On this day in labor history, the year was 1932.

That was the day the State Militia was called into Kincaid, Illinois.

164 high school students had just walked out of the classroom, declaring themselves on strike.

They were protesting the school board’s use of coal from the Peabody Coal Company.

The students walked out in solidarity with their fathers, who were on strike against the Peabody Coal mine in nearby Langleyville over wage concessions.

The father-son strike, as it was referred to, was one more in a series of protest actions that came on the heels of the founding of the Progressive Miners of America a month earlier.

Thousands of Illinois miners had just voted with their feet to repudiate John L. Lewis’ UMWA over wage concessions.

After their founding conference, new PMA leaders began aggressively organizing non-union mines.

They marched into mining towns and ordered non-union diggers out of the mines.

They also struck UMW mines, picketing against the industry standard of $5 a day that had been set by the latest concessionary contract.

At some mines, the PMA was able to win the old $6.10 a day wage.

Throughout the month, the State National Guard had been called out to a number of mining towns to quell armed conflicts between PMA and UMW supporters.

The Peabody Coal mine at Langleyville had been shut down for months by ongoing PMA/UMW conflict.

Now it had reopened under heavy National Guard protection and was the only mine operating in Christian County.

The striking fathers were PMA miners picketing the continued mine operations under the UMW concessionary contract.

The years-long Illinois mine wars had just begun.

On this day in labor history, the year was 1949.

That was the day Americans awoke to fears the nationwide steel strike would spread rapidly to include key fabrication plants.

Half a million steel workers had joined 400,000 coal miners on strike the morning before.

The miners’ resolve to defend their $100-a month pensions, instituting what John L. Lewis called the “no-day work week,” emboldened the steel workers to walk out of the mills.

Within 24 hours, 96% of all steel production in the country was completely shut down.

USW contracts were due to expire on the 15th, But the writing was on the wall.

The mill owners decried anything close to mine pensions as nothing short of socialistic and refused to budge in negotiations.

USW president Phil Murray thundered that those companies that failed to agree to demands for non-contributory pensions and insurance would be shut down.

But militants warned that President Truman’s Fact-Finding Board had already watered down strike demands.

The President’s Board had been established to put off two previous strike deadlines.

The ‘guidelines’ it issued only encouraged steel magnates to stand tough against USW demands.

These included a 30-cent raise plus increased company insurance and pension contributions.

Now it had become a defensive struggle over whether steel workers would have to begin contributing to health and pension plans through wage cuts.

By the time steelworkers ended their strike forty-two days later, they had won the $100 a month pension, minus what they would receive from social security.

And they had to begin contributing to a health insurance plan with no wage increase at all.

Still, workers celebrated that they had successfully defended the USW against the all out union-busting drive.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1991. That was the day that the Pattern Makers League of North America merged with International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Have you ever heard of the Pattern Makers union? The Pattern Makers can trace their history all the way back to 1887.