Wisconsin 2023-2024 Regular Session

Wisconsin Assembly Bill AJR35 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

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3	3	2023 - 2024 LEGISLATURE
4	4	2023 ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTIO N 35
5	5	April 28, 2023 - Introduced by Representatives SINICKI, CLANCY, C. ANDERSON, J.
6	6	ANDERSON, ANDRACA, BALDEH, BARE, CABRERA, CONLEY, CONSIDINE, DONOVAN,
7	7	DRAKE, EMERSON, JOERS, MADISON, MOORE OMOKUNDE, NEUBAUER, OHNSTAD,
8	8	PALMERI, SHELTON, STUBBS, SUBECK, SHANKLAND, VINING, ORTIZ-VELEZ and
9	9	SNODGRASS, cosponsored by Senators LARSON, AGARD, CARPENTER, HESSELBEIN,
10	10	ROYS, TAYLOR, WIRCH and SPREITZER. Referred to Committee on Rules.
11	11	*AUTHORS SUBJECT TO CHANGE*
12	12	Relating to: commemorating the Bay View labor strike and tragedy.
13	13	Whereas, Wisconsin workers and reformers have long made important
14	14	contributions in the history of labor in the United States, having helped enact new
15	15	state laws early in the twentieth century, such as Worker's Compensation and
16	16	Unemployment Insurance, that, in turn, were adopted by other states and the
17	17	federal government; and
18	18	Whereas, decades earlier, in the late 1800s, workers were still struggling to
19	19	attain basic rights in the workplace and still generally labored at physically
20	20	punishing jobs for 10 to 12 hours per day, six days per week; and
21	21	Whereas, in the 1880s, workers in Milwaukee, like others in Chicago and across
22	22	the country, began to advocate for the eight-hour workday, an early cornerstone of
23	23	the basic bill of rights of all people in the workplace; and
24	24	Whereas, employers made no efforts toward reform, and eventually workers'
25	25	organizations across the nation called upon all workers to cease their labor if
26	26	employers had not adopted a standard eight-hour workday by May 1, 1886; and
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45	45	Whereas, in Milwaukee, civil parades and demonstrations developed over the
46	46	first five days of May 1886, as workers peaceably and without violence joined the
47	47	national work stoppage to protest and abolish inhumane work hours; and
48	48	Whereas, on May 2, 1886, many German and Polish workers and their families
49	49	walked to the picnic grounds in a huge Eight-Hour Day Parade, and on May 3,
50	50	thousands of workers from the breweries and the building trades went on strikes and
51	51	marched from factory to factory; and
52	52	Whereas, by May 5, 1886, unrest among Milwaukee's laborers over the struggle
53	53	for better work hours had led to more than a dozen strikes in the city, involving
54	54	carpenters, coal heavers, sewer diggers, iron moulders, teamsters, common laborers,
55	55	and other workers asking for humane work hours; and
56	56	Whereas, the last grand factory in Milwaukee still in operation that day was
57	57	the North Chicago Rolling Mill in Bay View, which manufactured rails for the
58	58	nation's railroads; and
59	59	Whereas, on May 5, 1886, despite the threat of violence from the state militia,
60	60	a crowd of striking workers started to walk, peaceably and unarmed, to the Rolling
61	61	Mill to enjoin workers there to participate in the general strike; and
62	62	Whereas, despite the law-abiding nature of their procession, this group of
63	63	walking laborers was fired upon by the state militia, on direct orders from Governor
64	64	Jeremiah Rusk, resulting in seven people killed and four, including innocent
65	65	bystanders, wounded; and
66	66	Whereas, some 50 of the workers who marched that day and were fired upon
67	67	were indicted on charges of rioting and conspiracy for merely exercising their right
68	68	of freedom to assemble, and three of them eventually served six to nine months in
69	69	prison; and
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98	98	Whereas, the infamous events of May 5, 1886, will remain a part of Wisconsin's
99	99	cultural and economic legacy forever and should remind us in the present to honor
100	100	the sacrifices of our forebears, including laying down their lives, so that all those who
101	101	labor might lead safer and more productive work lives; now, therefore, be it
102	102	Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the Wisconsin
103	103	Legislature recognizes the historic significance of this pivotal series of events in
104	104	Wisconsin's and the nation's history, and directs that, from this day forward, the fifth
105	105	day of May each year will be observed in our state as the anniversary of the Bay View
106	106	labor strike and tragedy.
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