Today in labor history: Miners' National Association forms
It sought to unite all miners as workers in a single industrial union, regardless of skill level or ethnicity.
Miners reach retiree settlement with Patriot Coal
TRIANGLE, Va.- The United Mine Workers of America has reached a global settlement with Peabody Energy and Patriot Coal that will provide funding of more than $400 million to cover future health care benefits for retirees affected by the bankruptcy of Patriot Coal.
Supreme Court moves to aid union busters again
The justices will hear a case about whether union-represented home health care workers must pay for the union's services.
Today in Latino History: Cuba declares independence from Spain
The revolt was led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. Céspedes, himself a plantation owner, freed his slaves and invited them to join the rebellion.
Today in labor history: Labor journalist Mary Heaton Vorse is born
She reported on the Lawrence textile strike, the steel strike of 1919, the textile workers strike of 1934, and coal strikes in Harlan County, Kentucky. After reporting on the Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, N. C., in 1929, she wrote her famous novel, "Strike!"
Oct. 8 in Labor History: The Great Chicago Fire
In addition to 300 dead there were 100,000 left homeless. When the fire destroyed the waterworks, the city's water supply was cut off and the firefighters were forced to give up.
Report: Nissan in Mississippi is violating international labor law
The company is in violation of the standards on freedom of association, the report notes, because of Nissan's "aggressive interference" with workers attempting to exercise their fundamental right to organize a union.
Today in Latino history: Slavery abolished in Cuba
Slavery was finally abolished in Cuba by Spanish royal decree that also made an indentured servitude system, known as "patronato," illegal.
UAW on verge of breakthrough in South?
There are now so many auto workers in the South that one Southern U.S. GOP senator recently claimed his region is now the center of the U.S. auto industry.
Senator: Coal mine owners treat workers as "property"
WASHINGTON (PAI)-The nation's coal mine owners "so victimize" their workers that the workers "come as close to being property as anyone I can imagine," a leading congressional advocate for the miners says.
