Yesterday, Pinkerton Thugs. Today, PR Sleazebags

Yesterday, Pinkerton Thugs. Today, PR Sleazebags

by Tula Connell, Jul 6, 2007

Today’s labor history note from the Collective Bargaining Digest brings to mind that although anti-worker corporate attacks may change forms over the years, at base, they’re all the same. At the turn of the 20th century, workers faced head-busting Pinkertons. Now, we battle expensive ad attacks by the multimillion dollar union-busting industry.

On this day in 1892, two barges, loaded with Pinkerton thugs hired by the Carnegie Steel Co., landed on the south bank of the Monongahela River in Homestead, Pa., seeking to occupy Carnegie Steel Works, and put down a strike by members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers.

And on July 7, 1903, Mother Jones began “The March of the Mill Children.” Accompanied part of the way by children, she walked from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt’s home on Long Island to protest the plight of child laborers.

One of her demands: Reduce the childrens’ work week to 55 hours.