Today in labor history

[Omaha Steve]

April 14

April 14, 1894 - American Railway Union President Eugene V. Debs spoke to a mass meeting at Labor Hall in downtown St. Paul. In his remarks and speeches later that week, Debs urged solidarity among all workers and rallied support for the workers on strike against the Great Northern railroad.

April 14, 1930 - More than 100 farm workers were arrested for their unionizing activities in Imperial Valley, California. Eight were subsequently convicted of “criminal syndicalism.”



April 14, 1939 - John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” was published. The novel of social protest dramatized the story of “Okies” – workers who migrated from Oklahoma’s dust bowl to the groves of California – and experienced tremendous hardships and exploitation along the way.