Sign our petition if you want to see good manufacturing jobs stay in the United States; if you want fair trade laws; and if you want America to keep its promise that if you work hard, you can sustain a family and one day retire with dignity.
National Grid is jeopardizing the safety of our communities by locking out 1,100 of its most experienced employees who are critical to ensuring safe and quality gas work in Massachusetts.
1890: The Minnesota State Federation of Labor is formed. Its platform includes the 8-hour day; state inspection of mines and factories; free textbooks for all schoolchildren and state ownership of the railroads, telegraph and telephone system.
1886: Printers in Duluth organize, followed within a few months by the Cigar Makers.
1886: The Knights of Labor, the Northern Alliance, The Grange and the trades assemblies hold a joint convention in St. Paul. The convention calls for creation of a Bureau of Labor Statistics, arbitration of disputes, no child labor in factories or mines and no convict labor contracts.
1884: First shipment of iron ore from the Vermilion Range to the port of Duluth. The Mesabi Range ships its first ore to the port in 1892 and the Cuyuna Range in 1911. From 1900 to 1980, the Mesabi Range contributes about 60 percent of the country’s total iron ore output. The mines are worked mostly by immigrants; the dominant nationalities are Finnish, Swedish, Slovenian and Croatian.
