United Transport Service Employees of America merges with Brotherhood of Railway, Airline & Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employees - 1972

International Brotherhood of Bookbinders merged with Graphic Arts International Union - 1972

United Papermakers & Paperworkers merge with Int'l Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite & Paper Mill Workers of the US & Canada to become United Paperworkers International Union, now a division of the Steelworkers Union - 1972

4,000 garment workers, mostly Hispanic, strike for union recognition at the Farah Mfg. Co. in El Paso, Tex. - 1972

Major league baseball players begin what is to become a 13-day strike, ending when owners agreed to increase pension fund payments and to add salary arbitration to the collective bargaining agreement - 1972

Predominantly young workers at a Lordstown, Ohio GM assembly plant stage a wildcat strike, largely in objection to the grueling workpace: at 101.6 cars per hour, their assembly line was believed to be the fastest in the world - 1972

A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapsed, flooding the 17-mile long valley. 118 died, 5,000 were left homeless. The Pittston Coal Co. said it was "an Act of God." - 1972

United Farm Workers of America granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1972

Int'l Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors of the United States & Canada surrenders its AFL-CIO charter and is disbanded - 1971

Eleven AFSCME-represented prison employees, 33 inmates die in the four-day uprising at New York State’s Attica Prison and the retaking of the prison. The uprising caused the nation to take a closer look at prison conditions, for inmates and their guards alike - 1971

President Richard M. Nixon announces a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents in an attempt to combat inflation - 1971

Postal unions, Postal Service sign first labor contract in the history of the federal government - 1971