On this day in labor history, the year was 1846.
That was the day Sarah Bagley became the first female telegraph operator.
She was hired at the office in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Sarah spent weeks studying the electrical theory behind the new technology and began her job in earnest.
She soon quit in protest after learning her pay was far less than her male counterparts.
Bagley was no stranger to labor struggles.
She was among the many Lowell textile workers who struck in 1842.
Bagley was one of the founders of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association.
She fought for the 10-hour day and better working conditions in the mills.
Sarah also helped to found the labor paper, The Voice of Industry.
When the Reform Association demanded state investigations into working conditions at area mills, she stated, “Is anyone such a fool as to suppose that out of six thousand girls in Lowell, sixty would be there if they could help it? Whenever I raise the point that it is immoral to shut us up in a room twelve hours a day… I am told that we have come to the mills voluntarily and we can leave when we will. Voluntarily! … the whip which brings us to Lowell is necessity. We must have money; a father’s debts are to be paid, an aged mother to be supported, a brother’s ambition to be aided and so the factories are supplied. Is this to act from free will? Is this freedom? To my mind it is slavery.”
Bagley returned to Lowell’s Hamilton mills after she quit the telegraph office.
She briefly continued her activism until she married and moved to Brooklyn.
March 19 - Wartime President Pushes for Labor Peace
March 18 - Wartime Workers Betrayed
March 17 - The Hoggs Hollow Tragedy
March 16 - Big Bill Haywood Talks General Strike
March 15 - The Grapes of Wrath Opens in Theaters
March 14 - Remembering Walter Crane
March 13 - Ending Jim Crow on the Job
March 12 - OSHA Safety Incentives
March 11 - Raising Conditions for an Industry
March 10 - Radium Girls
March 9 - Striking the Mines
March 8 - IBEW Strikes to Win
March 7 - Work Faster! Work Faster!
March 6 - International Unemployed Day
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
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