AR28: Resolution Text

LRB-4714/1

SRM:nwn:rs

2009 - 2010 LEGISLATURE

2009 Assembly RESOLUTION 28

April 22, 2010 - Introduced by Representatives Sinicki, Richards, Danou, Sherman, Pasch, Kessler, Benedict, Berceau, Mason, Radcliffe, Smith, Bernard Schaber, Schneider, Toles, Shilling, Nelson, Barca, Hebl, Sheridan and Clark. Referred to Committee on Rules.

AR28,1,1 Relating to: commemorating the Bay View labor strike and massacre.

AR28,1,5 Whereas, Wisconsin workers and reformers made important contributions to the history of labor in the United States, helping to enact legislation such as Worker's Compensation and Unemployment Insurance, models which, in turn, were adopted by other states; and

AR28,1,8 Whereas, the study of labor history itself also began in Wisconsin, when University of Wisconsin economist John R. Commons set out to document the history of work and labor in America at the turn of the twentieth century; and

AR28,1,10 Whereas, in the 1880s workers in Milwaukee began to advocate for the eight-hour workday, which we now take for granted; and

AR28,1,12 Whereas, until that time workers generally labored at physically punishing jobs for many hours each day; and

AR28,1,15 Whereas, on May 1, 1886, a national campaign to require that all employers adopt a standard eight-hour day culminated when workers' unions urged all American workers to cease labor until their employers met the demand; and

AR28,2,3 Whereas, in Milwaukee, civil parades and demonstrations followed as striking workers shut down factories peaceably and without violence during the first five days of May 1886; and

AR28,2,7 Whereas, the morning of May 2nd revealed the turmoil among Milwaukee's laborers, as more than a dozen strikes had begun in the city, involving the carpenters, coal heavers, sewer diggers, iron moulders, teamsters, common laborers, and other workmen striking for better pay; and

AR28,2,10 Whereas, during this period, the good citizens of Milwaukee began to receive word of the bloody conflict in Chicago's Haymarket Square, where police had killed demonstrators; and

AR28,2,13 Whereas, news of the bloodshed at Haymarket Square elevated tensions among the citizenry of Milwaukee and many of Milwaukee's workers and businessmen began to prepare for armed confrontation; and

AR28,2,15 Whereas, the last grand factory to remain open was the North Chicago Railroad Rolling Mills Steel Foundry, in Bay View; and

AR28,2,17 Whereas on May 5th, a crowd of demonstrators went to the rolling mill to enjoin the workers to participate in the general strike; and

AR28,2,20 Whereas, the assemblage of striking workers was fired upon by National Guard forces, under the order of Governor Jeremiah Rusk, killing five people and wounding four; and

AR28,2,23 Whereas, the events of that day will remain in the historic and cultural legacy of Wisconsin forever, serving as a reminder of the sacrifices our forebearers made so that we might lead happier, more prosperous lives; now, therefore, be it

AR28,3,3 Resolved by the assembly, That the Wisconsin state assembly commemorates this pivotal series of events and recognizes May 2nd as the anniversary of the Bay View labor strike and massacre.

AR28,3,4 (End)