On this day in labor history, the year was 1955.
That was the day Teamsters organizer, 28-year old William Grami was kidnapped and beaten.
Grami had arrived in Sebastopol, California to help organize about 350 workers in local canneries, drying plants and fruit sheds.
The Teamsters had been on campaign footing for months, in an attempt to win union recognition, higher wages and benefits.
They had lost a union representation election the previous fall, after Sebastapol Apple Growers moved quickly to lay off union supporters.
By January, cannery workers at Oscar Hall and Sons voted for union representation, though workers at Barlow Company would vote against the union just two months later.
But by early August, the strike wave hit.
Workers walked off the job at the Sebastopol Cooperative Cannery.
More at seven other area canneries joined them on strike in the days that followed.
Grami would later testify that he had heard reports weeks earlier of a grower threatening to have him killed within three hours, should any strike actually take place.
During the strike that would ultimately prove victorious, three men kidnapped Grami outside the union hall.
He was driven along a rural road, tied to a pole, gagged and beaten with a bicycle chain.
Left for dead, he was found the next day and hospitalized immediately.
But the union and the strikers remained undeterred.
Before the strike was over, scab trucks attempting to haul apples to market were vandalized or burned, and scab drivers were beaten.
Eight months later, the apple industry finally came to the negotiating table.
By May 1956, area apple growers signed with the Teamsters.
March 5 -Lordstown Syndrome
March 4 - Mismanagement Kills an Airline
March 3 - Wildcat Strikes Hit Chrysler and Briggs
March 2 - Greyhound Bus Strike Begins
March 1 - The Hoover Dam Goes Public
February 28 - Fighting for Equal Pay
February 27 - The 1937 Woolworth Sit-Down
February 26 - The Battle at Bethlehem
February 25 - The Paterson Silk Strike Begins
February 24 - Muller v Oregon Decided
February 23 - Black Workers Lead Historic Strike at UNC
February 22 - Labelling Teachers as Terrorists
February 21 - The First Female Telephone Operator
February 20 - Angelina Grimke is Born
February 19 - Philly Street Car Workers Spark General Strike
February 18 - Anti-Slavery Begins in America
February 17 - Standing Up By Sitting Down
February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The No-Frills Teacher Podcast
Heal, Survive & Thrive!
Summarize | رادیو سامرایز
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast