Friday, February 1, 2008

This Date in Arkansas Labor History


February 1, 1886. Beginning of the labor press in Arkansas. The Industrial Liberator, official organ of the Arkansas Assembly of the Knights of Labor, published by the Industrial Printing Company with Daniel F Thompson as editor.

February 1, 1899. Strike by miners throughout Sebastian county. Kansas & Texas Coal Company at Huntington quickly responded and increased tensions when it "employed a great many negroes...shipped by carloads from other counties...to fill the places of the strikers."

February 1, 1909. Legislative Act requires corporations doing business in Arkansas to pay employees semi-monthly, to secure frequent payment of wages earned to those who are dependent on their wages for their livelihood.

February 1, 1954. Arkansas Supreme Court holds there is no constitutional prohibition against a labor union bargaining away the right to strike or picket and upholds an injunction against Sheet Metal Workers Local No. 249.

February 1, 1935. Volunteer organizer Bob Reed dragged from Southern Tenant Farmers Union meeting in church at Gilmore and pistol-whipped by plantation riding bosses.

February 1, 1941. President J. R. Butler and Secretary Blaine Treadway report to 7th annual Southern Tenant Farmers Union convention in Little Rock that government ownership or government financed coops are the only hope for returning displaced sharecroppers to the land.

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