Today in labor history May 18 (jury finds for the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood)

[Omaha Steve]

May 18


May 18, 1917 - The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen initiated a huge organizing campaign in packinghouses across the United States that brought membership from 6,500 in 1917 to 100,000 two years later.

Big Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), dies in exile in the Soviet Union - 1928

Insurance Agents International Union and Insurance Workers of America merge to become Insurance Workers International Union (later to merge into the UFCW) - 1959

Oklahoma jury finds for the estate of atomic worker Karen Silkwood, orders Kerr-McGee Nuclear Co. to pay $505,000 in actual damages, $10 million in punitive damages for negligence leading to Silkwood’s plutonium contamination - 1979

[pacalo]

1. Thank you, Steve. "Silkwood" was heartbreaking.