Labor Suppression
The Labor Suppression capture lane traces 335 verified events documenting this mechanism of institutional capture.
Activity over time
Events per year
| Date | Event | Lanes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968-04-04 | Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated in Memphis While Supporting Striking Sanitation Workers Martin Luther King Jr. · James Earl Ray · Federal Bureau of Investigation · Memphis Police | confirmed | |
| 1967-12-15 | Age Discrimination in Employment Act Protects Workers Over 40 from Job Discrimination President Lyndon B. Johnson · U.S. Congress · Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz · U.S. Chamber of Commerce | confirmed | |
| 1964-12-31 | Bracero Program Ends After 22 Years - Farm Wages Immediately Jump 40% U.S. Congress · United Farm Workers · Labor reformers · Civil rights organizations | confirmed | |
| 1964-01-01 | Goldwater Presidential Campaign Mobilizes Business Coalition and Establishes Conservative Infrastructure Barry Goldwater · John M. Ashbrook · William A. Rusher · F. Clifton White · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1962-09-30 | Cesar Chavez Founds NFWA, Begins Farmworker Organizing Campaign Cesar Chavez · Dolores Huerta · National Farm Workers Association · Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee | confirmed | |
| 1962-01-17 | Kennedy Executive Order 10988 Grants Federal Workers Collective Bargaining Rights John F. Kennedy · American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees · Federal employees · Jerry Wurf | confirmed | |
| 1960-01-01 | U.S. Chamber of Commerce Reaches 2.5 Million Members Through Anti-Communist Mobilization U.S. Chamber of Commerce · American Legion | confirmed | |
| 1959-09-14 | Landrum-Griffin Act Imposes Federal Restrictions on Union Internal Operations U.S. Congress · U.S. Department of Labor · Labor unions · Phil Landrum · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1955-12-05 | AFL-CIO Merger Consolidates Labor Movement, But Cements Conservative Leadership George Meany · Walter Reuther · American Federation of Labor · Congress of Industrial Organizations · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1955-01-01 | National Right to Work Committee Founded to Coordinate Anti-Union Corporate Lobbying Fred A. Hartley · National Right to Work Committee · Corporate funders · Conservative donors | confirmed | |
| 1954-09-01 | Communist Control Act Bans Party Members from Union Leadership, Weaponizing Anti-Communism Against Labor U.S. Congress · Dwight D. Eisenhower · House Un-American Activities Committee · American Federation of Labor · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1954-04-12 | AEC Security Hearing Against Oppenheimer Begins Targeting Manhattan Project Director J. Robert Oppenheimer · Lewis Strauss · Gordon Gray · J. Edgar Hoover · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1954-01-01 | Union Membership Reaches Peak of 35% of Workforce, Enabling Shared Prosperity American workers · AFL-CIO · United Auto Workers · United Steelworkers · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1953-04-16 | Eisenhower's "Chance for Peace" Speech - Every Gun Made Is a Theft From Those Who Hunger Dwight D. Eisenhower | confirmed | |
| 1951-03-29 | Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Convicted of Espionage in Controversial Red Scare Trial Julius Rosenberg · Ethel Rosenberg · David Greenglass · Ruth Greenglass · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1950-05-23 | Treaty of Detroit - GM-UAW Contract Establishes Labor Containment Model General Motors · United Auto Workers · Walter Reuther · Charles Wilson | confirmed | |
| 1950-04-07 | NSC-68 Directive Creates Permanent Military-Industrial Establishment - Defense Spending to Triple Harry S. Truman · Paul Nitze · Dean Acheson · George Kennan · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1950-02-09 | McCarthy Wheeling Speech Claims 205 Communists in State Department Launching Witch Hunt Joseph McCarthy · Harry S. Truman | confirmed | |
| 1950-01-01 | Corporate Anti-Communist Network Coordinates Labor Suppression Through NAM, Chamber of Commerce Infrastructure National Association of Manufacturers · U.S. Chamber of Commerce · American Legion · J.B. Matthews · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1949-11-15 | CIO Expels United Electrical Workers and Farm Equipment Workers, Beginning Purge of Communist-Led Unions Congress of Industrial Organizations · Philip Murray · Walter Reuther · United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1947-06-23 | Taft-Hartley Act Severely Restricts Union Power, Enables State Right-to-Work Laws Robert Taft · Fred Hartley · Republican Party · Harry Truman · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1945-11-21 | Largest Strike Wave in U.S. History Begins as 5 Million Workers Walk Out United Auto Workers · United Mine Workers · United Steelworkers · Walter Reuther · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1943-04-08 | Hold the Line Order Freezes Wages While Corporate Profits Soar Franklin D. Roosevelt · National War Labor Board · Office of Price Administration · AFL · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1942-08-04 | Bracero Program Begins 22-Year Guest Worker Exploitation System U.S. Department of Labor · Mexican Government · Agricultural employers · Railroad companies | confirmed | |
| 1942-01-12 | National War Labor Board Established, No-Strike Pledge Constrains Unions Franklin D. Roosevelt · National War Labor Board · AFL · CIO · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1942-01-01 | Bracero Program Wage Theft - Wells Fargo Transfers $32 Million That Disappears in Mexico Wells Fargo Bank · Bank of Mexico · Banco de Credito Agricola · Mexican Government · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1939-02-27 | Supreme Court Rules in NLRB v. Fansteel That Sit-Down Strikers Can Be Lawfully Fired Despite Employer Violations Supreme Court of the United States · National Labor Relations Board · Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation · organized labor · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1938-07-30 | Henry Ford Receives Nazi Grand Cross of the German Eagle on 75th Birthday, Hitler's Highest Honor for Foreigners Henry Ford · Adolf Hitler · Ford Motor Company · Nazi Germany | confirmed | |
| 1938-06-25 | Fair Labor Standards Act Passes Over Fierce Business and Southern Opposition to Minimum Wage and Child Labor Ban Franklin D. Roosevelt · Frances Perkins · Hugo Black · U.S. Congress · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1938-05-26 | Dies Committee (HUAC) Formed by Conservative Democrats to Discredit New Deal as Communist Infiltration Martin Dies Jr. · John Garner · U.S. House of Representatives · Franklin D. Roosevelt | confirmed | |
| 1937-06-19 | Little Steel Strike - Steel Companies Defy Wagner Act, Refuse Union Recognition Despite Legal Obligation Republic Steel · Tom Girdler · Bethlehem Steel · Youngstown Sheet and Tube · +4 | confirmed | |
| 1937-06-01 | IBM's Thomas Watson Receives Nazi Merit Cross of the German Eagle as IBM Profits from Punch Card Technology Thomas J. Watson · Adolf Hitler · IBM · Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen GmbH (Dehomag) · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1937-05-30 | Memorial Day Massacre - Chicago Police Kill Ten Strikers and Wound 90 at Republic Steel Using Corporate-Supplied Weapons Chicago Police Department · Republic Steel Corporation · Steel Workers Organizing Committee · striking workers · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1937-05-26 | Battle of the Overpass - Ford Motor Company Thugs Brutally Attack UAW Organizers in Planned Assault at River Rouge Ford Motor Company · Harry Bennett · Ford Service Department · United Auto Workers · +4 | confirmed | |
| 1937-03-29 | West Coast Hotel v. Parrish - "Switch in Time" Supreme Court Upholds State Minimum Wage Law Supreme Court of the United States · Owen Roberts · Charles Evans Hughes · Franklin D. Roosevelt · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1937-02-11 | General Motors Capitulates to UAW After 44-Day Flint Sit-Down Strike, Recognizing Union in Historic Labor Victory United Auto Workers · General Motors · Alfred Sloan Jr. · William Knudsen · +3 | confirmed | |
| 1937-01-11 | Battle of the Running Bulls - Flint Police and GM Security Forces Attack Sit-Down Strikers with Tear Gas and Gunfire United Auto Workers · Flint Police Department · General Motors security forces · Fisher Body Plant 2 strikers · +3 | confirmed | |
| 1936-12-30 | UAW Autoworkers Launch Historic Flint Sit-Down Strike Against General Motors, Occupying Fisher Body Plants United Auto Workers · General Motors · Fisher Body workers · Bob Travis · +5 | confirmed | |
| 1936-09-01 | Mohawk Valley Formula Exposed as Corporate Blueprint for Breaking Unions and Evading Wagner Act Remington Rand · James Rand Jr. · National Association of Manufacturers · La Follette Committee · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1936-06-06 | La Follette Civil Liberties Committee Begins Investigation Exposing Corporate Union-Busting and Industrial Espionage Robert La Follette Jr. · U.S. Senate · Pinkerton Detective Agency · Burns Detective Agency · +4 | confirmed | |
| 1936-01-15 | La Follette Committee Exposes Pinkerton and Burns Detective Agencies' Massive Labor Espionage Network La Follette Committee · Pinkerton Detective Agency · Burns Detective Agency · Corporations Service Bureau · +3 | confirmed | |
| 1935-11-09 | Congress of Industrial Organizations Founded, Challenges AFL Craft Unionism John L. Lewis · United Mine Workers of America · Sidney Hillman · David Dubinsky · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1935-07-05 | Wagner Act Establishes Federal Protection for Union Rights and Collective Bargaining Franklin D. Roosevelt · Robert Wagner · U.S. Congress · National Labor Relations Board · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1933-03-31 | Civilian Conservation Corps Created as First Federal Youth Employment Program Franklin D. Roosevelt · U.S. Congress · Robert Fechner · U.S. Army · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1927-08-23 | Sacco and Vanzetti Executed After Seven Years of Biased Proceedings Nicola Sacco · Bartolomeo Vanzetti · Alvin Fuller · A. Lawrence Lowell · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1927-04-11 | Supreme Court Applies Antitrust Law to Union Secondary Boycotts in Bedford Cut Stone George Sutherland · U.S. Supreme Court · Journeymen Stone Cutters Association · Bedford Cut Stone Company | confirmed | |
| 1927-01-01 | Company Unions Peak as Welfare Capitalism Undermines Independent Labor Goodyear Tire · U.S. Steel · National Association of Manufacturers · Samuel Gompers | confirmed | |
| 1925-06-08 | Supreme Court Upholds Criminal Anarchy Conviction While Expanding Due Process Edward Sanford · Benjamin Gitlow · U.S. Supreme Court · Oliver Wendell Holmes | confirmed | |
| 1925-05-25 | Supreme Court Reverses Coronado Decision, Opens Unions to Antitrust Liability William Howard Taft · U.S. Supreme Court · United Mine Workers of America · Coronado Coal Company | confirmed | |
| 1924-01-15 | National Industrial Conference Board Coordinates Corporate Anti-Union Propaganda National Industrial Conference Board · National Association of Manufacturers · U.S. Chamber of Commerce · American Plan Association | confirmed | |
| 1923-04-09 | Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Minimum Wage Law for Women in Adkins Decision George Sutherland · U.S. Supreme Court · Children's Hospital · Willie Lyons | confirmed | |
| 1922-09-01 | Railway Shopcraft Strike Broken by Daugherty Sweeping Injunction Harry Daugherty · Warren G. Harding · Railroad Labor Board | confirmed | |
| 1922-06-05 | Supreme Court Rules Unincorporated Unions Can Be Sued in Coronado Coal Case William Howard Taft · U.S. Supreme Court · United Mine Workers of America · Coronado Coal Company | confirmed | |
| 1922-05-15 | Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Child Labor Tax as Unconstitutional William Howard Taft · U.S. Supreme Court · U.S. Congress · Drexel Furniture Company | confirmed | |
| 1921-12-19 | Supreme Court Invalidates Arizona Anti-Injunction Law in Truax v. Corrigan William Howard Taft · U.S. Supreme Court · Arizona State Legislature | confirmed | |
| 1921-08-25 | Battle of Blair Mountain - Largest Armed Labor Uprising in US History United Mine Workers of America · Sheriff Don Chafin · Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency · President Warren Harding | confirmed | |
| 1921-05-19 | Emergency Quota Act Establishes First Numerical Immigration Limits Based on National Origin Warren G. Harding · Albert Johnson · U.S. Congress · Immigration Restriction League | confirmed | |
| 1921-01-03 | Supreme Court Guts Clayton Act Labor Protections in Duplex Printing Decision Mahlon Pitney · U.S. Supreme Court · International Association of Machinists · Duplex Printing Press Company | confirmed | |
| 1921-01-01 | American Plan Open Shop Campaign Launches Nationwide Union Suppression National Association of Manufacturers · U.S. Chamber of Commerce · U.S. Steel · Henry Clay Frick · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1920-08-23 | Sacco and Vanzetti Arrested in Red Scare Climate of Anti-Immigrant Hysteria Nicola Sacco · Bartolomeo Vanzetti · Frederick Katzmann · Webster Thayer · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1919-11-11 | American Legion Founded with Corporate Backing as Anti-Radical Force Theodore Roosevelt Jr. · Hamilton Fish III · George White · American Legion | confirmed | |
| 1919-09-22 | Great Steel Strike Crushed Using Red Scare Propaganda, Palmer Raids American Federation of Labor · United States Steel Corporation · Elbert H. Gary · Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1918-06-03 | Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Child Labor Law in Hammer v. Dagenhart U.S. Supreme Court · Justice William R. Day · Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. | confirmed | |
| 1917-12-10 | Hitchman Coal v. Mitchell: Supreme Court Authorizes Injunctions to Enforce Yellow-Dog Contracts Supreme Court of the United States · Justice Mahlon Pitney · United Mine Workers of America · Hitchman Coal and Coke Company | confirmed | |
| 1917-11-14 | Night of Terror as 33 Suffragists Brutalized at Occoquan Workhouse by Prison Guards Lucy Burns · Dora Lewis · Alice Cosu · W. H. Whittaker · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1917-08-01 | Frank Little Lynched: IWW Executive Board Member Murdered by Vigilantes in Butte Frank Little · Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) · Anaconda Copper Mining Company · Butte vigilantes | confirmed | |
| 1917-07-12 | Bisbee Deportation: Phelps Dodge and Vigilantes Illegally Deport 1,300 Striking Miners Phelps Dodge Corporation · Walter Douglas · Sheriff Harry Wheeler · Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1917-06-08 | Speculator Mine Fire Kills 168 Workers: Anaconda Safety Failures Trigger Butte Strike and Repression Anaconda Copper Mining Company · Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) · Metal Mine Workers' Union · Montana National Guard | confirmed | |
| 1917-01-10 | National Woman's Party Begins Historic White House Picketing as Silent Sentinels Alice Paul · Lucy Burns · National Woman's Party · Woodrow Wilson | confirmed | |
| 1916-11-14 | Inez Milholland Dies During Western Suffrage Tour Becoming Martyr for the Cause Inez Milholland · National Woman's Party · Alice Paul | confirmed | |
| 1916-11-05 | Everett Massacre: Lumber Company Vigilantes Kill IWW Members at City Dock Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) · Everett Commercial Club · Sheriff Donald McRae · Weyerhaeuser Company | confirmed | |
| 1916-09-03 | Adamson Act Establishes Eight-Hour Workday for Railroad Workers President Woodrow Wilson · Representative William C. Adamson · Railroad Labor Brotherhoods · Austin B. Garretson · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1916-09-01 | Keating-Owen Child Labor Act Passed, First Federal Child Labor Restriction U.S. Congress · President Woodrow Wilson | confirmed | |
| 1914-04-20 | Ludlow Massacre - National Guard Attacks Striking Miners, Kills 21 Including Women and Children Colorado National Guard · Colorado Fuel and Iron Company · United Mine Workers of America · John D. Rockefeller Jr. · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1913-08-03 | Wheatland Hop Riot: IWW Farmworkers Protest Conditions, Deputies Kill Four, Leaders Framed Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) · Blackie Ford · Herman Suhr · Ralph Durst · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1913-02-25 | Paterson Silk Strike: IWW Leads 25,000 Workers in Five-Month Struggle Against Textile Manufacturers Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) · Big Bill Haywood · Elizabeth Gurley Flynn · Carlo Tresca · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1912-04-18 | Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Mine War: West Virginia Declares Martial Law, Mother Jones Imprisoned United Mine Workers of America · Mary Harris Jones · Governor William Glasscock · Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1911-03-25 | Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Kills 146, Exposes Corporate Negligence Triangle Waist Company · New York Factory Investigating Commission · Frances Perkins · International Ladies Garment Workers Union | confirmed | |
| 1911-02-24 | Buck's Stove Case: Gompers, Mitchell, Morrison Sentenced for Contempt, Boycotts Criminalized Samuel Gompers · John Mitchell · Frank Morrison · American Federation of Labor · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1908-02-03 | Supreme Court Loewe v. Lawlor Decision Holds Union Members Personally Liable for Damages U.S. Supreme Court · Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller · United Hatters of North America · D.E. Loewe & Company · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1908-01-27 | Adair v. United States: Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Ban on Yellow-Dog Contracts Supreme Court of the United States · Justice John Marshall Harlan · William Adair · Louisville and Nashville Railroad | confirmed | |
| 1906-02-26 | Upton Sinclair Publishes "The Jungle" Exposing Meatpacking Industry Horrors Upton Sinclair · Doubleday · Appeal to Reason | confirmed | |
| 1905-06-27 | Industrial Workers of the World Founded, Challenges AFL Craft Unionism William "Big Bill" Haywood · Eugene V. Debs · Mother Jones · Lucy Parsons · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1905-04-17 | Supreme Court Strikes Down Labor Protections in Lochner v. New York U.S. Supreme Court · Justice Rufus Peckham · Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. · Justice John Harlan · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1904-01-01 | Lincoln Steffens Publishes "The Shame of the Cities" Exposing Municipal Corruption Lincoln Steffens · McClure's Magazine | confirmed | |
| 1902-10-03 | Roosevelt Intervenes in Coal Strike as Neutral Arbitrator, Origins of Square Deal Theodore Roosevelt · John Mitchell · J.P. Morgan · Elihu Root · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1902-05-12 | Anthracite Coal Strike Begins in Pennsylvania, 147,000 Miners Walk Out United Mine Workers · John Mitchell · Theodore Roosevelt · Railroad companies · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1897-09-10 | Lattimer Massacre - 19 Unarmed Immigrant Strikers Killed by Sheriff's Posse Sheriff James Martin · Luzerne County deputies · United Mine Workers · Immigrant miners · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1895-05-27 | Supreme Court In Re Debs Decision Upholds Federal Injunctions Against Strikes U.S. Supreme Court · Justice David Josiah Brewer · Eugene V. Debs · Federal Judiciary · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1894-07-03 | Federal Troops Crush Pullman Strike, Imprison Eugene Debs Eugene V. Debs · American Railway Union · President Grover Cleveland · Attorney General Richard Olney · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1894-05-11 | Pullman Strike Begins After Company Town Wage Cuts Without Rent Reductions George Pullman · Eugene V. Debs · American Railway Union · Grover Cleveland · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1894-02-07 | Cripple Creek Miners Strike Achieves Rare Victory Through Governor Intervention Western Federation of Miners · Governor Davis Hanson Waite · Colorado State Militia · John Calderwood · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1893-05-15 | Western Federation of Miners Founded After Coeur d'Alene Massacre Western Federation of Miners · Butte miners · Coeur d'Alene strikers · Mining industry workers | confirmed | |
| 1892-11-08 | New Orleans General Strike: 30,000 Workers Achieve Interracial Labor Victory Workingmen's Amalgamated Council · Triple Alliance · New Orleans Board of Trade · American Federation of Labor | confirmed | |
| 1892-07-11 | Coeur d'Alene Miners Strike Violence Triggers Martial Law, 600 Imprisoned Without Trial Western Federation of Miners · Pinkerton Detective Agency · Idaho National Guard · U.S. Army · +3 | confirmed | |
| 1892-07-06 | Homestead Strike Battle Between Workers and Pinkerton Agents Leaves 10 Dead Andrew Carnegie · Henry Clay Frick · Pinkerton Detective Agency · Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers · +2 | confirmed | |
| 1892-01-01 | Pinkerton Detective Agency Operates as Private Corporate Army Against Unions Pinkerton National Detective Agency · Allan Pinkerton · Corporate employers · State Governments · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1891-07-15 | Coal Creek War Begins: Miners Free Convict Laborers, Attack Lease System Tennessee Coal Mining Company · Knoxville Iron Company · Tennessee Miners · John P. Buchanan · +1 | confirmed | |
| 1886-12-08 | American Federation of Labor Founded on Craft Union Model Excluding Unskilled Workers Samuel Gompers · Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions · Knights of Labor · Craft unions | confirmed | |
| 1886-05-04 | Haymarket Affair Bombing and Police Violence Trigger Massive Anti-Labor Backlash Chicago Police Department · Albert Parsons · Lucy Parsons · August Spies · +4 | confirmed |