Labor events in the last 50 years

  • Period: to

    50 years of labor

  • AFL-CIO expels two affiliates for corruption

    Affliates are fired for being associated with mobs
  • Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin) passed

  • President John Kennedy's order gives federal workers the right to bargain

  • March on Washington for jobs and Justice, Equal Pay Act bans wage discrimination based on gender

  • Civil Rights Act bans institutional forms of racial discrimination

  • AFL-CIO forms A. Philip Randolph Institute, and César Chávez forms AFL-CIO United Farm Workers Organizing Committee

  • Occupational Safety and Health Act passed

  • Coalition of Black Trade Unionists formed

  • Labor Council for Latin American Advancement founded

  • Coalition of Labor Union Women founded

  • Lane Kirkland elected president of AFL-CIO

  • President Reagan breaks air traffic controllers’s strike , and AFL-CIO rallies 400,000 in Washington on Solidarity Day

  • Organizing Institute created

  • United Mine Workers of America win strike against Pittston Coal, and United Steelworkers of America labor Alliance created within the AFL-CIO

  • Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance created within AFL-CIO

  • Thomas Donahue replaces Lane Kirkland as interim head of AFL-CIO, and now John Sweeney president of AFL-CIO

  • AFL-CIO defeats legislation giving the president the ability to “Fast Track’ trade legislation without assured protection of workers’ rights and the environment

  • Pride at Work, a national coalition of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender workers and their supporters, becomes an AFL-CIO constituency group AFL-CIO membership renewed growth

  • 30,000 union members and activists rally against the United States granting permanent normal trade relations with China.

  • 40,000 union activists and allies protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, the largest anti-globalization mobilization to date.

  • The AFL-CIO forms the Industrial Union Council (IUC) to revitalize manufacturing, combat destructive international trade agreements, and defend workers’ rights.

  • The AFL-CIO establishes Working America to reach out to non-union members and mobilize workers through door-to-door canvassing in neighborhoods.

  • As part of the election year get-out-the-vote effort, some 225,000 union volunteers knock on millions of doors, make 10 million phone calls, and distribute 32 million leaflets

  • Change to Win holds its founding convention in St. Louis, created among seven unions previously members of the AFL-CIO.

  • The AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) form a partnership to collaborate with local worker centers on immigration reform and other issues.

  • The Industrial Union Council led a delegation of 21 North American union leaders to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Bali, Indonesia.

  • The United Steel Workers union (USW) joins with unions in Britain, Ireland, Canada, and the Caribbean to form the global union, Workers Uniting.

  • Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored the rights of working women to sue over pay discrimination.

  • The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) leaves Change to Win and rejoins the AFL-CIO