This is an ongoing project with Indiana University Labor Studies (labor.iu.edu) and will be updated soon with Indiana specific information! In the mean time see below for the AFL-CIO Labor History Timeline from 1607-2022.

Introduction

From the earliest days of the American colonies, when apprentice laborers in Charleston, S.C., went on strike for better pay in the 1700s, to the first formal union of workers in 1829 who sought to reduce their time on the job to 60 hours a week, our nation’s working people have recognized that joining together is the most effective means of improving their lives on and off the job.

Building a New Nation

1607 English planters found Jamestown colony and complain about lack of laborers

1619 Slaves from Africa first imported to colonies

1664 First slavery codes begin trend of making African servants slaves for life

1676 Bacon’s Rebellion of servants and slaves in Virginia

1677 First recorded prosecution against strikers in New York City

1765 Artisans and laborers in Sons of Liberty protest oppressive British taxes

1770 British troops kill five dock workers in Boston Massacre

1773 Laborers protest royal taxation in the Boston tea Party

1775 American Revolution begins

1786 Philadelphia printers conduct first successful strike for increased wages

1787 Constitution adopted

1791 First strike in building trades by Philadelphia carpenters for a 10-hour day bill of Rights adopted

Struggles for Freedom

1800 Gabriel Prosser’s slave insurrection in Virginia

1805 Philadelphia shoemakers found guilty of conspiracy

1808 Slave importation prohibited

1834 First turnout of “mill girls” in Lowell, Mass., to protect wage cuts

1835 General strike for 10-hour day in Philadelphia

1842 Commonwealth v. Hunt decision frees unions from some prosecutions

1843 Lowell Female Labor Reform Association begins public petitioning for 10-hour day

1847 New Hampshire enacts first state 10-hour-day law

1848 Seneca Falls women’s rights convention

1860 Great shoemaker’s strike in New England

1861 Abraham Lincoln takes office as president and Civil War begins

1863 President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

1865 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery

Origins of Today’s Union Movement

1866 National Labor Union founded

1867 Congress begins reconstruction policy in former slave states

1869 Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor and Colored National Labor Union formed

1870 15th Amendment to the Constitution adopted; states the right to vote may not be abrogated by color

1877 National uprising of railroad workers Ten Irish coal miners (“Molly Maguires”) hanged in Pennsylvania; nine more subsequently were hanged

1881 Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions formedFirst Labor Day parade in New York City

1885 Knights of Labor on the Southwest (or Gould) System: the Missouri Pacific; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas; and the Wabash

1886 American Federation of Labor founded

1887 Seven “anarchists” charged with the bombing in Chicago’s Haymarket Square and sentenced to death

1890 Carpenters President P.J. McGuire and the union strike and win the eight-hour day for some 28,000 members

1892 Iron and steel workers union defeated in lockout at Homestead, Pa.
Integrated general strike in New Orleans succeeds

1894 Boycott of Pullman sleeping cars leads to general strike on railroads1898Erdman Act prohibits discrimination against railroad workers because of union membership and provides for mediation of railway labor disputes

The Progressive Era

1900 AFL and National Civic Federation promote trade agreements with employers
U.S. Industrial Commission declares trade unions good for democracy.

1902 Anthracite strike arbitrated after President Theodore Roosevelt intervenes

1903 Women’s Trade Union League formed at AFL convention

1905 Industrial Workers of the World founded

1908 AFL endorses Democrat William Jennings Bryan for President

1909 “Uprising of the 20,000” female shirtwaist makers in New York strike against sweatshop conditions Unorganized immigrant steel workers strike in McKees Rocks, Pa. and win all demands

1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory in fire in New York kills nearly 150 workers

1912 Bread and Roses strike begun by immigrant women in Lawrence, Mass., ended with 23,000 men and women and children on strike and with as many as 20,000 on the picket line Bill creating Department of Labor passes at the end of congressional session

1913 Woodrow Wilson takes office as president and appoints the first secretary of labor, William B. Wilson of the Mine Workers

1914 Ludlow Massacre of 13 women and children and seven men in Colorado coal miners’ strike

1917 United States enters World War I

1918 Leadership of Industrial Workers of the World sentenced to federal prison on charges of disloyalty to the United States

1919 One of every five workers walked out in great strike wave, including national clothing coal and steel strikes; a general strike in Seattle; and a police strike in Boston International Labor Organization founded in France

Repression and Depression

1920 19th Amendment to the Constitution gives women the right to vote

1924 Samuel Gompers dies; William Green becomes new AFL president

1925 A. Philip Randolph helps create the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

1926 Railway Labor Act sets up procedures to settle railway labor disputes and forbids discrimination against union members

1929 Stock market crashes as stocks fall 40 percent; Great Depression begins

1931 Davis-Bacon Act provides for prevailing wages on publicly funded construction projects

1932 Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits federal injunctions in most labor disputes

1933 President Franklin Roosevelt proposes New Deal programs to Congress

Democratizing America

1934 Upsurge in strikes, including national textile strike, which fails

1935 National Labor Relations Act and Social Security Act passed Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) formed within AFL

1936 AFL and CIO create labor’s Non-Partisan League and help President Roosevelt win re-election to a second term

1937 Auto Workers win sit-down strike against General Motors in Flint, Mich. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters wins contract with Pullman Co.

1938 Fair Labor Standards Act establishes first minimum wage and 40-hour week
Congress of industrial Organizations forms as an independent federation

1940 John L. Lewis resigns and Philip Murray becomes CIO president

1941 A. Philip Randolph threatens march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in defense jobs

1941 U.S. troops enter combat in World War II National War Labor Board created with union members

1943 CIO forms first political action committee to get out the union vote for President Roosevelt

The Fight for Economic and Social Justice

1946 Largest strike wave in U.S. history

1947 Taft-Hartley Act restricts union members’ activities

1949 First two of 11 unions with Communist leaders are purged from CIO

1952 William Green and Philip Murray die; George Meany and Walter Reuther become presidents of AFL and CIO, respectively

1955 AFL and CIO merge; George Meany becomes president

1957 AFL-CIO expels two affiliates for corruption

1959 Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin) passed

1962 President John Kennedy’s order gives federal workers the right to bargain

1963 March on Washington for jobs and Justice Equal Pay Act bans wage discrimination based on gender

1964 Civil Rights Act bans institutional forms of racial discrimination

1965 AFL-CIO forms A. Philip Randolph Institute César Chávez forms AFL-CIO United Farm Workers Organizing Committee

1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., during sanitation workers’ strike

Progress and New Challenges

1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act passed

1972 Coalition of Black Trade Unionists formed

1973 Labor Council for Latin American Advancement founded

1974 Coalition of Labor Union Women founded

1979 Lane Kirkland elected president of AFL-CIO

1981 President Reagan breaks air traffic controllers’s strike AFL-CIO rallies 400,000 in Washington on Solidarity Day

1989 Organizing Institute created

1990 United Mine Workers of America win strike against Pittston Coal
United Steelworkers of America labor Alliance created within the AFL-CIO

1992 Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance created within AFL-CIO

1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was enacted in 1994 and created a free trade zone for Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

1995 Thomas Donahue replaces Lane Kirkland as interim head of AFL-CIO. John Sweeney is elected president of AFL-CIO.

1997 AFL-CIO defeats legislation giving the president the ability to “Fast Track’ trade legislation without assured protection of workers’ rights and the environment

1997 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

1999 More than 75,000 human service workers are unionized in Los Angeles County 30,000 to 50,000 working family activists take to Seattle streets to tell the World Trade Organization and its allies, “If the Global Economy Doesn’t Work for Working Families, It Doesn’t Work” 5,000 North Carolina textile workers gain a union after a 25-year struggle 65,000 Puerto Rico public-sector workers join unions Broad Campaign for Global Fairness pushes for economic and social justice worldwide Union movement organizes biggest program of grassroots electoral politics ever.

2000 AFL-CIO Executive Council calls for reform in the nation’s immigration laws for undocumented workers

2001 Labor unions and community allies enact “living wage” ordinances in 76 communities across the nation. AFL-CIO launches Alliance for Retired Americans to recruit activists and mobilize older Americans.

2002 The AFL-CIO forms the Industrial Union Council. President George W. Bush pledges to strip collective bargaining rights from 170,000 civil servants in the new Transportation Security Administration and denies bargaining rights to airport-security screening personnel

2003 The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department launches the Helmets to Hardhats program

2003 The AFL-CIO establishes Working America to reach out to nonunion members and mobilize workers through door-to-door canvassing in neighborhoods

2005 Change to Win holds its founding convention in St. Louis, created among seven unions previously members of the AFL-CIO

2006 The AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network form a partnership to collaborate with local worker centers on immigration reform and other issues

2008 The AFL-CIO establishes the Union Veterans Council

2009 Richard Trumka elected AFL-CIO president. The first of three unions leave Change to Win to re-affiliate with the AFL-CIO. President Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored the rights of working women to sue over pay discrimination.

2010 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, with the goal of decreasing the number of uninsured citizens and reducing health care costs via tax credits, subsidies, incentives and fees for employers and uninsured individuals.

2016 The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a highly contested proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States was proposed.

2018 11 countries signed the revised version of the TPP agreement, called Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. After ratification by six of them (Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore), the agreement came into force for those countries on 30 December 2018.

2020 The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) is a free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) implemented in 1994, and is sometimes characterized as "NAFTA 2.0", or "New NAFTA", since it largely maintains or updates the provisions of its predecessor went into effect.

2021 President Richard Trumka passes away. Liz Shuler serves as interim head of AFL-CIO.

2022 Liz Shuler is elected president of AFL-CIO. Shuler is the first woman leader of America’s labor movement. Fred Redmond is elected as Secretary Treasurer and is now the highest ranking African American officer in the history of America’s labor movement.