Vol. 75/No. 47      December 26, 2011

But when 300 workers at Okeelanta went on strike, the owners called in the local police. Hundreds of cops arrived in the labor camp and attacked the workers.

Almost all of the striking workers decided to fly home rather than continue working under existing conditions.  
 
December 25, 1961
The recent AFL-CIO convention began with a speech by President John F. Kennedy. It was an appeal for support from the union leaders for the administration’s program of putting U.S. business in a better competitive position with the European Common Market economies. An essential part of this program, according to Kennedy, is “restraint” in wage demands on the part of unions.

Kennedy said that if more European trade were lost, the government would have to withdraw its troops from foreign bases in order to stop the drain on U.S. gold reserves.

AFL-CIO president George Meany took the floor after Kennedy finished to say, “Don’t worry about us. We will cooperate one thousand percent.”
 
December 26, 1936
Early settlement of the maritime strike on terms complying with the basic demands of all the unions was forecast this week by the agreement offered to the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific.

The sailors’ agreement, which has already been informally approved by a membership meeting attended by 2,000 union members, will be sent out for a coast-wide referendum, with all indication of a virtually unanimous vote of approval. The agreement will not be formally signed until satisfactory agreements are concluded with all the striking unions. This is the solidarity principle of the Federation.

In the last analysis the picket line decides the issue of a strike. Negotiations only formally ratify it.  
 
 
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