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2023 - 2024 LEGISLATURE
2023 ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTIO N 35
April 28, 2023 - Introduced by Representatives SINICKI, CLANCY, C. ANDERSON, J.
ANDERSON, ANDRACA, BALDEH, BARE, CABRERA, CONLEY, CONSIDINE, DONOVAN,
DRAKE, EMERSON, JOERS, MADISON, MOORE OMOKUNDE, NEUBAUER, OHNSTAD,
PALMERI, SHELTON, STUBBS, SUBECK, SHANKLAND, VINING, ORTIZ-VELEZ and
SNODGRASS, cosponsored by Senators LARSON, AGARD, CARPENTER, HESSELBEIN,
ROYS, TAYLOR, WIRCH and SPREITZER. Referred to Committee on Rules.
***AUTHORS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***
Relating to: commemorating the Bay View labor strike and tragedy.
Whereas, Wisconsin workers and reformers have long made important
contributions in the history of labor in the United States, having helped enact new
state laws early in the twentieth century, such as Worker's Compensation and
Unemployment Insurance, that, in turn, were adopted by other states and the
federal government; and
Whereas, decades earlier, in the late 1800s, workers were still struggling to
attain basic rights in the workplace and still generally labored at physically
punishing jobs for 10 to 12 hours per day, six days per week; and
Whereas, in the 1880s, workers in Milwaukee, like others in Chicago and across
the country, began to advocate for the eight-hour workday, an early cornerstone of
the basic bill of rights of all people in the workplace; and
Whereas, employers made no efforts toward reform, and eventually workers'
organizations across the nation called upon all workers to cease their labor if
employers had not adopted a standard eight-hour workday by May 1, 1886; and
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Whereas, in Milwaukee, civil parades and demonstrations developed over the
first five days of May 1886, as workers peaceably and without violence joined the
national work stoppage to protest and abolish inhumane work hours; and
Whereas, on May 2, 1886, many German and Polish workers and their families
walked to the picnic grounds in a huge Eight-Hour Day Parade, and on May 3,
thousands of workers from the breweries and the building trades went on strikes and
marched from factory to factory; and
Whereas, by May 5, 1886, unrest among Milwaukee's laborers over the struggle
for better work hours had led to more than a dozen strikes in the city, involving
carpenters, coal heavers, sewer diggers, iron moulders, teamsters, common laborers,
and other workers asking for humane work hours; and
Whereas, the last grand factory in Milwaukee still in operation that day was
the North Chicago Rolling Mill in Bay View, which manufactured rails for the
nation's railroads; and
Whereas, on May 5, 1886, despite the threat of violence from the state militia,
a crowd of striking workers started to walk, peaceably and unarmed, to the Rolling
Mill to enjoin workers there to participate in the general strike; and
Whereas, despite the law-abiding nature of their procession, this group of
walking laborers was fired upon by the state militia, on direct orders from Governor
Jeremiah Rusk, resulting in seven people killed and four, including innocent
bystanders, wounded; and
Whereas, some 50 of the workers who marched that day and were fired upon
were indicted on charges of rioting and conspiracy for merely exercising their right
of freedom to assemble, and three of them eventually served six to nine months in
prison; and
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Whereas, the infamous events of May 5, 1886, will remain a part of Wisconsin's
cultural and economic legacy forever and should remind us in the present to honor
the sacrifices of our forebears, including laying down their lives, so that all those who
labor might lead safer and more productive work lives; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the Wisconsin
Legislature recognizes the historic significance of this pivotal series of events in
Wisconsin's and the nation's history, and directs that, from this day forward, the fifth
day of May each year will be observed in our state as the anniversary of the Bay View
labor strike and tragedy.
(END)
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