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Dates' Selector PageImportant Years In American Labor History -- 1827 to 1898
1827 -- First city central labor organization, the Mechanics Union of Trade Associations, founded in Philadelphia.
1827 -- The "Mechanics Gazette", the first U.S. labor paper, is published in Philadelphia.
1834 -- First try at establishing a national association of trades; the National Trades Union.
1835 -- Navy Yard Workers in Washington, D.C. strike for shorter hours and general redress of grievances.
1836 -- Philadelphia Navy Yard strike takes place and lasts for several weeks. Where workers were organized, a ten-hour work day was put into effect. Unorganized workers continued to work twelve and fourteen-hour days.
1840 -- President Martin Van Buren orders ten hour day for federal workers.
1850 -- Samuel Gompers is born in London, England.
1852 -- Typographical Union is founded -- a national union that is still in existence.
1859 -- William Sylvis organizes the Iron Molders Union.
1860 -- 800 women and 4,000 workmen marched during a shoemakers' strike in Lynn, Massachusetts.
1861 -- Congress passes law requiring that the hours of labor and rates of wages in Navy Yards be required to conform with those of private establishments in the immediate vicinity of the respective Navy Yards. The principle of "prevailing rates of pay" was established in law.
1862 -- Government Printing Office employees go on strike for the eight-hour work day. The strike lasts for seven weeks. A compromise is reached giving workers an increase in pay but no decrease in working hours.
1862 -- The Navy Department establishes a prevailing rate system for blue collar workers in determining wage rates.
1863 -- President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. All slaves are freed after the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, creating a large new group of workers. Samuel Gompers arrives as an immigrant to the United States.
1865 -- Boston, Massachusetts adopts the first eight-hour work day ordinance for all employees of the City. The rule was soon adopted by the Cities of Detroit, Chicago and New York.
1866 -- National Labor Union is started. With aims too diverse, the Union disappears after only three years.
1867 -- Shoemakers band together as the Knights of Saint Crispin.
1868 -- The eight hour work day is established for federal workers by Congress.
1869 -- The Knights of Labor form and have a history of successes and failures. Even though it lasts into the Twentieth Century, the Knights of Labor has only a small influence after the Haymarket Riot.
1869 -- President Grant issues a Proclamation directing no reduction in wages paid by the Government as a result of reductions in hours of work.
1877 -- Major strikes against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad bring the intervention of federal troops against the strikers.
1877 -- Ten coal mining activists ("Molly Maguires") are hanged in Pennsylvania.
1879 -- The Knights of Labor elect Terence Powderly as Grand Master.
1881 -- Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions begins. The organization is the ancestor of the American Federation of Labor, (AFL).
1883 -- The Civil Service, (Pendleton) Act is adopted. The Act establishes the U.S. Civil Service Commission, provides procedures for competitive examinations and the establishment of the Merit System.
1886 -- Haymarket Square Riot occurs in Chicago, Illinois.
1886 -- The American Federation of Labor, (AFL) is founded.
1890 -- The United Mine Workers is organized. The UMW was not a "trade" union, but an "industrial" union.
1892 -- Homestead steel strike in Pennsylvania.
1894 -- American Railway Union strikes against the Pullman Company. As a result of the strike, Eugene Debs becomes an influential figure in labor history.
1898 -- Machinists and Rock Island Arsenal employees make a complaint on grievances and are fired. A walkout of employees follows.