Today in labor history Sept 23 Hormel agreed to recognize the Independent Union of All Workers

[Omaha Steve]

First installment of The Other Side, by Martin A. Foran, president of the Coopers’ International Union. Believed to be the first novel by a trade union leader and some say the first working-class novel ever published in the U.S. - 1868



September 23, 1933 - Owner Jay Hormel agreed to recognize the Independent Union of All Workers after workers at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota, massed at the front gate and refused to go in. Labor leader Frank Ellis stood his ground and Hormel relented, signing an agreement before the entire crowd. But it would take a sitdown strike three months later to get the company to implement a badly needed wage increase.


California Gov. Gray Davis (D) signs legislation making the state the first to offer workers paid family leave - 2002