Today in labor history Mar 7 3,000 Marched on the main Ford plant demanding jobs for laidoff workers

[Omaha Steve]

March 07

6,000 shoemakers, joined by about 20,000 other workers, strike in Lynn, Mass. They won raises, but not recognition of their union - 1860

March 7, 1868 - The Knights of St. Crispin and a companion group of women workers called the Daughters of St. Crispin organized in 1868. Their goal was to try to regulate the use of machinery in the shoe industry, which threatened handcrafted work. Organizing by groups like the Crispins set the stage for the birth of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union.

March 7, 1932 - More than 3,000 people, led by the United Auto Workers union, marched on the main Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, demanding jobs for laidoff Ford workers, a slowdown of the company's assembly line and a halt to evictions of unemployed workers from their homes. A fight broke out and police opened fire with machine guns. Four marchers were killed and 60 were wounded. The "Ford Hunger March" became a symbol of resistance to the capitalist system during the depths of the Great Depression.

IWW founder and labor organizer Lucy Parsons dies - 1942

Musicians strike Broadway musicals and shows go dark when actors and stagehands honor picket lines. The strike was resolved after four days - 2003