southern Lumber Operators' Lockout began.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1911 (Wales)
: Two men are shot dead by police during the [[Llanelli railway strike]] of August 1911, leading to rioting.

[[File:Image of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25 - 1911.jpg|thumb|Image of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on 25 March 1911]]

;25 March 1911 (United States)
:[[Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire]] -- The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, occupying the top three floors of a ten-story building in New York City, was consumed by fire. One hundred and forty-six people, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions, died.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1912 (United States)
:Massachusetts passes the first minimum wage law for women and minors.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1912 (United States)
:Chicago newspaper strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1912 (United States)
:Fur Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1912 (United States)
:[[Free speech fights|IWW Free Speech Fight]] occurred in [[San Diego, California]].<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1912 (United States)
:New York City Hotel Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

[[File:1912 Lawrence Textile Strike 3.jpg|thumb|alt=Lawrence Textile Strike 3|Lawrence Textile Strike, 1912]]
[[File:1912 Lawrence Textile Strike 2.jpg|thumb|alt=Lawrence Textile Strike 2|Flyer distributed in Lawrence, September 1912. The Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World.]]

;January–March 1912 (United States)
:[[Lawrence Textile Strike]] in [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]], often known as the "[[Bread and Roses]]" Strike.  Dozens of different immigrant communities united under the leadership of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW) in a largely successful strike led to a large extent by women.  The strike is credited with inventing the moving picket line, a tactic devised to keep strikers from being arrested for loitering.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

:It also adopted a tactic used before in Europe, but never in the United States, of sending children to sympathizers in other cities when they could not be cared for by strike funds.  On 24 February, women attempting to put their children on a train out of town were beaten by police, shocking the nation.<ref name="yellen">{{cite book | author=Yellen, Samuel | title=American Labor Struggles | publisher= Anchor Foundation | year=1974| orig-year=1936| isbn=0-913460-33-8}}</ref><ref name="watson">{{cite book | last = Watson | first = Bruce | year = 2005 | title = Bread and Roses | publisher = Viking | location = New York | isbn = 0-670-03397-9 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/breadrosesmillsm00bruc }}</ref>

;18 April 1912 (United States)
:The National Guard was called out against striking [[West Virginia]] coal miners at the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, West Virginia mines.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;7 July 1912 (United States)
:Striking members of [[the Brotherhood of Timber Workers]] and supporters are involved in an armed confrontation with the Galloway Lumber Company and supporters in the [[Grabow Riot]], resulting in four deaths and 40 to 50 wounded.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:[[U.S. Department of Labor]] established.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:Machinists Strike and Boycott<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:Michigan Copper Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:Paterson, New Jersey, Textile Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:Rubber Workers' Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:Studebaker Motors Auto Workers' Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1913 (United States)
:[[Wheatland Hop Riot|Wheatland, California, Hop Riot]]<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;11 June 1913 (United States)
: Police shot into a crowd of maritime workers (two of whom was killed) who were [[United Fruit Company strike of 1913|striking against]] the [[United Fruit Company]] in [[New Orleans]].<ref name="Reed">{{Cite journal |last=Reed |first=Merl E. |date=1972-01-01 |title=Lumberjacks and Longshoremen: The I.W.W. in Louisiana |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00236567208584190 |journal=Labor History |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=41–59 |doi=10.1080/00236567208584190 |issn=0023-656X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{RP|58-59}}

[[File:IWW demonstration NY 1914.jpg|thumb|alt=IWW demonstration, New York, 1914 |Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) demonstration in New York, 11 April 1914]]

;1914 (United States)
:According to a report by the Commission on Industrial Relations, approximately 35,000 workers were killed in industrial accidents and 700,000 workers were injured in the U.S.

;1914 (United States)
:U.S. Congress passes the [[Clayton Antitrust Act]] limiting the use of injunctions in labor disputes.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1914 (United States)
:[[Amalgamated Clothing Workers]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1914 (United States)
:[[1914–1915 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike|Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;5 January 1914 (United States)
:The Ford Motor Company raised its basic wage from $2.40 for a nine-hour day to $5 for an [[eight-hour day]].

[[File:Joe hill002.jpg|thumb|[[Joe Hill (activist)|Joe Hill]]]]

;14 January 1914 (United States)
:Labor leader [[Joe Hill (activist)|Joe Hill]] was arrested in [[Salt Lake City]], [[Utah]].  He was convicted on murder charges, and was executed 21 months later despite worldwide protests and two attempts to intervene by President [[Woodrow Wilson]]. In a letter to [[Bill Haywood]] shortly before his death he penned the famous words, "Don't mourn - organize!"

[[File:The Ludlow Massacre Memorial, April 20th, 1914, Colorado Coal Miners on Strike (3453614459).jpg|thumb|The Ludlow Massacre Memorial, 20 April 1914, Colorado Coal Miners on Strike (3453614459)]]
[[File:Sympathy Labor Parade -- 1916 (LOC) (15112771653).jpg|thumb|A "Sympathy Labor Parade" in New York during the Minnesota Iron Range Strike, 1916]]

;20 April 1914 (United States)
:The "[[Ludlow Massacre]]." In an attempt to persuade strikers at Colorado's Ludlow Mine Field to return to work, company "guards," engaged by [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] and other mine operators and sworn into the State Militia just for the occasion, attacked a union tent camp with machine guns, then set it afire. Five men, two women and 12 children died as a result.{{Ref|yellen}}{{Ref|Ludlow}}

;20 May 1914 (United States)
:[[1914–1915 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike]] begins in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].

;13 November 1914 (United States)
:A [[Western Federation of Miners]] strike is crushed by the militia in [[Butte, Montana|Butte]], [[Montana]].

;1915 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[La Follette Seamen's Act]] regulating working conditions for seamen.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1915 (United States)
:[[Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916]] against [[Standard Oil]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1915 (United States)
:Youngstown, Ohio, Steel Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;19 January 1915 (United States)
:Twenty rioting strikers were shot by factory guards at [[Roosevelt, New Jersey|Roosevelt]], [[New Jersey]].

;25 January 1915 (United States)
:The Supreme Court upholds "yellow dog" contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions.

;1916 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Federal Child Labor Law]], which was later ruled unconstitutional.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Adamson Act]], which established an eight-hour workday for railroad workers.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:[[American Federation of Teachers]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:Arizona Copper Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:Minnesota Iron Range Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:New York City Transit Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:New York Cloakmakers' Strike<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:San Francisco Open Shop Campaign began.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;1916 (United States)
:[[Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916]] against [[Standard Oil]] continued.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

[[File:WP Thomas Mooney.jpg|thumb|alt=Thomas Mooney|Thomas Mooney (1882-1942), American socialist]]

;22 July 1916 (United States)
:A bomb was set off during a "[[Preparedness Day]]" parade in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring 40 more. [[Thomas Mooney|Thomas J. Mooney]], a labor organizer and [[Warren K. Billings]], a shoe worker, were convicted, but were both pardoned in 1939.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" />

;19 August 1916 (United States)
:Strikebreakers hired by the Everett Mills owner Neil Jamison attacked and beat picketing strikers in Everett, Washington.<ref name="fillippelli_p024" /> Local police watched and refused to intervene.

:Three days later, twenty-two union men attempted to speak out at a local crossroads, but each was arrested; arrests and beatings of strikebreakers became common throughout the following months, and on 30 October vigilantes forced IWW speakers to run the gauntlet, subjecting them to whipping, tripping kicking, and impalement against a spiked cattle guard at the end of the gauntlet. In response, the [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] called for a meeting on 5 November. When the union men arrived, they were fired on; seven people were killed, 50 were wounded, and an indeterminate number wound up missing.

;7 September 1916 (United States)
:Federal employees win the right to receive [[Workers' compensation|Worker's Compensation insurance]].

[[File:Everett massacre newspaper headline.jpg|thumb|300px|alt=Everett massacre newspaper headline|Newspaper headline about the [[Everett massacre]], 1916 November 5]]

;5 November 1916 (United States)
:[[Everett massacre|The Everett Massacre]] (also known as Bloody Sunday) was an armed confrontation between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, commonly called "Wobblies", which took place in Everett, Washington on Sunday, 5 November 1916. The tragic event marked a time of rising tensions in Pacific Northwest labor history.

;1917 (United States)
:In "Hitchman Coal and Coke vs. Mitchell", [[U.S. Supreme Court]] upholds the legality of yellow-dog contracts.<ref name="fillippelli_p025">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxv}}</ref>

;1917 (United States)
:[[Green Corn Rebellion]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

{{Infobox person
| name               = 
| image              = Mooney-tom-1910.jpg
| caption            = [[Thomas Mooney|Tom Mooney]] as a young socialist, 1910
| birth_date         = 1882
| death_date         = 1942
}}

;1917 (United States)
:[[Thomas Mooney]] sentenced to death for his participation in the San Francisco [[Preparedness Day Bombing]] of 1916.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1917 (United States)
:[[East St. Louis Riot|East St. Louis Race Riot]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;15 March 1917 (United States)
:The Supreme Court approved the [[Eight hour day|Eight-Hour Act]] under the threat of a national railway strike.

[[File:Bisbee deportation guns.jpg|thumb|alt=Bisbee deportation guns|Deportation of striking miners from Bisbee, Arizona, on 12 July 1917. Striking miners and others are marched from Warren Ballpark along railroad tracks toward cattle cars belonging to the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad.]]

;12 July 1917 (United States)
:The [[Bisbee Deportation]]:<ref name="fillippelli_p025" /> After seizing the local Western Union telegraph office in order to cut off outside communication, several thousand armed vigilantes forced 1,185 men in [[Bisbee, Arizona]] into manure-laden boxcars and "deported" them to the New Mexico desert. The action was precipitated by a strike when workers' demands (including improvements to safety and working conditions at the local copper mines, an end to discrimination against labor organizations and unequal treatment of foreign and minority workers, and the institution of a [[living wage|fair wage]] system) went unmet. The "deportation" was organized by Sheriff Harry Wheeler. The incident was investigated months later by a Federal Mediation Commission set up by President [[Woodrow Wilson]]; the Commission found that no federal law applied, and referred the case to the State of Arizona, which failed to take any action, citing patriotism and support for the war as justification for the vigilantes' action.

;1 August 1917 (United States)
:[[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] organizer [[Frank Little (U.S. Trade Unionist)|Frank Little]] was lynched in [[Butte, Montana|Butte]], [[Montana]].

;5 September 1917 (United States)
:Federal agents raid the IWW headquarters in 48 cities.

[[File:The wreckage of Chicago's Federal Building after the explosion of a bomb allegedly planted by the Industrial Workers of - NARA - 533464.jpg|thumb|The wreckage of Chicago's Federal Building after the explosion of a bomb allegedly planted by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)...1918]]

;1918 (United States)
:[[National War Labor Board (1918–1919)|War Labor Board]] created.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:[[War Labor Policies Board]] (1918-1919) created

;3 June 1918 (United States)
:A [[Child labor laws in the United States|Federal child labor law]], enacted two years earlier, was declared unconstitutional. A new law was enacted 24 February 1919, but this one too was declared unconstitutional (on 2 June 1924).

;27 July 1918 (Canada)
:[[United Mine Workers]] organizer [[Ginger Goodwin]] was shot by a hired private policeman outside [[Cumberland, British Columbia]].

;15 November 1918 (Germany)
:[[Stinnes-Legien Agreement]] between trade unions and employers.<ref name="LeMo">{{Cite web|url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/industrie-und-wirtschaft/stinnes-legien-abkommen-1918.html|title=Das Stinnes-Legien-Abkommen|access-date=2021-03-29|website=[[Deutsches Historisches Museum]]}}</ref>

;1919 (EUROPE)
:[[International Federation of Trade Unions]] is founded.

;1919 (United States)
:[[Farmer-Labor Party]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:[[Communist Party of America]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:Cleveland May Day riots occurred.[https://case.edu/ech/articles/m/may-day-riots]
:[[Red Scare]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:Actors Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:[[Chicago Race Riot]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:New England Telephone Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:[[Seattle General Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />
:Fall River, Massachusetts, Textile Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p022" />

;1919 (International)
:The [[International Labour Organization]] (ILO), now a specialized agency of the [[United Nations]], was formed through the negotiations of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], and was initially an agency of the [[League of Nations]].
:
; 25 August 1919 Charlotte North Carolina
The Battle of the Barn
James B. Duke and Southern Company break strike by local streetcar motormen and conductors by calling in troops. Five dead. Youngest 17 years old.  Nearly two dozen wounded. 
 
;26 August 1919 (United States)
:[[United Mine Worker]] organizer [[Fannie Sellins]] was gunned down by company guards in [[Brackenridge, Pennsylvania|Brackenridge]], [[Pennsylvania]].

;19 September 1919 (United States)
:Looting, rioting and sporadic violence broke out in downtown Boston and South Boston for days after 1,117 Boston policemen declared a work stoppage due to their thwarted attempts to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" /> Massachusetts Governor [[Calvin Coolidge]] put down the strike by calling out the entire state militia.

[[File:Coming out of the smoke.jpg|thumb|alt=Coming out of the smoke|Coming out of the smoke : newspaper cartoon depicting the steel strike, New York World, 1919 October 11]]

;22 September 1919 – 8 January 1920 (United States)
:The "[[Steel strike of 1919|Great Steel Strike]]" began.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" /> Ultimately, 350,000 steel workers walked off their jobs to demand union recognition. The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee called off the strike on 8 January 1920, their goals unmet.{{Ref|yellen}}

;11 November 1919 (United States)
:[[Centralia Massacre (Washington)|Centralia Massacre]]<ref name="fillippelli_p025" /> -- IWW organizer [[Wesley Everest]] was lynched after a [[Centralia, Washington]] IWW hall was attacked by Legionnaires.

;22 December 1919 (United States)
:Amid a strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers (ultimately unsuccessful), approximately 250 "anarchists," "communists," and "labor agitators" were deported to Russia, marking the beginning of the so-called "Red Scare."

== 1920s ==
;1920 (International)
:The ICFTU is founded, later to become the [[World Confederation of Labour]].

;1920 (United States)
:[[Trade Union Educational League]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1920 (United States)
:[[1920 Alabama coal strike|Alabama Miners' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1920 (United States)
:Clothing Workers' Lockout occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;2 January 1920 (United States)
:The U.S. Bureau of Investigation began carrying out the nationwide [[Palmer Raids]].

[[File:Matewan, West Virginia.JPG|thumb|alt=Matewan, West Virginia|View of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, was the site of the Battle of Matewan in May 1920 during a coal miners' strike.]]

;19 May 1920 (United States)
:The [[Battle of Matewan]]. Despite efforts by police chief (and former miner) [[Sid Hatfield]] and Mayor Cabel Testerman to protect miners from interference in their union drive in [[Matewan, West Virginia]], [[Baldwin-Felts|Baldwin-Felts detectives]] hired by the local mining company arrived to evict miners and their families from the Stone Mountain Mine camp. A gun battle ensued, resulting in the deaths of 7 detectives, Mayor Testerman, and 2 miners. The movie [[Matewan]] is based on the event.

:[[Baldwin-Felts|Baldwin-Felts detectives]] assassinated [[Sid Hatfield]] 15 months later, sparking off an armed rebellion of 10,000 West Virginia coal miners at the "[[Battle of Blair Mountain]]," dubbed the "redneck war" and "the largest insurrection this country has had since the Civil War."  Army troops later intervened against the striking mineworkers in West Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/red.html |title=West Virginia Mine War |access-date=2005-11-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080319123848/http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/red.html |archive-date=19 March 2008}}</ref>

;1921 (United States)
:[[U.S. Supreme Court]] rules in ''Duplex Printing Press vs. Deering'' that federal courts could enjoin unions for actions in restraint of trade despite the [[Clayton Act]].<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1921 (United States)
:Seamen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1921 (United States)
:[[West Virginia Coal Wars]] continued.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

[[File:Jlewis-cph3c20320.jpg|thumb|President John L. Lewis, of the United Mine Workers of America (right) photographed today at the Capitol, talking over the coal situation with Representative Nolan, Chairman of the Labor Committee of the House of Representatives, 1922 April 3]]

;1922 (United States)
:[[Conference for Progressive Political Action]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1 April 1922 (United States)
:[[UMW General coal strike (1922)|UMW General coal strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;22 June 1922 (United States)
:[[Herrin massacre]]:<ref name="fillippelli_p025" /> Thirty-six people are killed, 21 of them non-union miners, during a coal-mine strike at [[Herrin, Illinois]].

;July 1922 (United States)
:[[Great Railroad Strike of 1922]].<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;15 November 1922 (Ecuador)
:A three-day [[1922 Guayaquil general strike|general strike in Guayaquil]] ends after police and military kill at least 300 strikers.

;1 September 1922 (United States)
:Federal judge [[James Herbert Wilkerson]] issues a sweeping injunction against striking, assembling, picketing, and a variety of other union activities, known as the "[[Harry M. Daugherty|Daugherty Injunction]]."

;14 June 1923 (United States)
:[[1923 San Pedro Maritime Strike|San Pedro Maritime strike]], California [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] hall was raided. Several children were scalded when the hall was demolished.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.iww.org/en/unions/iu510/sanpedro | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530192011/http://www.iww.org/history/campaigns/sanpedro | archive-date=2014-05-30 | title=The Story of the Liberty Hill Strike & the San Pedro IWW}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.iww.org/en/unions/iu510/sanpedro/images1.shtml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530081720/http://www.iww.org/history/campaigns/sanpedro/images | archive-date=2014-05-30 | title=Images from the Liberty Hill Strike of 1923 in San Pedro}}</ref>

[[File:Samuel Gompers Gravesite.JPG|thumb|Samuel Gompers Gravesite in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]]

;1924 (United States)
:[[Samuel Gompers]] died.  [[William Green (labor leader)|William Green]] elected to succeed him as president of the [[American Federation of Labor]].<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;2 June 1924 (United States)
:[[Child Labor Amendment]] to the U.S. Constitution was proposed. Only 28 of the necessary 36 states ever ratified it.

;9 September 1924 (United States)
:16 [[Filipinos in Hawaii#Early to Mid 20th century|Filipino]] strikers killed during the [[Hanapepe massacre]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hill |first=Tiffany |date=30 December 2009 |title=A Massacre Forgotten |url=http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/January-2010/A-Massacre-Forgotten/ |magazine=Honolulu |publisher= aio Media Group |access-date=5 May 2018 }}</ref>

;1925 (United States)
:[[Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1925 (United States)
:[[Anthracite Coal Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1 May 1925 (China)
:The [[All-China Federation of Trade Unions]] (ACFTU) was officially founded. With 134 million members it is the largest trade union in the world. However many, such as the [[International Confederation of Free Trade Unions]], maintain the position that the ACFTU is not an independent trade union organization.

[[File:ReserveColliery DominioncoalCompanyCa1900.jpg|thumb|340px|A Dominion Coal Company colliery in [[Reserve Mines, Nova Scotia]], ca. 1900.  This mine would become one of numerous assets of the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation upon its founding in 1928 through corporate acquisitions.]]

;11 June 1925 (Canada)
:1 coal miner was killed and many injured during a protest as a result of a major strike at the [[British Empire Steel and Coal Company]] (BESCO) in [[New Waterford, Nova Scotia]]. [[Davis Day]] was established in the memory of [[William Davis (miner)|Bill Davis]], the miner who was murdered by company police. The labor dispute resulted in the deployment of 2,000 soldiers during the largest peacetime deployment of the [[Canadian Army]] for an internal conflict since the [[North-West Rebellion]] of 1885.

;1926 (United States)
: The Railway Labor Act passed. It required employers, for the first time and under penalty of law, to bargain collectively and not to discriminate against their employees for joining a union.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" /> It provided also for mediation, voluntary arbitration, fact-finding boards, cooling off periods and adjustment boards.

:Textile workers fought with police in [[Passaic, New Jersey]]. A [[1926 Passaic Textile Strike|year-long strike]] ensued.

;1926 (United States)
:[[1926 Passaic Textile Strike|Passaic, New Jersey, Textile Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

[[File:Save Sacco and Vanzetti.jpg|thumb|300px|Protest for Sacco and Vanzetti in London, 1921]]

;1927 (United States)
:[[Sacco and Vanzetti|Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti]] were executed.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;21 November 1927 (United States)
:Picketing coal miners marching under the banner of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] were massacred in the [[Columbine Mine massacre]] in the company town of [[Serene, Colorado]].

;1928 (United States)
:New Bedford, Massachusetts, Textile Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1 April 1929 [[Loray Mill Strike]] in [[Gastonia, North Carolina]] (United States)
:Violent and relatively unsuccessful [[Loray Mill Strike]] during which the National Guard was called, and 100+ masked men destroyed the National Textile Workers Union (NTWU) building. Crushing Southern textile worker's [[collective bargaining]] efforts made a furor in US national news, giving momentum and urgency to the more successful [[labor movement]] of the 1930s{{Ref|yellen}}{{Ref|Interview with Daughter of Samuel Krieger, [[Loray Mill]] [[NTWU]] organizer}}

;1929 (United States)
:[[Trade Union Unity League]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

[[File:Labor-Age-cartoon-Jan1930.jpg|thumb|right|300px|This cartoon from the monthly magazine of the CPLA illustrates the organization's view of the American Federation of Labor.]]

;1929 (United States)
:[[Conference for Progressive Labor Action]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1929 (United States)
:Gastonia, North Carolina, Textile Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;1929 (Australia)
:The [[1929 Timber Workers strike]] was the first large strike after the onset of the Great Depression in Australia arising from a new timber industry award that increased the working week from 44 to 48 hours and reduced wages. A fifteen-month lockout during 1929-1930 of miners on the Northern New South Wales Coalfields was particularly bitter with police shooting at miners, killing Norman Brown and seriously injuring many more at the [[Rothbury Riot]].

== 1930s ==
;1930 (United States)
:National Unemployed Council founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p025" />

;3 February 1930 (United States)
:"Chicagorillas" -- labor racketeers -- shot and killed contractor William Healy, with whom the Chicago Marble Setters Union had been having difficulties.

;14 April 1930 (United States)
:Imperial Valley Farmworkers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxvi}}</ref> Over 100 farm workers were arrested for their unionizing activities in [[Imperial Valley|Imperial Valley, California]].<ref name="bronfen">{{cite web |url=http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/555/ |last=Bronfenbrenner|first=K.|year=1990|title=Imperial Valley, California, farmworkers' strike of 1930 [Electronic version]|access-date=21 November 2012 |publisher=Cornell University, ILR School}}</ref> Eight were subsequently convicted of "[[California Criminal Syndicalism Act|criminal syndicalism]]."

;1931 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passes the [[Davis–Bacon Act]].<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1931 (United States)
:[[Scottsboro Boys]] arrested in Alabama.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;4 May 1931 (United States)
:[[Harlan County War|Harlan County Miners' Strike]] began in [[Harlan County, Kentucky]] when gun-toting vigilantes attacked striking miners.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;14 May 1931 (Sweden)
:Five persons were killed by bullets fired by [[Swedish military]] troops called in as reinforcements by the police during a protest later known as [[Ådalen shootings]].

[[File:NorrisLaGuardia.jpg|thumb|right|[[United States Senate|Senator]] [[George W. Norris]] of [[Nebraska]] and [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] [[Fiorello H. La Guardia]] of New York, both [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]], were the chief sponsors of the Norris–Laguardia Act]]

;10 October 1931 (Spain)
:The [[Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista]] is founded, being the first organization that proclaims itself as [[National syndicalism|national syndicalist]]

;1932 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Norris–La Guardia Act]] outlawing [[yellow-dog contract]]s and prohibiting federal injunctions in labor disputes.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:World War I veterans march on Washington, D.C., in the [[Bonus March]].<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:[[American Federation of Government Employees]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:California Pea Pickers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:[[Century Airlines Pilots' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:Davidson-Wilder, Tennessee Coal Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:[[Ford Hunger March]] occurred in [[Detroit]], Michigan.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1932 (United States)
:Vacaville, California, Tree Pruners' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;7 March 1932 (United States)
:Police kill striking workers at Ford's [[Dearborn, Michigan]] plant.

[[File:US Natl Industrial Recovery Act.jpg|right|thumb|Front page of the ''National Industrial Recovery Act,'' as signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 16 June 1933.]]

;2 May 1933 (Germany)
:The [[ADGB Trade Union School]] (Bundesschule des [[Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund|Allgemeiner Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB)]]), was confiscated by the [[Nazism|Nazis]]. Until the end of [[World War II]] the site was used by the Reich Leadership School.<ref>''History. Bauhaus trade union school''. Available at: {{cite web |url=http://www.bauhaus-denkmal-bernau.de/en/landmark/history.html |title=Bauhaus trade union school landmark &#124; Landmark &#124; History |access-date=2016-11-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105173549/http://www.bauhaus-denkmal-bernau.de/en/landmark/history.html |archive-date=5 November 2016}} (Accessed: 23 October 2016).</ref>

;1933 (United States)
:[[National Industrial Recovery Act]] passed by the U.S. Congress.  The Act guaranteed the rights of employees to organize and enter into collective bargaining.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1933 (United States)
:[[Newspaper Guild]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1933 (United States)
:[[Briggs Manufacturing Company|Briggs Manufacturing Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1933 (United States)
:Detroit, Michigan, Tool and Die Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1933 (United States)
:Hormel, Iowa, Meat-Packing Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1933 (United States)
:New Mexico Miners' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;10 October 1933 (United States)
:18,000 cotton workers went on strike in [[Pixley, California]].<ref name="fillippelli_p026" /> Four were killed before a pay-hike was finally won.

;1934 (United States)
:[[Southern Tenant Farmers Union]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1934 (United States)
:Harlem, New York, Jobs-for-Negroes Boycott occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1934 (United States)
:Imperial Valley Farmworkers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1934 (United States)
:The Electric [[Auto-Lite Strike]]. In [[Toledo, Ohio]],<ref name="fillippelli_p026" /> two strikers were killed and over two hundred wounded by National Guardsmen. Some 1,300 National Guard troops, including included eight rifle companies and three machine gun companies, were called in to disperse as many as 10,000 strikers and protestors.

;1934 (United States)
:<nowiki>''</nowiki>Newark Star-Ledger<nowiki>''</nowiki> Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1934 (United States)
:Rubber Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1934 (United States)
:Honea Path massacre occurred with 6 striking textile worker shot in the back running from a picket line.  This event is featured in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary on the ''POV'' series called "The Uprising of '34".<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/uprisingof34/| title=The Uprising of '34| publisher=PBS| access-date=2 August 2013}}</ref> An historical photo essay entitled "Mill Town Murder" is online at [http://www.beachamjournal.com/photos/small_town_secret_photo_e/index.html ''Beacham Journal''] .

;1934 (United States)
:[[Textile workers strike (1934)|Textile Workers' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

[[File:Battle strike 1934.jpg|thumb|alt=Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934|[[Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934|Open battle between striking teamsters armed with pipes and the police in the streets of Minneapolis, June 1934]].]]

;May 1934 (United States)
:[[Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934]] occurred. Police attacked and fired upon striking Teamster truck drivers in Minneapolis who were demanding recognition of their union, wage increases, and shorter working hours. As violence escalated, Governor Olson went so far as to declare martial law in Minneapolis, deploying 4,000 National Guardsmen. The strike ended on 21 August when company owners finally accepted union demands.

;5 July 1934 (United States)
:[[1934 San Francisco General Strike]] Bloody Thursday - West Coast & San Francisco General Strike.

;1–22 September 1934 (United States)
:A strike in [[Woonsocket, Rhode Island]], part of a national movement to obtain a minimum wage for textile workers, resulted in the deaths of three workers. Over 420,000 workers ultimately went on strike.

;1935 (United States)
:[[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled that the [[National Industrial Recovery Act]] was unconstitutional.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

[[File:National Labor Relations Act.jpg|thumb|alt=National Labor Relations Act|Francis Perkins looks on as Franklin Roosevelt signs the Wagner-Peyser Bill creating the US Employment Service, 6 June 1935]]

;1935 (United States)
:The [[National Labor Relations Act]], also known as the Wagner Act, was passed.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" /> It clearly established the right of all workers to organize and to elect their representative for collective bargaining purposes.

;1935 (United States)
:[[Negro Labor Committee]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1935 (United States)
:[[United Auto Workers]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1935 (United States)
:Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri Metal Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1935 (United States)
:[[Pacific Northwest Lumber Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1935 (United States)
:Southern Sharecroppers' and Farm Laborers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;9 November 1935 (United States)
:The [[Committee for Industrial Organizations]] (CIO) was formed to expand [[industrial unionism]].<ref name="fillippelli_p026" />

;1936 (United States)
:[[Steel Workers Organizing Committee]], one of two labor organizations that eventually merged to form the [[United Steelworkers]], founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p027">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxvii}}</ref>

;1936 (United States)
:Atlanta Auto Workers' Sit-down Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;20 November 1936 (Spain)
:National syndicalist leader [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]] was executed.

;1936 (United States)
:Berkshire Knitting Mills Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1936 (United States)
:[[General Motors Sit-Down Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1936 (United States)
:RCA Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1936 (United States)
:Rubber Workers' Sit-down Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1936 (United States)
:Seamen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1936 (United States)
:''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' Newspaper Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1937 (United States)
:[[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled that the [[National Labor Relations Act]] is constitutional.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1937 (United States)
:[[American Federation of Labor]] ejected the unions that would later form the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations|Committee of Industrial Organizations]].<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1937 (United States)
:American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1937 (United States)
:Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chocolate Workers' Strike founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1937 (United States)
:[[Little Steel Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

[[File:Flint Sit-Down Strike window.jpg|thumb|300px|Sit-down strikers guarding window entrance to Fisher body plant number three.  Photo by [[Sheldon Dick]], 1937.]]

;11 February 1937 (United States)
:General Motors recognizes the [[United Auto Workers]] union following a [[Flint Sit-Down Strike|sit-down strike]] in [[Flint, Michigan]], that began in December 1936.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

:Two months later, company guards beat up [[United Auto Workers]] leaders at the [[River Rouge Plant]], in [[River Rouge, Michigan]].

;30 May 1937 (United States)
:Police kill 10 and wounded 30 during the [[Memorial Day massacre of 1937|Memorial Day Massacre]] at the Republic Steel plant in Chicago.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1938 (United States)
:[[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1938 (United States)
:Chicago Newspaper Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1938 (United States)
:Hilo, Hawaii, Massacre occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1938 (United States)
:Maytag Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;25 June 1938 (United States)
:The [[Fair Labor Standards Act|Wages and Hours (later Fair Labor Standards) Act]] is passed, banning child labor and setting the 40-hour work week.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" /> The Act went into effect in October 1940, and was upheld in the Supreme Court on 3 February 1941.

;1939 (United States)
:[[Chrysler Auto Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

[[File:Flint Sit-Down Strike window.jpg|thumb|Flint Sit-Down Strike window]]

;1939 (United States)
:General Motors Tool and Die Makers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;27 February 1939 (United States)
:The Supreme Court rules that [[sit-down strike]]s are illegal.

== 1940s ==
;1940 (United States)
:[[Philip Murray]] elected president of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] replacing [[John L. Lewis]].<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1940 (United States)
:Ford Motor Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1941 (United States)
:Allis-Chalmers Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1941 (United States)
:Captive Coal Mines Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1941 (United States)
:Detroit, Michigan Hate Strike against [[African Americans]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1941 (United States)
:International Harvester Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1941 (United States)
:New York City Bus Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1941 (United States)
:North American Aviation Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;20 June 1941 (United States)
:[[Henry Ford]] recognizes the [[UAW]].

;15 December 1941 (United States)
:The AFL pledges that there will be no strikes in defense-related industry plants for the duration of the war.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1942 (United States)
:[[National War Labor Board (1942–1945)|National War Labor Board]] was established; the NWLB established formula for wartime wage adjustments.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />[[File:Western Union A Labor Day Telegram To All Goodyearites - NARA - 533875.jpg|thumb|alt=Western Union A Labor Day Telegram to All Goodyearites |Western Union A Labor Day Telegram to All Goodyearites from Forrestal Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Patterson Under Secretary of War, 3 September 1942]]

;1942 (United States)
:[[United Steel Workers of America]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

[[File:Kennedy tetlow lewis.jpg|thumb|alt=Kennedy tetlow lewis|War Labor Board anthracite hearing. John L. Lewis (right), President of the United Mine Workers (UMW), confers with Thomas Kennedy (left), Secretary-Treasurer of the UMW, and Perry Tetlow (center), president of UMW District 17, at the War Labor Board conference 15 January 1943, about the anthracite coal miners' strike, 1943 January 15]]

;1943 (United States)
:[[Fair Employment Practices Commission]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1943 (United States)
:Smith-Connolly Act passed by [[U.S. Congress]].  Act restricts the extent of political activities and strikes by unions during the duration of the war.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1943 (United States)
:Bituminous Coal Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1943 (United States)
:Detroit, Michigan Hate Strike against [[African Americans]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1943 (United States)
:[[Detroit Race Riot (1943)|Detroit Race Riots]] against African Americans occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;1944 (United States)
:[[Philadelphia transit strike of 1944|Philadelphia Transit Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p027" />

;28 December 1944 (United States)
:President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army to seize the executive offices of [[Montgomery Ward|Montgomery Ward and Company]] after the corporation failed to comply with a [[National War Labor Board (1942–1945)|National War Labor Board]] directive regarding union shops.

;1945 (International)
:[[International Federation of Trade Unions]] becomes the [[World Federation of Trade Unions]]

;1945 (United States)
:Kelsey-Hayes Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=082407968X|pages=xxviii}}</ref>

;1945 (United States)
:New York City Longshoremen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1945 (United States)
:Montgomery Ward Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1945 (United States)
:Oil Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1946 (United States)
:Workers in packinghouses nation-wide went on strike.

[[File:Doctor's office. The doctor for this camp is hired by Dr. Anderson, head doctor for the Kingston Pocahontas Coal... - NARA - 540721.jpg|thumb|alt=Doctor's office for the Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, 1946|Doctor's office. The doctor for this camp is hired by Dr. Anderson, head doctor for the Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, locally. Since the strike Dr. Anderson has cut off all funds for cleaning of this office. Kingston Pocahontas Coal Company, Exeter Mine, Welch, McDowell County, West Virginia, 10 August 1946]]

;1946 (United States)
:Bituminous Coal Strike of 1946 occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1946 (United States)
:Electrical Manufacturing Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1946 (United States)
:General Motors Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1946 (United States)
:Pittsburgh Power Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1946 (United States)
:Railroad Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1946 (United States)
:Steel Strike of 1946 occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1 April 1946 (United States)
:A strike by 400,000 mine workers in the U.S. began. U.S. troops seized railroads and coal mines the following month.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;4 October 1946 (United States)
:The U.S. Navy seized oil refineries in order to break a 20-state post-war strike.

;1947 (United States)
:[[Taft–Hartley Act]] passed by U.S. Congress.  The Act restricted union practices and permitted states to ban union security agreements.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1947 (United States)
:R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1947 (United States)
:Telephone Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;20 June 1947 (United States)
:The [[Taft–Hartley Act]], curbing strikes, was vetoed by President Truman. Congress overrode the veto.

;1948 (United States)
:[[Progressive Party (United States, 1948)|Progressive Party]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;20 April 1948 (United States)
:Labor leader [[Walter Reuther]] was shot and seriously wounded by would-be assassins.

;1949 (International)
:[[International Confederation of Free Trade Unions]] splits from the [[World Federation of Trade Unions]]

;1949 (United States)
:[[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] expelled two unions for alleged communist influence.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1949 (United States)
:[[Hawaii Dock Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

== 1950s ==
;1950 (United States)
:[[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] expelled nine unions for alleged communist influence.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1950 (United States)
:[[United Auto Workers]] and [[General Motors]] reached agreement on a contract that provided pensions and wage increases over the duration of the signed contract.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1950 (United States)
:[[Western Federation of Miners#Salt of the Earth|''Salt of the Earth'' Strike of New Mexico]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1950 (International)
:The [[Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948]], one of the two primary labor conventions of the [[International Labour Organization|ILO]], came into force on 4 July.

;27 August 1950 (United States)
:President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize all the nation's railroads to prevent a general strike. The railroads were not returned to their owners until two years later.

;1951 (International)
:The [[Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949]], one of the two primary labor conventions of the [[International Labour Organization|ILO]], came into force on 18 July.

;1952 (United States)
:[[George Meany]] is elected president of the [[American Federation of Labor]].<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

[[File:Photograph of President Truman in the Oval Office, conferring with labor leader Walter Reuther, president of the... - NARA - 200406.jpg|thumb|alt=President Truman in Oval Office with labor leader Walter Reuther|Photograph of President Truman in the Oval Office, conferring with labor leader Walter Reuther, president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1952 December 12.]]

;1952 (United States)
:[[Walter Reuther]] is elected president of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]].<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1952 (United States)
:[[Steel Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;8 April 1952 (United States)
:President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize the nation's steel mills to avert a strike. The act was ruled to be illegal by the Supreme Court on 2 June.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1953 (United States)
:[[American Federation of Labor]] and the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] reached an agreement to not raid from each other's membership.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1953 (United States)
:[[American Federation of Labor]] expelled the International Longshoremen's Union on grounds of corruption.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1953 (United States)
:Louisiana Sugar Cane Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1954 (United States)
:Kohler Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1955 (United States)
:[[United Auto Workers]] successfully negotiate with [[Ford Motor Company]] for supplementary unemployment benefits.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1955 (United States)
:Southern Telephone Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;April 1955 (United States)
:Textile workers strike of 1955, in both [[New Bedford, Massachusetts|New Bedford]] and [[Fall River, Massachusetts|Fall River]], [[Massachusetts]].  Strike over a nickel raise was led and negotiated by Union President Manuel "Manny" Fernandes Jr., who resolved the strike and got the workers a nickel raise.

;5 December 1955 (United States)
:The two largest labor organizations in the U.S. merged to form the [[AFL–CIO]], with a membership estimated at 15 million.  [[George Meany]] served as the first president of the combined organization.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1956 (United States)
:East Coast Longshoremen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1956 (United States)
:Steel Strike of 1956 occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;April 1956 (Canada)
:The largest Canadian trade union center, the [[Canadian Labour Congress]] (CLC), was formed.

;5 April 1956 (United States)
:Columnist [[Victor Riesel]], a crusader against labor racketeers, was blinded in New York City when a hired assailant threw sulfuric acid in his face.

;1957 (United States)
:[[AFL–CIO|American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations]] expelled [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters#Influence of organized crime|International Brotherhood of Teamsters]], Bakery Workers, and Laundry Workers on the grounds of corruption.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1959 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act]].<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;1959 (United States)
:[[Steel strike of 1959]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;14 September 1959 (United States)
:The [[Landrum–Griffin Act]] passes, restricting union activity.<ref name="fillippelli_p028" />

;7 November 1959 (United States)
:The [[Taft–Hartley Act]] is invoked by the Supreme Court to break a steel strike.

== 1960s ==
;1960 (United States)
:Negro American Labor Council founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p029">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor Conflict in the United States: An Encyclopedia |year=1990 |publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=0-8240-7968-X|pages=xxix}}</ref>

;1960 (United States)
:General Electric Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1960 (United States)
:Seamen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1962 (United States)
:President John F Kennedy issues [[Executive Order 10988]] establishing limited collective bargaining rights for federal employees and widely regarded as the impetus for the expansion of public sector bargaining rights at state and local levels in the years to come.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1962 (United States)
:[[1962 New York City newspaper strike]] began.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1962 (United States)
:East Coast Longshoremen's Strike began.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1 April 1963 (United States)
:The [[1962 New York City newspaper strike]], longest newspaper strike in U.S. history ended. The 9 major newspapers in New York City had ceased publication over 114 days before.

;10 June 1963 (United States)
:Congress passed the [[Equal Pay Act of 1963|Equal Pay Act]] mandating equal pay to women.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1965 (United States)
:[[United Farm Workers Organizing Committee]] founded.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1965 (United States)
:[[Delano grape strike|California Grape Workers' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1966 (United States)
:New York Transportation Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;27 August–2 September 1966 (Canada)
:Nationwide rail transportation strike occurred.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50239130/rutland-daily-herald/ |title=Canada Strike to Seal Border |author=Vermont Press Bureau |newspaper=Rutland Daily Herald |date=25 August 1966 |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50239314/the-burlington-free-press/ |title=Canadian Railroad Strike Disrupts Vermont Service |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Burlington Free Press |date=27 August 1966 |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50239596/the-montana-standard/ |author=UPI |title=Solution may be hours away in Canadian railroad strike |newspaper=The Montana Standard |location=Butte, MT |date=30 August 1966 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50239932/tucson-citizen/ |agency=Associated Press |title=Canadian Railroad Strike Ends; Some Workers Still Reluctant |newspaper=Tucson Citizen |location=Tucson, AZ |date=2 September 1966 |page=23 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50240553/the-burlington-free-press/ |agency=Associated Press |title=Trains Run Again in Canada |newspaper=The Burlington Free Press |date=3 September 1966 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref>

;1967 (United States)
:Copper Strike started.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1968 (United States)
:Members of four railroad unions voted overwhelmingly for the largest union merger ever in the railroad industry. The merger created a powerful new union called the [[United Transportation Union]] (UTU).

;1968 (United States)
:[[New York City teachers' strike of 1968|New York City Teachers' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;[[May 1968 in France|May 1968]] (France)
:What began as a student protest developed into a nationwide [[general strike]].

;1968 (International)
:The ICFTU becomes the [[World Confederation of Labour]]

[[File:President Nixon with AFL-CIO President George Meaney and Secretary of Labor George Schultz - NARA - 194613.tif|thumb|President Nixon with AFL–CIO President George Meany and Secretary of Labor George Shultz]]

;1969 (United States)
:[[1969 Charleston hospital strike#Charleston hospital strike|Charleston, South Carolina, Hospital Workers' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

== 1970s ==
;1970 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] enacted [[Occupational Safety and Health Act]].<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1970 (United States)
:General Motors Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1970 (United States)
:Postal Workers Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;5 January 1970 (United States)
:[[Joseph Yablonski]], unsuccessful reform candidate to unseat [[W. A. Boyle]] as President of the [[United Mine Workers]], was murdered, along with his wife and daughter, in their [[Clarksville, Pennsylvania]] home by assassins acting on Boyle's orders. Boyle was later convicted of the killing.

:[[West Virginia]] miners went on strike the following day in protest.

;18 March 1970 (United States)
:The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the United States Post Office Department began with a walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan,<ref name="fillippelli_p029" /> soon involving 210,000 of the nation's 750,000 postal employees. With mail service virtually paralyzed in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia, President Nixon declared a state of national emergency and assigned military units to New York City post offices. The stand-off culminated two weeks later.

[[File:Cesar chavez crop2.jpg|[[César Chávez]], co founder of UFW|thumb]]

;29 July 1970 (United States)
:[[United Farm Workers]] forced California grape growers to sign an agreement after a five-year strike.

; 1971 (United Kingdom)
:[[1971 United Kingdom postal workers strike|United Kingdom postal workers strike]] from 20 January to 7 March 1971.

;1971 (United States)
:New York City Police Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />
:ILWU [[ILWU 1971 strike|International Longshore and Warehouse Union Strike]] From 1 July 1971 to 20 February 1972<ref>{{Cite web|title=PMA – Members Archive Historical Documents Strike of 1971|url=https://apps.pmanet.org/?cmd=main.content&id_content=2142586624|access-date=2021-12-02|website=apps.pmanet.org}}</ref>

;1972 (United States)
:Farah Clothing Workers' Strike and Boycott occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1972 (United States)
:Lordstown, Ohio, Auto Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1972 (United States)
:Philadelphia Teachers Strike started.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1974 (United States)
:[[Coalition of Labor Union Women]] formed.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1974 (United States)
:Employment Retirement Income Security Act passed by [[U.S. Congress]].<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1974 (United States)
:Baltimore Police Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1975 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] voted down union-sponsored bill to reform the basic United States labor laws.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

[[File:The Washington Star Building (2893479361).jpg|thumb|alt=The Washington Star Building (2893479361)|On 1 October 1975, press operators at the Post went on strike, severely damaging all printing presses before leaving the building]]

;1 October 1975 (United States)
:Washington Post Pressmen's Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1976 (United States)
:[[U.S. Congress]] voted down union-sponsored bill to make it easier for construction unions to organize.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1977 (United States)
:[[Bituminous Coal Strike of 1977–1978]] started.<ref name="fillippelli_p029" />

;1977 (United States)
:[[Coors Brewing Company#Labor issues|Coors Beer Strike and Boycott]] started.<ref name="fillippelli_p030">{{cite book |last=Filippelli|first=Ronald L.|title=Labor conflict in the United States : an encyclopedia|year=1990|publisher=Garland Publishing Co.|location=New York|isbn=0-8240-7968-X|pages=xxx}}</ref>

;1977 (United States)
:J.P. Stevens Boycott began.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1977 (United States)
:Willmar, Minnesota, Bank Workers' Strike began.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1978 (United States)
:Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Newspaper Strike began.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1978 (United States)
:[[1978 New York City newspaper strike|New York City newspaper strike]], lasted 88 days.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stetson |first1=Damon |title=The Times and News Resume Publication |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/11/06/112800581.pdf |access-date=8 October 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=6 November 1978}}</ref>

[[File:Lkirkland.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Lane Kirkland by [[Richard Whitney (artist)|Richard Whitney]]]]

;1979 (United States)
:[[Lane Kirkland]] elected president of the [[AFL–CIO]].<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1979 (United States)
:Independent Trucker Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1979 (United States)
:The film [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/norma_rae/ ''Norma Rae''], based on a real life character trying to unionize a textile mill, is released. It wins an Academy Award for best actress.

== 1980s ==
;September 1980 (Poland)
:The trade union [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] (''Solidarność'') is established at the [[Gdańsk Shipyard]], and originally led by Nobel Peace Prize winner [[Lech Wałęsa]].  Within the year the government implements [[Martial law in Poland|martial law]] in an attempt to quell nationwide civil unrest and protest.

;1980 (United States)
:Joyce Miller joined the [[AFL–CIO]] executive board as the first female board member.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

[[File:Reagan speaks on air traffic controllers strike 1981.jpg|thumb|Reagan speaks on air traffic controllers strike 1981]]

;3 August 1981 (United States)
:Federal air traffic controllers began a [[Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968)#August 1981 strike|nationwide strike]] after their union rejected the government's final offer for a new contract. Most of the 13,000 striking controllers defied the back-to-work order, and were dismissed by President Reagan on 5 August.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" /> Reagan ordered them to leave.

:Largest labor rally in United States history broke out in protest of Reagan's order.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1981 (United States)
:Baseball Players' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;October 1982 (United States)
:A boycott was initiated by the [[International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers|International Association of Machinists]] (IAM) against [[Brown & Sharpe]]. The [[National Labor Relations Board]] later charged Brown & Sharpe with regressive bargaining, and of entering into negotiations with the express purpose of not reaching an agreement with the union. ''(See [[International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers|IAM]] for more details.)''.

;1983 (United States)
:Phelps-Dodge Copper Strike commenced.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1984 (United States)
:Yale University Clerical Workers' Strike began.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1985 (United States)
:[[Hormel Meatpackers' Strike]] occurred but ultimately failed.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1985 (United States)
:Los Angeles County Sanitation Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1985 (United States)
:Yale University Clerical Workers' Strike ended.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1985 ([[Vatican City]])
:The [[Association of Vatican Lay Workers]] was formed, but was not recognized by the Vatican authorities until 1993. It is the sole trade union in [[Vatican City]] and represents the majority of the 3000 employees who work in the city state.

;1986 (United States)
:Trans World Airlines Flight Attendants' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1986 (United States)
:[[Steel strike of 1986|USX (United States Steel) Lockout]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;6 October 1986 (United States)
:Female flight attendants won an 18-year lawsuit against [[United Airlines]], which had fired them for getting married. The lawsuit was resolved when a U.S. district court approved the reinstatement of 475 attendants and $37 million back-pay settlement for 1,725 flight attendants. (United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385 (1977))<ref>{{cite web | url=https://feminist.org/resources/feminist-chronicles/the-feminist-chronicles-2/part-ii-1986/ | title=Part II - 1986 | publisher=Feminist Majority Foundation | access-date=11 September 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/432/385.html | title=United Airlines Inc. v McDonald | work=findlaw.com | access-date=11 September 2020}}</ref>

;1987 (United States)
:Paperworkers' Strike and Lockout began.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1987 (United States)
:Professional Football Players' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1988 (United Kingdom)
:[[1988 United Kingdom postal workers strike|United Kingdom postal workers strike]] from 31 August to 13 September 1988.

;1989 (United States)
:Eastern Airlines Workers' Strike occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;1989 (United States)
:[[Pittston Coal strike|Pittston Coal Company Mine Workers' Strike]] occurred.<ref name="fillippelli_p030" />

;4 April 1989 (Poland)
:Round table negotiations between [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] and the then-Communist government result in semi-free parliamentary elections in Poland, a pivotal moment in [[revolutions of 1989|fall of the Iron Curtain]] in Eastern Europe.  [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] leader [[Lech Wałęsa]] is elected President in August of that year.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kennedy|first=Michael D.|title=Negotiating revolution in Poland|url=http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/2002-815-10g-Kennedy.pdf|work=NCEEER|year=2002|access-date=14 July 2013}}</ref>

== 2000s ==

;14 January 2003 ([[United States]])
:20,000 employees at 48 plants in 33 states struck against [[General Electric]], the first strike against GE in 33 years, over a plan to shift more health care costs to employees and retirees.<ref>{{cite web |title=Today in labor history: 20,000 GE workers strike over health care |date=14 January 2013 |url=http://peoplesworld.org/today-in-labor-history-20-000-ge-workers-strike-over-health-care/ |access-date=2015-10-30}}</ref>

;2006 (International)
:The [[World Confederation of Labour]] merges with the [[International Confederation of Free Trade Unions]] and eight other trade union affiliations to found the [[International Trade Union Confederation]].<ref name=ilo_lauds_ituc>{{cite web |title=ILO Director-General lauds formation of new global union federation |work=ILO Online press room |date=November 2006 |url=http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-centre/press-releases/WCMS_077094/lang--en/index.htm |access-date=2006-11-03}}</ref>

== 2010s ==

'''2012''' (United States)
: Coke workers of the Fossil Creek Facility (in Fort Worth) vote 215 to 191 to not be represented by The [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters]].<ref name=coca_cola_star_telegram>{{cite news|last=Schlacter|first=Barry|title=Workers vote against joining union at Coca-Cola in Fort Worth|url=http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/20/4274510/workers-vote-against-joining-union.html#storylink=cpy|access-date=18 December 2013|newspaper=Star-Telegram|date=20 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219024416/http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/20/4274510/workers-vote-against-joining-union.html#storylink=cpy|archive-date=19 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

'''2018''' (China)
:[[Jasic incident]] occurred. Workers led by Maoist students made several walkouts, many were arrested thereafter.<ref>{{cite news |title=Inside China's crackdown on young Marxists |url=https://www.ft.com/content/fd087484-2f23-11e9-8744-e7016697f225 |access-date=11 February 2023 |work=[[Financial Times]] |date=14 February 2019}}</ref>

'''2019''' (United States)
:[[2019 General Motors strike|2019 General Motors Strike]] occurred.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nicolaou |first1=Anna |title=GM workers strike after talks on pay and benefits break down |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5b43d17c-d7dc-11e9-8f9b-77216ebe1f17 |website=Financial Times |date=16 September 2019 |access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref> 48,000 United Auto Workers representing Detroit GM factory employees went on strike from 15 September to 25 October to demand healthcare coverage, higher wages, increased job security, and gateway for temporary workers to become permanent.

== 2020s ==
'''2021''' (United States)
: [[Starbucks]] workers voted to unionize three stores in [[Buffalo, New York]], two of which are now recognized by the NLRB as [[Starbucks Workers United]].<ref name="2nd store certified">{{Cite news|last1=Scheiber|first1=Noam|date=2022-01-10|title=Union wins election at a second Buffalo-area Starbucks.|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/business/starbucks-union-election-buffalo.html|url-status=live|access-date=12 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220112035659/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/business/starbucks-union-election-buffalo.html|archive-date=12 January 2022|issn=0362-4331|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

: [[Chris Smalls]] founded the [[Amazon Labor Union]] in [[New York City]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|last=Greenhouse|first=Steven|date=2021-06-04|title=Amazon fired him – now he's trying to unionize 5,000 workers in New York|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/04/amazon-workers-staten-island-christian-smalls|access-date=2021-10-26|website=[[The Guardian]]|language=en}}</ref>

'''2022''' (United States)
: Graduate student workers at [[MIT]] vote to organize with [[United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America|UE]].

'''2023''' (United States)
: [[UAW]] workers strike against the Big Three automotive companies, [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]], [[General Motors]], and [[Stellantis]], in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]].

==See also==
{{Portal|Organized labour
}}
'''Asia:'''
*[[Labor unions in Japan]]
'''Europe'''
* [[European Trade Union Confederation]]
* [[Trade unions in the United Kingdom]]

'''North America:'''
*[[List of US labor strikes by size]]
*[[Labor unions in the United States]]
*[[List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes]]
*[[Timeline of labour issues and events in Canada]]

'''International:'''

{{Main|List of trade unions}}

* [[Industrial Workers of the World]]
*[[International Trade Union Confederation]]
*[[World Federation of Trade Unions]]
*[[IWA–AIT|International Workers' Association]]
* [[IndustriALL Global Union]]
* [[International Confederation of Labor]]
* [[International comparisons of trade unions]]

'''General:'''
* [[List of strikes]]
* [[Opposition to trade unions]]
*[[Labour law]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Adrian Paradis, ''The Labor Reference Book'' (Philadelphia: [[Chilton Book Co.]], 1972), 133&ndash;134.

===Archival sources===
*[http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ead/htmldocs/KCL05780-004.html International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Louis Stulberg, President. Correspondence, 1945-1977 (bulk 1966-1975)] (28 linear feet) are housed at the [[Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives]], [[Cornell University Library]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Labor Issues And Events}}
[[Category:Labor history|*]]
[[Category:Labor disputes|*]]
[[Category:General strikes|*]]
[[Category:Miners' labor disputes|*]]
[[Category:Business timelines|Labor issues and events]]
[[Category:Society-related timelines|Labor issues and events]]
[[Category:History of the Industrial Workers of the World|Labor issues and events]]