Unions were created to make living conditions just a little better than they were before they were created, and the union that does not manifest that kind of interest in human beings cannot endure.”

Those were the words of Philip Murray, born on this day in Labor History, the year was 1886. Philip Murray was born in Blantyre, Scotland, the son of a union coal miner.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1883. The “eighth wonder of the world, the Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic. 600 men worked on the project, which took 14 years to complete. Between twenty and thirty men died working on the bridge. This included the bridge’s designer, German-born John. A. Roebling.

How can unionized workers and unemployed workers stand together? Perhaps we can look to the past for examples of the power of such solidarity. On this day in Labor History the year was 1934. It was the height of the Great Depression.

On this day Labor History the year was 1895. Labor organizer Eugene V. Debs began a six month prison sentence in Woodstock, Illinois. Debs was the leader of the American Railway Union that had led a nationwide boycott and strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894.

On this day Labor History the year was 1945. That was a very important day for workers on the islands of Hawaii.

It marked the passage of the federal Hawaii Employment Relations Act, more popular known as the “Little Wagner Act.”

On this day Labor History the year was 1926. That was the day President Calvin Coolidge signed the Railway Labor Act.

For decades railroad labor disputes had often become bloody affairs.

On this day Labor History the year was 1920. That year a national coal strike had won unionized miners a twenty-seven percent pay raise. But the miners in West Virginia were not in the union

On this day in labor history, the year was 1979. That was the day an Oklahoma City jury found in favor of the estate of Karen Silkwood. Karen worked as a lab tech at the Cimarron nuclear plant, operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation.