Today in labor history July 08 On this day in 1862, labor organizer Ella Reeve Bloor was born

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July 08

First anthracite coal strike in U.S. - 1842


Labor organizer Ella Reeve “Mother” Bloor born on Staten Island, NY. Among her activities: investigating child labor in glass factories and mines, and working undercover in meat packing plants to verify for federal investigators the nightmarish working conditions that author Upton Sinclair had revealed in “The Jungle” (also his expose of immigrants' exploitation by Chicago meatpackers.)- 1862

Founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W., or Wobblies) concludes in Chicago. Charles O. Sherman, a former American Federation of Labor organizer, is elected president - 1905