The Preparedness Day bombing kills ten bystanders in San Francisco. Longshoremen are striking for a wage increase and against the open shop. Tom Mooney will be convicted on perjured testimony and sentenced to death, saved only by an international outcry. He is released from prison more than twenty years later. 1917 Six hundred telephone operators, mostly women, demand union recognition and higher wages from Pacific Telephone and Telegraph.
Linemen join their cause.
California Labor Federation opposes the enactment of the Criminal Syndicalism Act, which suspends constitutional free speech, search and seizure rights as part of an anti-union witch hunt. 1919 California State Federation of Teachers chartered. 1931 Davis-Bacon Act provides prevailing wages for workers and mechanics employed on public construction jobs. 1933 Latina garment workers in the Ladies Garment Workers Union conduct a successful strike in Los Angeles. 20,000 cotton workers strike in Central Valley.