On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 27 September 1973, the United Farm Workers in California won their second strike in a jurisdictional dispute with the Teamsters union, when yet again the Teamsters were forced to concede the UFW's jurisdiction in organising farm workers. During the dispute one UFW striker was killed, three others shot and wounded, and others were attacked or firebombed. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9967/united-farm-workers-win-second-jurisdiction-strike-against-teamsters

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On this day, 26 September 1939, the actor Ricky Tomlinson was born. Now famous for his roles in The Royle Family, Riff Raff and Mike Bassett: England Manager, he also participated in the 1972 building workers' strike. Following the dispute, Tomlinson was one of 24 building worker trade unionists who were convicted on various charges relating to the strike in what was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice faced by the British labour movement in the twentieth century. Following almost fifty years of tireless campaigning, the convictions of the Shrewsbury defendants was overturned in March 2021.
Tomlinson tells us his story of the strike in our podcast episodes 65-66: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e65-66-building-workers-strike-w-ricky-tomlinson/

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On this day, 25 September 2005, sex workers in Gyeonggi province, South Korea, organised in the Democratic Coalition of Sex Workers, reached the first collective bargaining agreement with brothel owners in the country's history. 
Over the next five years, the union had grown to encompass some 220 members in the vicinity of the US army base camp Humphrey. And it had achieved improvements for its members in contracts on pay, working hours, annual leave, disciplinary procedures and even how to pay back loans from employers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9792/south-korean-sex-workers-collective-bargaining-agreement

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On this day, 24 September 1945 in New York City, around 1.5 million workers got an impromptu day off when elevator workers in over 2,000 city high-rise buildings, including the Empire State building, went on strike against pay cuts, which workers said breached the contract recommendations of the War Labor Board. Garment workers walked out on sympathy strike. The strike remained strong for five days until the governor intervened, persuading the workers to stop their strike if the employers agreed to arbitration, which they did. The arbitrators eventually ruled in favour of the workers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9699/high-rise-elevator-workers-strike

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On this day, 23 September 2017, the strike of video game voice actors in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) against 11 US video game developers and publishers, including Activision, Electronic Arts, Disney and others, ended in a partial victory after 340 days. It was the longest strike in the history of the union.
In particular, employers agreed to additional bonus payments of between $75 and $2100 depending on the number of sessions worked.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9614/video-game-voice-actors-strike-ends

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On this day, 22 September 1912, the syndicalist union the Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of the World Worker) was formed in Mexico during the turbulent events of the revolution, despite repression by the then-government of Francisco Madero. 
However, the union later began supporting a capitalist faction involved in the conflict – the constitutionalist forces of Venustiano Carranza – and wound up fighting against the revolutionary peasant army of Emiliano Zapata.
After it had outlived its usefulness, the Carranza government turned on the union and shut it down.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9521/casa-del-obrero-mundial-founded

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On 21 September 1945, a strike began of supervisors in US coal mines demanding recognition for their union, the United Clerical, Technical and Supervisory Employees of the Mining Industry, part of the United Mine Workers of America.
The strike began to spread, and rank-and-file coalminers stopped work in solidarity with their supervisors. Eventually, 200,000 miners were out, shutting down at least 82 bituminous mines across eight states or more.
Although the strike was solid and still growing, it was called off by union leader John Lewis on October 17 despite not achieving the union's demand.
The stoppage was part of a wave of strikes which followed the end of World War II.
More info in this excellent book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/strike-jeremy-brecher


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On this day, 20 September 1979, Aotearoa's (New Zealand's) only nationwide general strike took place when the Federation of Labour called a one-day strike of all its members in support of the Drivers Union. 300,000 people took to the streets around the country after a pay agreement between transport workers and employers was blocked by the government. The government claimed that the strike had no impact, but they agreed to refer the dispute to the Arbitration Court, which upheld the original wage agreement as demanded by the strikers.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9334/new-zealand-general-strike

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On this day, 19 September 1795, two enslaved people named Tula and Karpata who had been leading a revolt on the Dutch colony of Curaçao were betrayed and taken prisoner, effectively ending a month-long rebellion. 
They and two other leaders, Pedro Wakao and Louis Mercier were executed, and many other rebels had been killed in the fighting. Despite this, the government was forced to grant limited rights to enslaved people, and in 1814 they abolished the slave trade. Although slavery continued in Dutch colonies until 1863.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9146/curaçao-slave-revolt-crushed

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On this day, 18 September 1809, the old price riots began in the Covent Garden Theatre in London during the opening night of Macbeth in protest at increased prices at the newly reopened venue. The original theatre had burned down, and when it reopened standard ticket prices had increased from 3 shillings and sixpence to 4 shillings. After the play ended, the audience refused to leave so the owner, John Kemble, called police, however this escalated the situation and rioters did not disperse until 2 AM. Kemble later hired a famous boxer and some of his associates to quell the protests, but this also failed and resulted in increased violence. Protests and disorder, heavily imbued with humour and merriment, continued for 64 days until Kemble reverted his prices and issued an apology.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9052/old-price-riots

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