page_title: Timeline of labour issues and events
section_title: 1910s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of labour issues and events / 1900–99 / 1910s
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25 - 1911.jpg
context_page_description: Timeline of trade union history
context_section_description: 1910 (United States)
  Bethlehem Steel Strike occurred.
  1910 (United States)
  Cloakmakers' Strike occurred.
  1910 (United States)
  Chicago Clothing Workers' Strike occurred.
  1910 (United States)
  The 1910 Accident Reports Act was passed and a 10-hour work day and standardization of rates of pay and working conditions were won by the Railway Brotherhoods.
  Union membership topped 8 million workers in 1910.
  1 October 1910 (United States)
  The Los Angeles Times bombing killed twenty people and destroyed the building. Calling it "the crime of the century," the newspaper's owner Harrison Gray Otis blamed the bombing on the unions, a charge denied by unionists.
  25 December 1910 (United States)
  A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Iron works in Los Angeles, where a strike was in progress.  In April 1911 James McNamara and his brother John McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, were charged with the two crimes. James McNamara pleaded guilty to murder and John McNamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the dynamiting of the Llewellyn Iron Works.
  1911 (United States)
  The Locomotive Inspection Act passed. Four years later, the Hours of Service Act passed. The Railroad Brotherhoods had won an eight-hour day.
  The Supreme Court in Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co. (221 U.S. 418) affirmed a lower court order for the AFL to stop interfering with Buck's Stove and Range Company's business or boycotting its products or distributors.
  On 24 June 1912 in the second contempt trial, the defendants (Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison) were again found guilty and sentenced to prison.  The Supreme Court overturned the convictions because the new proceedings had not been instituted within the three-year statute of limitations (233 U.S. 604 1914).
  1911 (United States)
  Illinois Central and Harriman Line Rail Strike occurred.
  1911 (United States)
  Southern Lumber Operators' Lockout began.
  1911 (Wales)
  Two men are shot dead by police during the Llanelli railway strike of August 1911, leading to rioting.
  25 March 1911 (United States)
  Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire -- The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, occupying the top three floors of a ten-story building in New York City, was consumed by fire. One hundred and forty-six people, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions, died.
  1912 (United States)
  Massachusetts passes the first minimum wage law for women and minors.
  1912 (United States)
  Chicago newspaper strike occurred.
  1912 (United States)
  Fur Workers' Strike occurred.
  1912 (United States)
  IWW Free Speech Fight occurred in San Diego, California.
  1912 (United States)
  New York City Hotel Strike occurred.
  January–March 1912 (United States)
  Lawrence Textile Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, often known as the "Bread and Roses" Strike.  Dozens of different immigrant communities united under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in a largely successful strike led to a large extent by women.  The strike is credited with inventing the moving picket line, a tactic devised to keep strikers from being arrested for loitering.
  It also adopted a tactic used before in Europe, but never in the United States, of sending children to sympathizers in other cities when they could not be cared for by strike funds.  On 24 February, women attempting to put their children on a train out of town were beaten by police, shocking the nation.
  18 April 1912 (United States)
  The National Guard was called out against striking West Virginia coal miners at the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, West Virginia mines.
  7 July 1912 (United States)
  Striking members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers and supporters are involved in an armed confrontation with the Galloway Lumber Company and supporters in the Grabow Riot, resulting in four deaths and 40 to 50 wounded.
  1913 (United States)
  U.S. Department of Labor established.
  1913 (United States)
  Machinists Strike and Boycott
  1913 (United States)
  Michigan Copper Strike
  1913 (United States)
  Paterson, New Jersey, Textile Stri
caption: Image of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on 25 March 1911
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