On this day in Labor History the year was 1886.
A little after three o’clock on that Monday, in Chicago, radical labor activist and newspaper man August Spies climbed onto a box car to give a speech about the fight for the eight hour day.
For weeks he had been giving speeches all over the city, in the ramp up for the large May Day strike and rallies.
Despite being exhausted, he agreed to address the crowd of German and Bohemian “lumber shovers.”
Very near the rally where Spies spoke, stood the McCormick Reaper Works.
The McCormick workers had been at the heart of labor struggle in the city.
1,500 hundred workers had been locked out of the McCormick plant over a dispute about wages.
Tensions ran high as the company brought in scab labor to replace the locked out workers.
Approximately 200 striking McCormick workers picketed outside the plant.
As Spies gave his speech to the lumber shovers, the shift bell at McCormick sounded marking the end of the work day.
As the scabs exited the building the angry locked out workers swarmed around them.
Suddenly, shots rang out from the direction of the McCormick plant.
Spies climbed off of his boxcar, and ran to the plant to see what happened.
There he found 200 police officers shooting at the strikers and beat them with clubs.
In all the police killed four strikers and wounded many more.
Outraged, August Spies ran back to his newspaper office.
Where he drafted a circular that urged working men to retaliate for the police violence.
He began to plan for a rally for the next day at Haymarket Square, in what would become one of the most significant events in the global labor movement and history.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show