Wisconsin 2023-2024 Regular Session

Wisconsin Senate Bill SJR31 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 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTIO N 31
5	5	April 14, 2023 - Introduced by Senators LARSON, AGARD, CARPENTER, HESSELBEIN,
6	6	ROYS, TAYLOR and WIRCH, cosponsored by Representatives SINICKI, CLANCY, C.
7	7	ANDERSON, J. ANDERSON, ANDRACA, BALDEH, BARE, CABRERA, CONLEY,
8	8	CONSIDINE, DONOVAN, DRAKE, EMERSON, JOERS, MADISON, MOORE OMOKUNDE,
9	9	NEUBAUER, OHNSTAD, ORTIZ-VELEZ, PALMERI, SHANKLAND, SHELTON,
10	10	SNODGRASS, STUBBS, SUBECK and VINING. Referred to Committee on Senate
11	11	Organization.
12	12	*AUTHORS SUBJECT TO CHANGE*
13	13	Relating to: commemorating the Bay View labor strike and tragedy.
14	14	Whereas, Wisconsin workers and reformers have long made important
15	15	contributions in the history of labor in the United States, having helped enact new
16	16	state laws early in the twentieth century, such as Worker's Compensation and
17	17	Unemployment Insurance, that, in turn, were adopted by other states and the
18	18	federal government; and
19	19	Whereas, decades earlier, in the late 1800s, workers were still struggling to
20	20	attain basic rights in the workplace and still generally labored at physically
21	21	punishing jobs for 10 to 12 hours per day, six days per week; and
22	22	Whereas, in the 1880s, workers in Milwaukee, like others in Chicago and across
23	23	the country, began to advocate for the eight-hour workday, an early cornerstone of
24	24	the basic bill of rights of all people in the workplace; and
25	25	Whereas, employers made no efforts toward reform, and eventually workers'
26	26	organizations across the nation called upon all workers to cease their labor if
27	27	employers had not adopted a standard eight-hour workday by May 1, 1886; and
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46	46	Whereas, in Milwaukee, civil parades and demonstrations developed over the
47	47	first five days of May 1886, as workers peaceably and without violence joined the
48	48	national work stoppage to protest and abolish inhumane work hours; and
49	49	Whereas, on May 2, 1886, many German and Polish workers and their families
50	50	walked to the picnic grounds in a huge Eight-Hour Day Parade, and on May 3,
51	51	thousands of workers from the breweries and the building trades went on strikes and
52	52	marched from factory to factory; and
53	53	Whereas, by May 5, 1886, unrest among Milwaukee's laborers over the struggle
54	54	for better work hours had led to more than a dozen strikes in the city, involving
55	55	carpenters, coal heavers, sewer diggers, iron moulders, teamsters, common laborers,
56	56	and other workers asking for humane work hours; and
57	57	Whereas, the last grand factory in Milwaukee still in operation that day was
58	58	the North Chicago Rolling Mill in Bay View, which manufactured rails for the
59	59	nation's railroads; and
60	60	Whereas, on May 5, 1886, despite the threat of violence from the state militia,
61	61	a crowd of striking workers started to walk, peaceably and unarmed, to the Rolling
62	62	Mill to enjoin workers there to participate in the general strike; and
63	63	Whereas, despite the law-abiding nature of their procession, this group of
64	64	walking laborers was fired upon by the state militia, on direct orders from Governor
65	65	Jeremiah Rusk, resulting in seven people killed and four, including innocent
66	66	bystanders, wounded; and
67	67	Whereas, some 50 of the workers who marched that day and were fired upon
68	68	were indicted on charges of rioting and conspiracy for merely exercising their right
69	69	of freedom to assemble, and three of them eventually served six to nine months in
70	70	prison; and
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99	99	Whereas, the infamous events of May 5, 1886, will remain a part of Wisconsin's
100	100	cultural and economic legacy forever and should remind us in the present to honor
101	101	the sacrifices of our forebears, including laying down their lives, so that all those who
102	102	labor might lead safer and more productive work lives; now, therefore, be it
103	103	Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the Wisconsin
104	104	Legislature recognizes the historic significance of this pivotal series of events in
105	105	Wisconsin's and the nation's history, and directs that, from this day forward, the fifth
106	106	day of May each year will be observed in our state as the anniversary of the Bay View
107	107	labor strike and tragedy.
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