On this day in 1919, the United Mine Workers (UMW) initiated a nationwide strike of more than 400,000 coal miners, demanding better wages and a 30-hour week. The U.S. declared the strike illegal while the media smeared workers as communists.
U.S. Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, the same individual behind the infamous Palmer Raids, declared the strike illegal by invoking the Lever Act, a wartime measure that made it a crime to interfere with the production or transportation of necessities.
The law had never been used against a union before, and in fact American Federation of Labor (AFL) founder Samuel Gompers had been promised by President Woodrow Wilson that the Lever Act would not be used to suppress labor actions.
The strike was subject to Red Scare propaganda: coal operators made false charges that Lenin and Trotsky had ordered the strike and were financing it, and some of the press repeated those claims. Others used words like "insurrection" and "Bolshevik revolution". Because of this propaganda and the Attorney General's injunction against the strike, the UMW called the strike off on November 8th.
Many workers ignored this order, however, and the strike continued for over a month, with a final agreement being reached on December 10th. Workers won a 14% wage increase and the creation of an investigatory commission to mediate wage issues.
The US miners' strikes, 1919-1922 - Jeremy Brecher
:worker
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Okay I've worked at my company for 11 months without ever having my employee status be questioned and then after I got a face piercing, I've gotten security called on me/been badge checked by random co-workers 3 times in the last 2 months what the fuck
Silicon Valley
The answer is simple. get another face piercing or maybe even a face tattoo.
Already planning to get 2 more face piercings over the next couple months
you got a loicence for that fishhook?
Wait what, face piercings aren't even rare in tech? Lol
they weren't that rare in my previous workplaces but the people in my current one are way more conservative and reactionary comparatively
You should get more so you're more recognisable to security
Security was chill, it's the employees that keep calling them on me/asking to see my badge