#laborrelations

Today, November 20th, is the anniversary of the first use of the word “scab” in print in 1816. The term was coined 200+ years ago by the Albany Typographical Society, referring to individuals who cross a picket line while workers strike. Here's some examples of the word "scab" mentioned in our collections.

As you eat your Halloween candy, maybe consider... what was it really like working in a candy factory? And in the 1920s, they didn't know either! This study, published in a pamphlet titled "Behind the Scenes in Candy Factories" was produced by The Consumers' League of New York and set out to uncover the true conditions behind the production process of the food the public consumes. To learn more about the Consumers' League of New York and the Candy White List standards, explore Collection 5307.

On this day in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World, or the IWW, was founded at a 12-day convention in Chicago.

Their platform was radically different from that of any other contemporary union, and called for the organization of all workers, regardless of skill, gender, nationality, and religious creed, along industrial lines. Nothing less than the abolition of the wage system and of capitalism were the ultimate goals of the new organization, which became famous for its radical general strikes, militant tactics, and great appeal among new immigrants, women, and unskilled workers. Its members were nicknamed "Wobblies".

Learn more in our collections, particularly Collection #5210.

On this day in 1903 Mary Harris, more commonly known as “Mother Jones”, organized a children’s march in Philadelphia to focus public attention and demand action to stop textile mill owners from employing children to work long hours with dangerous machinery that had mutilated so many.

Three weeks later she led another march to New York City to encourage President Theodore Roosevelt to improve conditions for the child laborers. The National Child Labor Committee was formed the next year.

Alice Hanson Cook (1903-1998) was a labor educator first, through her work with the YWCA industrial department, Textile Workers Union, and Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union Joint Board in Philadelphia. She continued by contributing to research at Cornell through the ILR Extension working on a project titled "Integrating of Unions and Community", where she was then recruited by ILR to teach Labor History and Union Administration courses. Beyond teaching and research, she supported local Ithaca women's groups such as the Ithaca American Association of University Women, Professional Skills Roster, and Tompkins County Chapter of National Organization for Women.

While she retired in 1973, she was far from done with labor rights activism: she continued on to write several amicus briefs for discrimination cases worldwide, worked for the Ford Foundation on a study about working women worldwide, and published "Women and Trade Unions in Eleven Industrialized Countries", among other publications. She also wrote an autobiography, "A Lifetime of Labor", where she describes her self-proclaimed "patchwork career". Now, a dorm on West Campus is named in her honor, Alice Cook House.

When the American Textile History Museum closed in 2017, Cornell, including the Kheel Center, acquired nine tractor trailers full of close to 100,000 books, periodicals, manuscript collections, photographs, tintypes, glass plate negatives and trade catalogs that depicted the textile industry across New England and the country. This was one of Cornell's largest acquisitions ever. What else was included in that collections? Textile sample books! #ArchivesPatterns

On this day the Fair Labor Standards Act passed Congress, devised by FDR and Frances Perkins in 1938. The law set minimum wage standards, weekly hours maximums, and age limits for the workplace, impacting millions of workers since.

Interested in learning more about Perkins? See our exhibit in Catherwood Library, and read about her here: