Inspired by events in Boston, unskilled Irish…
June 1835 CE
Inspired by events in Boston, unskilled Irish workers on the Schuylkill River coal wharves the same year go on strike for a ten-hour day.
Three hundred workers march on the coal wharves.
They are led by a worker with a sword who threatens death to anyone who crosses the picket line and unloads coal from the seventy-five vessels waiting in the water.
The coal heavers are soon joined by workers from many other trades, including leather dressers, printers, carpenters, bricklayers, masons, house painters, bakers, and city employees.
Three hundred workers march on the coal wharves.
They are led by a worker with a sword who threatens death to anyone who crosses the picket line and unloads coal from the seventy-five vessels waiting in the water.
The coal heavers are soon joined by workers from many other trades, including leather dressers, printers, carpenters, bricklayers, masons, house painters, bakers, and city employees.
On June 6, a mass meeting of workers, lawyers, doctors, and a few businessmen is held in the State House courtyard.
The meeting unanimously adopts a set of resolutions giving full support to the workers' demand for wage increases and a shorter workday, as well as increased wages for women workers and a boycott of any coal merchant who works his men more than ten hours.
The meeting unanimously adopts a set of resolutions giving full support to the workers' demand for wage increases and a shorter workday, as well as increased wages for women workers and a boycott of any coal merchant who works his men more than ten hours.
The strike quickly comes to a close after city public works employees join the action.
The Philadelphia city government announces that the "hours of labour of the working men employed under the authority of the city corporation will be from 'six to six' during the summers season, allowing one hour for breakfast, and one for dinner."
On June 22, three weeks after the coal heavers initially strike, the ten-hour system and an increase in wages for piece-workers is adopted in the city.
The news of the strikers' success spreads to other cities and wis given large coverage.
The labor press carries the news as far south as the Carolinas, and a wave of successful strikes follows in its wake.
Strikes for the ten-hour day will hit towns such as New Brunswick and Paterson, New Jersey, Batavia and Seneca Falls, New York, Hartford, Connecticut, and Salem, Massachusetts.
By the end of 1835, the ten-hour day will have become the standard for most city laborers who work by the day with the exception of workers in Boston.
Subsequently, the ten-hour day will become an integral part of the labor movement in Europe.
The Philadelphia city government announces that the "hours of labour of the working men employed under the authority of the city corporation will be from 'six to six' during the summers season, allowing one hour for breakfast, and one for dinner."
On June 22, three weeks after the coal heavers initially strike, the ten-hour system and an increase in wages for piece-workers is adopted in the city.
The news of the strikers' success spreads to other cities and wis given large coverage.
The labor press carries the news as far south as the Carolinas, and a wave of successful strikes follows in its wake.
Strikes for the ten-hour day will hit towns such as New Brunswick and Paterson, New Jersey, Batavia and Seneca Falls, New York, Hartford, Connecticut, and Salem, Massachusetts.
By the end of 1835, the ten-hour day will have become the standard for most city laborers who work by the day with the exception of workers in Boston.
Subsequently, the ten-hour day will become an integral part of the labor movement in Europe.
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