As the year draws to a close, it’s a natural moment to zoom out—to notice the legacy you’re standing inside of, whether or not you think about it every day.
December is full of labor milestones not because history is sentimental, but because change has a habit of arriving when people decide that “the way things are” isn’t good enough. What you’re part of isn’t just a timeline of events. It’s a relay—passed from workers to organizers to union members—each choosing fairness over convenience, dignity over speed, and accountability over silence.
For most of history, work has been shaped by systems optimized for profit, efficiency, and scale. Left alone, those systems rarely optimize for people. That’s the gap unions exist to fill—not to slow progress, but to insist that progress counts only if it includes fairness, respect, and basic human decency.
So before we turn the page on another year, it’s worth remembering this: the protections you benefit from weren’t inevitable. They were built—deliberately—by people who showed up.
What follows are a few December moments when that choice changed everything.
December 23, 1790 — Samuel Slater’s Factory, Pawtucket, RI
Children as young as seven worked from dawn to dusk in Slater’s thread-spinning factory. By 1830, over half of the state’s mill workers were children, earning less than a dollar a week. A stark reminder of why collective action would eventually become necessary.
December 3, 1866 — Textile Strikers, Fall River, MA
Textile workers protested for a ten-hour workday—and won. One of the earliest victories proving that organized labor could make tangible change.
December 4, 1906 — National Federation of Postal Clerks Chartered
The AFL formally recognized postal clerks’ union efforts, strengthening clerical labor organization and laying the foundation for modern office labor advocacy.
December 30, 1936 — Flint Sit-Down Strike, Michigan
Workers at General Motors plants staged a sit-down strike, transforming the United Auto Workers into a powerful industrial union. Their success forced GM to recognize the union, demonstrating that solidarity could shift entire industries.
December 27, 1943 — Roosevelt Seizes the Railroads
To avert a nationwide strike, President Roosevelt placed the railroads temporarily under federal supervision. Negotiation with the railroad brotherhoods ensured the country kept moving, showing that labor’s leverage can influence national priorities.
December 3–5, 1946 — Oakland General Strike, California
A massive strike involving 50,000 workers erupted in response to anti-union actions by local merchants. Post-WWII labor unrest highlighted the ongoing struggle for fair treatment and respect in the workplace.
December 5, 1955 — AFL and CIO Merge
After two decades apart, the AFL and CIO unified, bridging craft and industrial unions into a single federation—a symbolic and strategic milestone in the fight for workers’ collective power.
December 23, 1970 — North Tower Tops Out, NYC
Unionized construction crews reach the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 1,368 feet, the tallest building in the world at that time. Monumental achievement—but only possible because skilled labor was organized, protected, and respected.
December 17, 1996 — Union Merger
The International Union of Aluminum, Brick & Glass Workers merged with the United Steelworkers, consolidating resources and strengthening labor’s voice.
December 20–22, 2005 — New York City Transit Strike
TWU Local 100 shut down subway and bus service over pensions, wages, and retirement. Mass transit chaos reminded everyone that organized labor still wields real power in modern life.
December 23, 2008 — Walmart Settlements
The nation’s largest employer, Walmart, settled 63 wage-and-hour lawsuits totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, after allegations of unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work, and skipped breaks. Scale magnifies accountability—or the lack thereof.
December 1919 — UMW Coal Strike Ends
The United Mine Workers concluded a nationwide strike, asserting wage demands and reminding the nation that even the hardest, dirtiest work deserves respect and fair compensation.
From children in factories to skyscraper builders, from postal clerks to coal miners, these milestones illustrate a simple truth: progress and productivity are meaningless if they come at the expense of human dignity. Unions exist to protect that dignity—turning vulnerability into collective strength, risk into reward, and exploitation into fairness.