Work. It’s what most of us have to do to For example, the month on selling reminds us that being a sales person earn the money we need to live. Ideally, – like being a chancellor, for that matter – that “listening is the most it’s also what we enjoy doing. For some important part of the job.” of us, it defines who we are and aspire to become. Turn to the month on health care and you’ll find a dedicated nurse who says, “When you are a nurse” – and I would add, when you are The poets, lyricists, authors and union a teacher – “you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will leaders you’ll find in the 2016 CUNY/ touch yours.” New York Times in Education calen- dar and website expand upon the chang- This Working People calendar and website were guided by Jay ing interpretations of work throughout Hershenson, the University’s Senior Vice Chancellor for University the history of the United States. Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, and by President Gail O. Mellow of LaGuardia Community College. As always, they turned Working People is the 13th such collaboration between The City Univer- to Richard K. Lieberman, director of the LaGuardia and Wagner sity of New York and The New York Times in Education. This year Archives at LaGuardia Community College, to implement their vision, we’re pleased to welcome a new partner, the New York City Central Labor develop the calendar and help plan appropriate outreach. Council, whose president, Vincent Alvarez, and policy associate, Alexander Gleason, enthusiastically joined in developing this project. Published as technology, globalization and, yes, higher education are helping to change the very nature of work in America, this calendar There’s a good deal of practical wisdom in these pages, whose under offers a timely and welcome opportunity to review the complex, perva- lying theme is that all workers need to be valued, respected and treated with sive and often forgotten role of all the workers in our country and to dignity. celebrate their achievements, sacrifices and triumphs. James B. Milliken Chancellor Women’s Land Army Filipino workers packing pineapples into cans Chopping cotton on rented land near White Plains, Unloading meat in wholesale district, Omaha, Neb., 1938. Hygrade Meat Products sales force, Brooklyn, N.Y., Filipino crew of 55 boys cutting and Training School at the in Hawaii, 1928. Greene County, Ga., 1939. c. 1935. loading lettuce, Imperial Valley, Calif., University of Virginia, 1937. c. 1918. Milestones for WORKING PEOPLE: A history of labor in the United States Company, which capitalizes textile mills in Waltham, Mass. The Lowell mills are the hour week in the 1930s. Upon its demise in 1968 it is the nation’s oldest lasting union. first industrial manufacturing plants in the U. S. Construction begins in 1821 and by October 1852 Longshoreman’s United Benevolent Society acts to secure water- 1840 more than 8,000 people, mostly women, work there. 1600s front jobs for its mostly white and Irish membership, thereby limiting job opportunities December 23, 1662 Slave labor is codified as an inherited condition in Virginia, October 31, 1829 The Workingmen’s Party is established in New York City for African Americans and increasing tensions between blacks and Irish in New establishing race-based slavery as a perpetual labor system in America. linking the political process and labor issues. York City. By 1855 Irish men and women largely displace African American workers in New York on the docks and in service work. October 17, 1677 The first recorded prosecution against strikers sees 12 cartmen in November 25, 1833 Representatives of nine craft unions in New York led by New York City lose their right to cart goods until they pay a fine for “not obeyeing John Commerford form the General Trades Union of the City of New York November 10, 1853 The New-York Tribune first uses the moniker “Know Comand and Doing their Dutyes as becomes them in their Places.” (GTU). Within three years, two-thirds of the city’s workingmen are organized, Nothing” to refer to the emergent anti-immigrant political movement embraced by although the union bans women and blacks. many native-born workers. The “Know Nothings” blame immigrants for lowering wages and destroying the artisan trades by engaging in “slop” work in the nation’s 1834 First protest of “mill girls” working the looms at Lowell, Mass., in response to growing factories. 1700s wagecuts. November 5, 1857 15,000 unemployed workers gather in Tompkins Square 1834 National Trades Union (NTU) is formed, an early attempt by workers to demanding New York City create public works jobs and other relief from the Panic January 28, 1734 First colonial women’s labor organization is formed by New establish a unified national voice. Before the NTU, skill-based labor unions had of 1857. Although the City Council rejects Mayor Fernando Wood’s call for direct York maidservants to protect against abuses from employers. banded together only at the citywide level. relief, the city employs thousands over the next year on new construction projects. May 31, 1786 Philadelphia printers resist an attempt by employers to reduce their July 1835 New York Supreme Court finds in People v. Fisher that journeymen shoe- Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Mass., collapses, killing 91 and wages and pledge to support their fellow tradesmen who lose their jobs as a result. It is makers from Geneva, N.Y. conspired to restrain trade by organizing themselves and January 10, 1860 injuring 120. It has been called the “First major industrial accident in the United the first strike for better wages by employees against employers in the United States, striking for higher wages. and the first “strike fund” commitment. States.” January 3, 1837 Benjamin W. M’Cready publishes On the Influence of Trades, Merchant capitalists seeking cheaper labor in rural villages May 1791 Philadelphia carpenters strike for a 10-hour day; the beginning of the Professions, and Occupations in the United States in the Production of Disease, introducing February 22, 1860 precipitates the Great Shoe Strike among skilled shoemakers in Lynn, Mass. and movement for a fixed definition of the workday. Working sun-up to sundown was the working conditions and occupational health issues into the consciousness of the across New England. By the end of the month more than 20,000 strike. standard at the time. To maximize output and limit wages, employers would pay a day medical community for the first time. rate for the long summer days, but a piece rate in the winter. January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, the first March 31, 1840 President Van Buren establishes 10-hour workday for federal employees. step on the path to the end of slave labor in the United States. March 1842 In Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Freed black women working as laundresses in Jackson, Miss. 1800s declares for the first time that workers organizing to promote their own interests does June 18, 1866 collectively establish a fixed set of prices for their services. not necessarily constitute a conspiracy, freeing unions from certain prosecution. November 1, 1805 Grand jury indicts Philadelphia shoemakers on charge of September 8, 1868 Bessemer Steel’s first “blow” is made at the Cleveland conspiracy “to raise wages.” Similar charges leveled against organized workers in March 3, 1842 Massachusetts governor signs the first bill limiting children’s work Rolling Mills, inaugurating an American industrial revolution. The cities of 1810 in New York City and in 1815 in Pittsburgh. in factories to 10 hours per day (for children under 12). Other states soon pass similar Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago would soon anchor the new industrial laws, but they are not consistently enforced. March 2, 1807 Congress passes legislation banning importation of African slaves heartland of the nation. to the United State. The law goes into effect January 1, 1808. May 5, 1852 The National Typographical Union (renamed the International Typo- Colored National Labor Union formed — the first national graphical Union) is founded. It introduces the 48-hour work week in 1897 and the 40- December 6, 1869 February 23, 1813 Francis Cabot Lowell founds the Boston Manufacturing organization of black labor. Nat King Cole and his trio performing at the New York City street sweeper, 1896. Rag Pickers, New York City, 1896. Unloading bananas from boat, Pier 13, New York City Central Labor Council leader Vincent Building the first post-war Zanzibar in New York City, 1946. East River, New York City, c. 1941. Alvarez, 2015. Emerson Radios, New York, 1945. page 1 Fish vendor, Augusta, Ga., 1909. Procession of Victuallers of Philadelphia, 1821, painting by Joseph Yeager. Japanese-American railroad workers on the Welders on the way to their job at the Todd Erie Basin dry WPA vocational school in Washington, D.C., Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company line in dock during World War II, 1943. working on airplane engines, 1942. Washington State, n.d. July 14, 1877 A third wage cut by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad sparks the 1892 The Workmen’s Circle, a mutual aid society for Jewish workers founded on 1800s Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen to initiate the Great Railroad socialist principles, holds its first meeting; by 1925 the group boasts 85,000 members. Strike of 1877. Spreading from West Virginia to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, July 6, 1892 Armed battle between strikers and Pinkerton strike breakers at December 28, 1869 Philadelphia tailors found the Knights of Labor (KoL) in and Missouri, this first nationwide strike shuts down about two-thirds of all rail lines in Homestead, Pa.