Today in labor history June 20 Striking African American auto workers attacked by KKK

[Omaha Steve]

June 20

The American Railway Union, headed by Eugene Debs, is founded. In the Pullman strike a year later, the union was defeated by federal injunctions and troops, and Debs was imprisoned for violating the injunctions - 1893

Henry Ford recognizes the United Auto Workers – 1941

Striking African American auto workers attacked by KKK, National Workers League, and armed white workers at Bell Isle amusement park in Detroit. Two days of riots follow, 34 people are killed, more than 1,300 arrested - 1943 image

The Taft-Hartley Labor Management Relations Act, curbing strikes, is vetoed by President Harry S Truman. The veto was overridden three days later by a Republican-controlled Congress – 1947

Oil began traveling through the Alaska pipline. Seventy thousand people worked on building the pipeline, history’s largest privately-financed construction project – 1977