Today in labor history Dec 5 The "union of unions" was established

[Omaha Steve]

December 05

Unionists John T. and James B. McNamara were sentenced to 15 years and life, respectively, after confessing to dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building during a drive to unionize the metal trades in the city. Twenty people died in the bombing. The newspaper was strongly conservative and anti-union - 1911

December 5, 1955 - The "union of unions" was established when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged into a single trade union center -- the AFL-CIO. The merger ended a 20-year split in the American labor movement growing out of differences over the form trade union organization should take. The merger recognized that both craft and industrial unions are appropriate, equal and necessary as methods of union organization.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney welcomes the collapse of World Trade Organization talks in Seattle, declaring “No deal is better than a bad deal” - 1999