Speculator mine disaster. 164 killed at Butte, Mont. – 1917

Amalgamated Meat Cutters union organizers launch a campaign in the nation’s packinghouses, an effort that was to bring representation to 100,000 workers over the following two years - 1917

The Library Employees’ Union is founded in New York City, the first union of public library workers in the United States. A major focus of the union was the inferior status of women library workers and their low salaries - 1917

133 people, mostly women and girls, are killed when an explosion in the loading room tears apart the Eddystone Ammunition Works in Eddystone, Pa., near Chester. Fifty-five of the dead were never identified - 1917

Supreme Court approves 8-Hour Act under threat of a national railway strike - 1917

Thousands of women march to New York’s City Hall demanding relief from exorbitant wartime food prices. Inflation had wiped out any wage gains made by workers, leading to a high level of working class protest during World War I - 1917

Wobblie activist Tom Mooney convicted in bombing frame-up orchestrated by Pinkerton Detective Agency. He was pardoned and released 22 years later - 1917

Wobblie Tom Mooney tried in San Francisco for Preparedness Day bombing - 1917

Everett, Wash., massacre, at least seven Wobblies killed, 50 wounded and an indeterminate number missing. Bloody Sunday Everett, a few hundred members of the Industrial Workers of the World traveled from Seattle to Everett, Washington by boat. Everett’s sheriff and about 200 armed men met them at the dock to prevent them from landing and a gun battle ensued in which five Wobblies and two of the sheriff’s deputies were killed. - 1916

Federal employees win the right to receive Workers' Compensation insurance coverage - 1916

Operating railway employees win 8 hour day - 1916

A bomb was set off during a "Preparedness Day" parade in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring 40 more. Tom Mooney, a labor organizer, and Warren Billings, a shoe worker, were convicted of the crime, but both were pardoned 23 years later - 1916