Documenting Labor Inside and Out
A Time Line of Labor History in the Capital District

1829 March 3
The Albany Typographical Society was formed, although more a fraternal or professional organization than a labor union. The Albany Typographical Society functioned until at least 1832.

1830s The Cohoes Manufacturing Company built Harmony Mills, one of the first "company towns" in the United States. By 1870, the company would become the largest cotton manufacturer in the world.

1830
A meeting of the Farmers, Mechanics and Workingmen's Party was held in Troy.

1835
Cordwainers in Hudson struck, demanding a closed shop.

1835 March
Carpenters in Troy struck, demanding higher wages.

1835 May
Masons in Troy struck, demanding higher wages.

1835 July
Hatters and cordwainers in Schenectady struck, demanding higher wages.

1835 September
A strike was declared in Albany by coachmakers demanding a ten-hour workday.

1835 December
Coachmakers struck against the use of apprentices.

1836 April
Troy cordwainers struck for higher wages.

1836 June
Brushmakers in Lansingburgh struck, protesting a reduction in wages.

1840-1859

1841
Probable birth year of Kate Mullaney. Mullaney, who died in 1906, organized and led the Collar Laundry Union in Troy, one of the first unions in the United States representing female workers.

1841 July 22 and September 1-2
Mechanics opposed to the state prison labor system met in Albany.

1842 October 3
The first strike at Harmony Mills in Cohoes took place when workmen struck in protest of a 20 percent wage reduction.

1848 November 28
Firemen held a meeting in Albany to discuss their disagreement over the new organization of the fire department.

1849 July 12
Firemen rioted in Albany while six houses burned on Broad Street.

1849 September
Workmen at the Ogden Mill in Cohoes struck against a 15 percent wage reduction. Strikers returned to work after a threat of outside workers.

1850 May 23
Printers in Albany met to discuss "the establishment of a Typographical Association, to stay the present downward tendency of the profession--to advance the interests and preserve the character of the 'Art of Arts.'"

1850 June 1
The Printers' Union of the City at Albany met at the Clinton Hotel on South Pearl Street and elected Giles K. Winne president. This union was the first ever organized in the Capital District, and exists today as the Albany Typographical Union No. 4, Communication Workers of America.

1851 June 23
Laborers working on waterworks in Albany struck. Contractors agreed to pay 87½ cents for ten hours of work or $1 for twelve hours.

1854 February 25
The Albany Printers' Union joined the National Typographical Union (changed in 1869 to the International Typographical Union after the addition of Canadian locals) and changed its name to the Albany Typographical Union.

1857
During the 1857 depression, almost every wool-knitting mill in Cohoes shut down.

1857 October
Harmony Mills in Cohoes closed its doors in the hopes of reducing the supply of cotton fabric and increasing demand. This action put one thousand people out of work.

1857 December 18
Harmony Mills announced that it would return to full production but with a 25 percent reduction in wages.

1858 February
Eight hundred of Harmony Mills's one thousand workers went out on strike to oppose the reduction of their wages. The strike lasted three weeks. About three hundred workers from Ogden Mills temporarily joined the strike. Workers at Harmony Mills won a 12½ percent increase in wages (2 percent more than what was originally offered). This was the first time workers forced Harmony Mills to raise wages.

1858 April
Cohoes axe makers struck, winning back the wages they earned before the 1857 depression.

1858 April 28
Six men formed the Iron Molders' International Union No. 2 in Troy.

1858 May 7
The Iron Molders' International Union No. 2 expanded to fifty-one members and elected Simon F. Mann as president.

1858 July
Harmony Mills weavers struck to have their wages restored to pre-depression levels. This strike was unsuccessful and ended within a week.

1858 August
Weavers at the Strong Mill in Cohoes went on strike.

1859 March
When Troy's foundries opened after the winter, members of the Molders' Union who were employed at the Clinton and Washington foundries walked out in protest over wage reductions.

1860-1879

1860
The Troy local of the National Typographical Union founded.

1860 Spring
The Iron Molders' International Union No. 2 had become the nation's largest iron molders' local with four hundred members.

1863
The Albany Trades Assembly was established.

1863 May
The Cohoes Woolen Spinners' Association No. 1 struck against a knitting mill over the issue of having a closed shop.

1863 June 15
Dock laborers and Central Railroad employees went on strike, seeking a raise in wages of 37½ cents. Newspaper accounts noted that a mob was ruling Albany and marching with clubs to all workshops. The 25th Regiment was called in to quell this incident.

1864 February
The Collar Laundry Union was formed. Made up of collar laundresses from Troy, the Collar Laundry Union was one of the first unions of female workers in the United States. After its formation, its members struck and won a 25 percent increase in wages.

1864 March
The Cohoes Woolen Spinners' Association fought a lockout by knit goods manufacturers and won a 25 percent increase in wages by May.

1864 March 3
Troy's iron molders' union struck, winning a 15 percent increase in wages within two weeks.

1864 April 21
Printers at Joel Munsell's Albany printery went on strike over the introduction of two girls, who were hired because of the lack of printers caused by the Civil War.

1864 June
Cohoes molders, members of the Troy local, struck to keep their foundry from violating the union's rules regarding apprenticeships.

1864 June
The Troy Trades' Assembly was formed with fourteen participating local unions.

ca. 1865 January 1
The Workingmen's Cooperative Association opened a cooperative grocery in Troy for union and non-union workers.

1865 February
The Workingmen's Eight-Hour League was formed to encourage legislation favoring eight-hour workdays.

1865 February
A state convention in Albany of trade unionists, many of them Civil War veterans, established the Trades Assembly of New York State, the first state labor federation in the nation. One of the goals of the Trades Assembly of New York State was to help protect the right to strike.

1865 February 16
Iron was converted to steel for the first time in the United States at the Bessemer Steel Works in Troy.

1865 April 18
Between six thousand and eight thousand workingmen held a meeting in Troy to protest the anti-labor Hastings Bill.

1865 July
The Troy Trades' Assembly opened the Workingmen's Free Reading Room and Library.

1865 November
A Laborers' Union began with one hundred members. By 1866, the local had five hundred members.

1866
The Troy Trades' Assembly began its sponsorship of a Workingmen's Debating Society.

1866
The first regular issue of the Saturday Evening Herald, a Troy labor paper, made its appearance. Unfortunately, no copies of this paper are known to have survived.

1866 March 17
The Troy foundry owners locked out 745 Troy molders in an effort to break the Iron Molders' International Union. The stove-mounters and pattern-makers went on strike in sympathy. Part of the molders' response was to build their own cooperative foundry, a tactic that led to other stove cooperatives across the country.

1866 May 12
The molder lockout ended when the Clinton Foundry agreed to the union's terms, ending the largest industrial protest in Troy's history.

1868
Kate Mullaney, president of the Collar Laundry Union, was appointed Assistant Secretary of the National Labor Union.

1869 May
The Troy's laundresses union collapsed when its strike was broken. The collar laundresses organized a cooperative during the strike to supply union members with work, but employers defeated their efforts by introducing disposable collars and cuffs made of paper.

1869
Representatives of the Women's Typographical Union No. 1 and the Collar Laundry Workers of Troy attended a convention of the New York State Workingmen's Assembly in Albany. Although they were originally denied credentials, the Constitution was amended during the convention and the women delegates were seated.

1869 June 7-12
International Typographical Union convention held in Albany.

1873 January
Sixty men at Troy's Bessemer Steel Works, members of the Empire Forge of the Sons of Vulcan, walked out after refusing to change their wages from the "day system" to the "ton system." The men returned to work when this policy was reversed, but this was the beginning of the 1873 puddlers' strike.

1873 June 10
Puddlers at Burden's nail factory in Troy struck against a foreman. Management offered the strikers back pay if they would quit their jobs. After the strikers refused, they were locked out of the plant.

1873 December 5
Negotiations between the Burdens and the striking puddlers broke off and the plant was shut down.

1873 December 8
The puddlers striking Burden's mill reached an agreement with management.

1874 October
The Sons of Vulcan in Troy went on strike rather than accept a wage reduction. After the heaters joined the strike, the Troy iron and steel mills had to close. The strike lasted thirty-one weeks, with violence emanating from both sides.

1875 January-February
Disputes at Foxell and Jones' Foundry in Troy led to a lockout and the immediate hiring of non-union help. Violent attacks on the new non-union workers took place and management hired special police to guard the foundry. Violence between these two groups was subdued until spring 1876.

1875 May 5
In Troy, the puddlers' dispute over wages was resolved.

1875 May 8
Further negotiations between the puddlers in Troy and the ironmasters--this time over the continued employment of non-union workers and the acceptance of union rules--ended, and Troy's "reign of terror" began. Non-union puddlers were intimidated and often attacked.

1875 May 18
Company officials and the puddlers reached a final agreement, and the strike officially ended. But non-union men were still employed at the iron mills and the intimidation of these men continued.

1875 July
Troy's trade unions formed the Industrial Council of Troy. John J. Grace, president of the iron molders' union, was elected president of the council.

1876 Fall
After Troy stove founders announced 10 to 30 percent wage decreases, the molders went on strike. A few founders announced they would open immediately and use non-union labor if necessary.

1877
Labor violence resulted after stove foundries negotiate contracts for prison labor.

1877 February-March
Violence against Troy's non-union molders increased. Arson was suspected in a fire at the Clinton Foundry. Crowds gathered near foundries to intimidate non-union men.

1877 May 30
The Albany iron molders' union suspended its constitution and by-laws for six months.

1877 June 21
The Troy iron molders' union conceded to the founders, as a way of regaining their jobs. The union suspended union rules for six months and declared all shops open.

1877 July
The National Guard was called in to control the situation during a railway strike.

1878
The cotton mule-spinners in Cohoes formed a union.

1878
The Albany Granite Cutters' Union was formed. Stonecutters would help found the Albany Workingmen's Assembly in 1882.

1878
The Albany Typographical Union No. 4 held its first strike when the firm of Weed, Parsons & Co. was struck for not complying with the union's apprentice rules. Some members of the union continued to work at Weed, Parsons, and were expelled from the union. By October, the union had accepted its loss and voted to excuse dues of former Weed, Parsons, employees "until they obtain employment."

1879 March
The Harmony Mills cotton workers were given their fourth wage reduction in five years.

1880-1899

1880 February
Women weavers at Harmony Mill No. 1 struck, seeking a 10 percent wage increase, a lengthening of their lunch break and an end to the docking system. The strike lasted nine days.

1880 February
The Mule-Spinners' Association went on strike in Cohoes. The weavers went back on strike in sympathy two days later.

1881 October
After a one-week strike at the Clinton Foundry in Troy the plant once again became a closed shop and the molders' union regained the power it once had.

1882
Members of the Albany Typographical Union No. 4 held a strike over a price reduction for composition.

1882
The Rensselaer Assembly 2112 was organized as the first Knights of Labor association in Troy.

1882
Assembly 2020 of the Knights of Labor was formed in Albany.

1882
Albany Workingmen's Assembly formed.

1882 April 6
Management at Harmony Mills in Cohoes posted a notice that wages would be reduced by 10 percent. Workers gave two weeks' notice that they were going to strike.

1882 April 13
Troy unions formed the Workingmen's Trades' Assembly.

1882 July
The cotton workers of Cohoes began to transform their trade unions into an assembly of the Knights of Labor.

1882 August 26
Cotton workers in Cohoes voted to return to work under a wage reduction, after four months of striking.

1883 February
The Malleable Iron Company locked out its workers. The lockout of Troy Iron Molders' International Union No. 2 lasted more than sixteen months and was marked by extreme violence.

1883 December 11
After union molders had infiltrated the reopened Malleable works and signed up new members, two-thirds of the molders walked out and officially joined the molders' union.

1884
A Bureau of Labor Statistics investigation of child labor in Cohoes focused on the ten-hour day, ventilation, and the amount of work required.

1885
Contract prison labor was abolished in New York State.

1886
The Workingmen's Trades' Assembly of Troy changed its name to the Central Labor Council.

1886
About thirty assemblies or associations of the Knights of Labor existed within the limits of Troy. These included the Rensselaer, Alpha, Mitre, Cigarmakers, Ferguson, Temple, Victor, Trojan, Metal Workers', Old Reliable, Eureka, Joan of Arc, Enterprise, Pleasant Valley, Phoenix, Delta, Iron and Mechanics' Linesmen, Pioneers, Wendell Phillips, Star, Trowel, Amulet and John Swinton. The Joan of Arc Assembly was formed by laundresses and collar sewers.

1886
The first ironing machines were installed in a plant in Troy. A strike resulted.

1886 February 6
The printing pressmen of Albany were chartered as a separate pressmen's union within the International Typographical Union.

1886 June
About fifteen thousand laundry workers were locked out in Troy.

1886 August 5
The Bricklayers, Masons and Plasterers Union No. 16 of the City of Schenectady received its charter. This local was apparently reorganized (records suggest its predecessor was defunct in part due to its indebtedness to its parent union) in response to the large-scale building program begun by Thomas Edison when he moved his Edison Machine Works to Schenectady in 1886.

1886 October 16
Approximately twenty thousand knitters in Cohoes and Amsterdam were locked out after a strike was called against the mills by the executive board of the Knights of Labor.

1887
Leonora Marie Barry, a millhand in Amsterdam, became Director of Women for the Knights of Labor and organized cooperative shirt factories. Barry had joined the Knights of Labor in 1884.

1887 May
The strike by knitters in Cohoes was called off.

1888 May 5
Brewery workers in Albany (members of the Knights of Labor) went on strike.

1890 January 1
Albany pressmen were chartered as Local 23 of the newly formed International Printing and Pressmen's Union of North America (the name of which was changed in 1896 to the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America).

1892
Employees of the collar and cuff industry of Troy began a strike. The strike would last over a year.

1892
Local 83 of the Tin, Sheet Iron and Cornice Workers' International Association was chartered. Through the course of the subsequent rechartering and merger of its parent union, this local eventually became Local 83 of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association.

1892 June 15
The Book-binders Society of Albany, Local Union No. 10 of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders, was chartered.

1893
The Central Labor Council of Troy changed its name to the Central Federation of Labor of Troy.

1893 May 1
Local 105 of the Schenectady County, New York, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada was chartered.

1894 March 19
The Fulton County Typographical Union No. 268 was chartered by the International Typographical Union.

1894 May 1
The International Brotherhood of Bookbinders of America convened at Albany City Hall.

1898
The Utica Printing Pressmen's Local 58 was chartered by the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America. Through a series of subsequent mergers of its parent union, by 1983 this local had become the Utica Graphic Communications Union, Local 58-C of the Graphic Communications International Union. The "C" indicated commercial printing.

1898 July 25
The Schenectady Trades Assembly was chartered.

1900-1919

1900 November 12-14
The first International Convention of Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers International Union was held at Troy's City Hall.

1901 May 7 to May 18
Five hundred Albany street car workers struck against the United Traction Company. They were joined by one hundred Albany ship workers and four hundred Troy trolley operators. The strikers demanded union recognition, a pay raise, and protection from arbitrary discipline. Ultimately, the strikes in Albany and Troy (as well as in St. Louis and New York City) were ineffective and drained the treasury of the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America (AASREA), which became the Amalgamated Transit Union in 1965.

1901 July 22
About 200 collar cutters went on strike in Troy against the Shirt and Collar Manufacturers' Association over the use of apprentices.

1901
A labor council was formed in Glens Falls, New York.

1902
The Hudson Typographical Union No. 531 was chartered as the first typographical union in Hudson, New York. The union probably folded during the eight-hour strike of 1906.

1903
Armature winders at the Schenectady General Electric plant won concessions in three work refusal strikes in three years.

1903
While working for an insurance company, James Connolly, an Irish Socialist leader and the founder of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, organized workers in the Troy area.

1903
Mary Wiltsic Fuller founded Holiday House at Lake George to provide low-cost vacations to young women working in the collar factories in Troy.

1903
Starchers in Troy struck over the presence of non-union workers in the shops.

1903 September 7
A Labor Day Parade was held with Michael J. Sullivan as grand marshal. This was possibly the first Labor Day Parade in Albany.

1905
Six hundred winders at the Schenectady General Electric plant held a five-hour "folded arms" strike, the first sit-down strike in the country. [Note: See the entry for December 10, 1906; different sources give different dates and details about the first sit-down strike at General Electric.]

1905 September 11
Printers inaugurated a strike in publishing plants, demanding the signing of an agreement to go into effect the first day of the next year.

1905 September 12
Compositors of The Argus went out on strike because of their affiliation with its job department, but the newspaper was issued as usual.

1906
Members of the Albany Typographical Union No. 4 staged a strike over an eight-hour day.

1906
General Electric in Schenectady fired an employee who attempted to organize the draftsmen. The draftsmen at General Electric did not form a union until decades later, though they formed what amounted to a social organization in 1918.

1906
International Workers of the World (IWW) called a plant strike at General Electric. Three thousand workers walked for two weeks, but the majority of the them, including American Federation of Labor (AFL) members, remained at work. IWW and the strike were broken, and the AFL took IWW's members.

1906 April 17
The Master Plumbers' Association yielded to the demands of Plumber's Union No. 7, ending a serious strike that lasted two weeks.

1906 December 10
During an Industrial Workers of the World organizing drive at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, three thousand workers sat down inside the plant refusing to work--the first recorded sit-down strike in American history. [Note: See the entry for 1905; different sources give different dates and details about the first sit-down strike at General Electric.]

1907
The Schenectady Labor Temple Association was incorporated. Its initial concern was the erection and management of the Schenectady Labor Temple. Over the years the Association has been involved in promoting labor interests in Schenectady, primarily through the publication of an annual labor and business directory.

1907
By the end of the year, the Book-binders Society of Albany, Local Union No. 10 of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders, reached agreement with employers in Albany regarding an eight-hour work day.

1909
The Schenectady Metal Trades Council was chartered.

1910
The Association of State Civil Service Employees was formed as a collective effort by a handful of state employees seeking better wages and working conditions.

1912
Local 157 of the International Laborers' Union of North America was chartered as an affiliate of the International Hod Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union of America. The local represented laborers in Schenectady and vicinity. For the early part of its history, the local's members were almost exclusively Italian.

1912 October
Workers at the Phoenix and Gilbert Knitting Mills of Little Falls walked off the job in protest of pay cuts made in response to a state law mandating a reduced work week for women.

1913 November 15
General Electric laid off Frank Dujay and Mabel Leslie, two shop stewards. The Electrical Trades Alliance called for a plant-wide strike. All fifteen thousand workers left the plant. Women played a major role in the strike, which lasted over a week and ended with Dujay and Leslie being assigned new jobs.

1915 October 4
The Metal Trades Alliance called a strike against General Electric that would push for an eight-hour day. All twelve thousand employees struck. General Electric used the Mohawk Valley Formula, and within three weeks the strike was broken and most workers were back on the job.

1917
Office workers were organized in the Schenectady General Electric plant. The War Labor Board granted union members wage increases up to 20 percent and women were guaranteed equal pay for equal work.

1918
A strike occurred against United Traction Company.

1918
The International Association of Machinists struck in Schenectady.

1918 January 17
Teachers in Schenectady met to organize the City Teachers' Association of Schenectady, which would represent all professionals in the city's department of education. The initial impetus for the formation of the association was improving teachers' salaries, though the association was also formed to replace the defunct city branch of the New York State Teachers' Association. By 1932 the City Teachers' Association was affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA).

1918 August 25
Representatives from eight printers' locals met in Syracuse to discuss the formation of a New York State Conference for union printers.

1918 September 28
Twelve locals were represented at the first Empire Typographical Conference. The objectives of the Conference were to improve the employment and wages of union printers, to organize local typographical unions, to provide a forum for printers' unions to discuss common problems, and to promote the ideals of the International Typographical Union.

1918 December 23
Schenectady General Electric workers led the first company-wide strike in the electrical industry when the Metal Trades Council at the Schenectady plant pulled all twenty thousand workers on strike to support General Electric workers in Erie, Pennsylvania. The strike failed after two weeks.

1919
Steamfitters struck at the Schenectady General Electric plant, but lost.

1920-1939

1920
The Pattern Makers' strike at General Electric was broken.

1920
Members of the Book-binders Society of Albany, Local 10 of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders, struck for nine days and forced employers to enforce scale prices.

1920 November 27
Violence occurred during a strike by the American Federation of Labor's Molders at the General Electric plant in Schenectady. The strike was eventually lost.

1921
A strike was held against the United Traction Company.

1921
The Albany Photo-Engravers Union No. 21 was chartered as an affiliate of the International Photo Engravers Union of North America.

1921 October 16
The Labor Temple on Congress Street in Troy was destroyed in a fire. The Labor Temple had been in existence since 1908 and all of the union records stored there were lost in the fire. Only five of the forty union charters held at the Labor Temple survived. Among the charters lost were those of the three oldest unions, the molders, the typographers, and the cigar makers. The Labor Temple was rebuilt in 1922.

1923
Local 83 of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association was issued a charter granting the local jurisdiction over Saratoga, Albany, and Rensselaer counties. Since that time, the local's jurisdiction has expanded to twelve counties.

1924
The "Works Council," a company union, was established in Schenectady's General Electric plant.

1925
Printers in Hudson were chartered as the Hudson Typographical Union No. 896 with the support of members of the Albany Typographical Union No. 4. Four years later, during the Great Depression, the International Typographical Union refused to support the Hudson Typographical Union in an attempt to gain recognition as a bargaining agent, and the union surrendered its charter.

1926
All craft unions at the General Electric plant in Schenectady were eliminated and replaced by the Works Council.

1926 May 17
A campaign by the Barbers Union and State Federation of Labor ended with the signing of the Truman-Winters Bill that allowing barbers, including those in New York City and Saratoga Springs, to have Sundays off.

1928
Members of the Albany Typographical Union No. 4 held a strike over unfair bargaining.

1931
The Adirondack District Council of Carpenters won a struggle over wages for carpenters working on the Conklingsville Dam and other public works projects.

1932
Left-wing immigrants from Central Europe organized a small branch of the militant trade union unity league at the Schenectady General Electric plant. It had about one hundred and fifty members.

1933
A small union was organized at the General Electric plant at Schenectady by William Turnbull (who had previous experience in the International Association of Machinists) with about one hundred and fifty members, including many socialists from Great Britain.

1933 October
Two thousand three hundred workers at thirty-three tanneries in Fulton County struck. The strike lasted eight weeks and won the recognition and organization of the Independent Leather Workers Union in Fulton County and 15 to 30 percent wage increases.

1934
Two small unions created in 1932 and 1933 at the General Electric plant in Schenectady joined to form a militant union of three hundred members. These men eventually formed Local 301 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE).

1934
The Capital District Joint Board of the Shirt, Collar and Pajama Workers of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was founded in Troy. The jurisdiction of the Joint Board was locals of clothing workers in Albany, Schenectady, and Rensselaer counties.

1934
Local 59 of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America was chartered.

1934 March 4
Local 166 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) was chartered with jurisdiction over inside electrical work in Schenectady. By 1990, Local 166's jurisdiction would also include work done in radio and television, telephone, and cable television. Although based in Schenectady, members of the local would work on sites across the Capital District, including Albany, Gloversville, Canajoharie, Amsterdam, and Saratoga. General Electric's Schenectady plant would also be a frequent job site.

1934 March 20
The Newspaper Guild of Albany, N.Y. Local 34 was chartered as the Tri-City Newspaper Guild of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, N.Y. as well as nearby cities.

1935
After enactment of the National Labor Relations Act, which protected the rights of workers to organize, Schenectady General Electric changed the "Works Council" to the "Workers Council" and removed management from the council.

1936
The former Hudson Typographical Union No. 896 was re-organized as the Columbia County Typographical Union No. 896.

1936 January
Because the American Federation of Labor refused to grant charters for industrial unions, the Congress of Industrial Organizations was formed, and Local 301 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) was the first to join the CIO, becoming Local 301, UE-CIO.

1936 May
Leaders of Local 301 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America were elected to half the seats on General Electric's Workers Council. Local 301 pushed for an National Labor Relations Board election between Local 301 and the Workers Council.

1936 December 15
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 301 defeated the General Electric Workers Council by 5,111 votes to 4,033, making Local 301 the only union recognized by the federal government as the bargaining agent for the General Electric plant in Schenectady.

1937
Members of the Columbia County Typographical Union No. 896, after failed attempts to win contracts, staged their first strike against a publication and were locked out. The strike and lock-out lasted eleven days.

1937
Carpet workers for Bigelow-Sanford in Amsterdam were issued the first charter by the Textile Workers Organizing Committee. The workers, many Italian, Polish, and Slovak immigrants, became the best-paid and among the best-organized textile workers.

1937
The Tri-City Newspaper Guild of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy won its first agreement and the first Newspaper Guild agreement in upstate New York when it signed a contract with the Times Union in Albany.

1937
The Capital District Joint Board of the Textile Workers Union of America was chartered.

1937 March 27
New York State's Minimum Wage Law was established.

1938 November 8
New York State voters approved labor's "Bill of Rights".

1939
The Byrn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers moved to the Kingston area and became a year-round school for both women and men. It was renamed the Hudson River Labor School.

1940-1959

1941
Local 301 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America negotiated an agreement with General Electric at Schenectady which gave women equal pay for equal work.

1941
The Schenectady Trades Assembly changed its name to the Schenectady Federation of Labor and was rechartered by the American Federation of Labor.

1941 August 7
Local 930 of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) was chartered to represent workers at Ford Motor Company's Green Island Plant.

1942
The Amsterdam Joint Board of the Textile Workers Union of America was chartered. This joint board was later merged into the Hudson Valley Area Joint Board.

1943
The City Teachers' Association in Schenectady began asking its members how to remedy the fact that the salaries of teachers in the Schenectady school district had not risen with the cost of living, unlike those of all other city employees who were given annual $100 cost of living adjustments from 1941 to 1944. One of the proposed solutions was the formation of a union. In 1944, after a sufficient number of teachers signed up as prospective members of the American Federation of Teachers, the Schenectady Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 803, received its charter.

1946
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America had the first successful strike against the General Electric Company. It was the first strike since the beginning of World War II and was called to increase wages (which increased only one-third as much as the cost of living during the war).

1946
The match workers at the Universal Match plant in Hudson were organized as Federal Labor Union No. 24122. Federal Labor Unions were unions chartered and administered directly by the AFL (and afterwards the AFL-CIO) in trades that otherwise would not have been organized.

1946
Steelworkers Local 2054 at the American Locomotive plant went on strike.

1946 November
The Association of State Civil Service Employees changed its name to the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). In 1940 there were approximately six hundred members.

1947
The Taft-Hartley law was passed, requiring that every labor leader sign a non-Communist affidavit.

1947 May
Telephone workers in Gloversville joined a nationwide strike led by the National Federation of Telephone Workers.

1948
The Bruderhof Christian Socialist Community was established in Rifton. Their co-op factory continues to make furniture and games for day care centers and their members are involved in non-violent movements.

1948
With the inclusion of non-competitive class civil service employees and local government workers, and increased interest among state workers, membership in the Civil Service Employees Association grew to over forty thousand.

1948
The Mid-Hudson Valley Joint Board of the Textile Workers Union of America was chartered.

1949
Mention is made of the Schenectady Building and Construction Trades Council in the records of Local 166 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, although the exact date of the formation of the Council is unknown. The Council was composed of representatives from appropriate trade unions in the area, including carpenters, sheet metal workers, bricklayers, masons, painters, laborers, plumbers and pipefitters, iron workers, boilermakers and electrical workers. A major goal of the Council was to keep unemployment to a minimum through coordinated action.

1949
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and nine other internationals were expelled from the CIO for being Communist-dominated. Local 301, representing workers at General Electric in Schenectady, remained with the UE.

1949 May 4
The Carpenters' District Council of Ulster County and Vicinity, chartered in 1946, was rechartered as the Hudson Valley District Council of Carpenters.

1949 July 15
Eighteen tanneries in Fulton County locked out their employees after discussions between the Tanners Association and International Fur and Leather Workers Union Local 202 broke down. Local 202 was asking for a third-round wage increase after most other locals had already received fourth-round increases.

1949 December 9
A National Labor Relations Board election was held in Gloversville, where the Tanners Association was trying to convince people to vote for the American Federation of Labor's Leather Workers or the Congress of Industrial Organization's Textile Workers Union, while the Independent Leather Workers Union (kept off the ballot) called for people to vote "no union." The election results were: 536 votes for no union, 180 votes for the CIO, and 144 for the AFL.

1950 February 10
Police, apparently with the aid of CIO officials, beat, tear-gassed, and arrested strikers and their families in front of seventeen strikebound tanneries in Fulton County.

1950 May 25
A National Labor Relations Board election was held between United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 301 and the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE) for representation of workers at General Electric in Schenectady. UE Local 301 won by a margin of 7 to 5.

1951 September 14
A second National Labor Relations Board election was held between UE Local 301 and the IUE and resulted in another victory for UE Local 301 (11,200-4,800).

1952
The Schenectady Board of Education abolished its merit rating system after the Schenectady Federation of Teachers decried the inequities in the system, including the subjectivity of raters' decisions and the lack of sufficient or in-depth evaluation.

1953
Members of the Correction Officers Association (COA) separated from Council 30. Council 30 had solicited membership from all state employees. As a result, corrections officers felt Council 30 neglected their needs. The 662 COA members from eight prisons formed what would become Council 50. In 1969 Council 30 and Council 50 would merge into Council 82, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

1954
Members of the Albany Typographical Union No. 4 staged a strike against the Albany Times Union.

1954
The Glove Cities Area Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was founded in Gloversville. The joint board initially had jurisdiction over clothing workers unions (primarily locals of glove and leather goods workers) in Gloversville and Johnstown.

1954
General Electric fired seven workers at its Schenectady plant for being admitted or suspected Communists.

1954 March
Business manager Leo Jandreau led Local 301 out of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and into the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE-CIO).

1954 June
A final National Labor Relations Board election between the UE and IUE was held for the representation of General Electric workers in Schenectady. IUE Local 301 won the election 9,005 votes to UE's 5,179 votes.

1955 September 14
Independent Consolidated Cutters Union in Fulton County voted not to support International Fur and Leather Workers Union, Local 202.

Late 1950s
Albany Local 6 of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen went on strike for a small raise. The strike failed and heightened awareness of the need for bricklayers to combine forces with other building trade unions. As a result locals in the Capital District formed the New York State Capital Area Bricklayers, Masons, Plasterers Executive Council (also called the District Council) which held monthly meetings and negotiated area-wide contracts.

1957
The Hudson Valley Area Joint Board, Textile Workers Union of America, was formed through the merger of the Columbia County and Mid-Hudson Valley Joint Boards.

1959
The labor council in Glens Falls received a charter from the AFL-CIO and became the Glens Falls, New York, Trades & Labor Assembly, AFL-CIO. The charter was subsequently amended in 1969 when the labor council became the Greater Glens Falls, New York, Central Labor Council, although the council continued to use the name Glens Falls Trades & Labor Council through at least 1979.

1959
The Schenectady Area Industrial Union Council, CIO, merged with the Schenectady Federation of Labor to form the Schenectady Area Central Labor Council, representing unions in the combined AFL-CIO. The labor council currently includes any AFL-CIO unions in Schenectady, Fulton, Montgomery and Schoharie counties.

1960-1979

1962 September 27
Local 376, Amsterdam, of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, merged with Local 105 in Schenectady.

1964
The Newspaper Guild of Albany, Local 34, struck against the Times Union and the Knickerbocker News. The strike formed the basis for The Ink Truck, the first published novel of local author William Kennedy, who was one of the striking reporters for the Times Union.

1965
During contract negotiations, the New York State Capital Area Bricklayers, Masons, Plasterers Executive Council attempted to negotiate a shorter work week. Negotiations eventually failed, and all locals (except for the Glens Falls local which negotiated its contracts with the Upper Tier Executive Council) went on strike for thirteen weeks, from May until August. Because of the united efforts of the unions, a contract was finally agreed to that shortened the work week (over a period of five years) to 35 hours and guaranteed double pay for overtime work.

1966
After three years of negotiations and planning, the Columbia County Typographical Union No. 896 merged into the Albany Typographical Union No. 4. Local 896 had experienced difficulties in administering a small union and fulfilling the many requirements of labor laws and the regulations of the International Typographical Union. In addition, younger members of Local 896 were reluctant to become officers of the local, further necessitating the consolidation effort.

1966
Following the merger of their parent unions, the Albany Photo-Engravers Union No. 21, International Photo Engravers Union of America, and Local 59 of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America, merged to form Local 259 of the Lithographers and Photoengravers Union. Following subsequent mergers between parent unions, this local would become known in 1983 as Local 259-M of the Graphic Communications International Union. (The "M" in the local's number indicated that it was the result of a merger between two locals.)

1966 July
The Brothers, an African American civil rights group, was formed in Albany over a dispute with Local 190, Laborers and General Construction Union in Albany. The Brothers objected to the lack of minority involvement in the construction of the South Mall in Albany.

1966 October 1
IUE Local 301 went on strike over disagreements with the "Make Schenectady Competitive" (MSC) plan, but returned to work on October 3 at the request of President Johnson.

1966 October 17
Local 301 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE) went on strike, joined by American Federation of Technical Engineers Local 147, Plumbers and Steamfitters Union, and Teamsters.

1966 December 30
The strike by IUE Local 301 against General Electric ended.

1967
Members of the Utica Printing Pressmen's Local 58, International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America, went on strike against the Utica Observer-Dispatch over a disagreement about how many people were needed to tend a new press. Three other unions (the Utica Newspaper Guild No. 129; the Stereotypers', Electrotypers', and Platemakers' Union, Local 46; and the Lithographers and Photoengravers International Union, Local 61) joined the strike, while a fourth, the Utica Typographical Union No. 62, observed the picket lines but never joined the strike. The five unions formed a joint committee during the strike and bargained with management together, although the Utica Typographical Union was the leader in economic negotiations. The strike lasted one hundred days (the longest in Utica's history) and in the end the unions received an improvement in wages that was also sought.

1967
The phrase "Offset Workers" was added to the name of the Albany Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union No. 23 to indicate the dominance of offset work within the local's jurisdiction.

1967 September
The Schenectady Teachers Association, affiliated with the New York State Teachers Association (NYSTA) and the National Education Association (NEA), was elected as exclusive bargaining agent for Schenectady's teachers. One probable reason for STA's success over the Schenectady Federation of Teachers was a feeling among some teachers that the SFT was not a professional organization and that it was too closely allied with labor.

1967 September 1
New York's Public Employment Fair Employment Act (the Taylor Law) took effect. The Taylor Law, covering all public employees (state, county, and city), granted public employees the right to organize and to negotiate collectively with their employers; gave public employees the right to be represented by employee organizations of their own choosing; required public employers to negotiate with their employees and enter into written contracts with public employee organizations; established impasse procedures for the resolution of contract disputes; prohibited improper labor practices by employers and employee organizations; continued the common law prohibition on strikes by public employees, and established the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) as an administrative agency.

1968
The American Locomotive plant closed in Schenectady, shutting down Steelworkers Local 2054.

1968
The Capital District Joint Board of the Textile Workers Union of America was merged into the Hudson Valley Area Joint Board.

1969 September 3
Council 30 and Council 50 merge to form Council 82, Security and Law Enforcement Employees, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Council 82 was the bargaining representative for all New York State security and law enforcement employees except members of the State Police.

1969 October 27
International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE) Local 301 and others across the country went on strike against General Electric for unfair bargaining practices. The strike lasted for one hundred and one days.

1969 November 27
The Public Employment Relations Board established five statewide bargaining units.

1970
Local 16 of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen negotiated a contract which included substantial raises and significant increases to benefits. The existence of a strong force for collective bargaining and the building of the South Mall in Albany (which led to a shortage in construction labor) seems to have been instrumental in winning this contract.

1971
Federal Labor Union No. 24122, representing match workers at the Universal Match plant in Hudson, voted to affiliate with the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers over the Textile Workers Union of America (whose organizing drive was run by the Hudson Valley Area Joint Board) and became IUE Local 379.

1972
The Empire Typographical Union was renamed the Empire Typographical and Mailer Conference to recognize the contribution of the member mailers' unions.

1972
Albany firefighters voted to form a union, the Albany Permanent Professional Firefighters Association (APPFA).

1972
The Schenectady Federation of Teachers was overwhelming elected to represent employees of the Schenectady City School District, defeating the Schenectady Teachers Association. The merger in 1972 between the New York State Teachers Association (NYSTA, affiliated with the NEA) and the United Teachers of New York (UTNY, affiliated with the AFT, AFL-CIO) to form New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), made all organized teachers in New York members of both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

1972
The International Brotherhood of Bookbinders merged with the Lithographers and Photoengravers Union to form the Graphic Arts International Union (GAIU). As a result, the Book-binders Society of Albany (Local No. 10 of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders) became GAIU Local 10-B, with the "B" designating bookbinders. A subsequent merger in 1983 between the GAIU and the International Printing and Graphic Communications Union created the Graphic Communications International Union. Local 10-B retained its number and designation.

1972 March 31
New York State's first strike by state employees occurred at midnight when members of the Civil Service Employees Association went on strike to protest meager wage increases presented during contract negotiations. The strike ended two days later with CSEA winning many improvements in its contract, including a salary increase, productivity bonuses, career ladders, and streamlined grievance procedures.

1972 May 1
Local 253, Gloversville, of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, merged with Local 105 in Schenectady.

1972 June 29
Five thousand union members took part in a job rally in Albany sponsored by the New York State AFL-CIO.

1973
United University Professions (initially named SUNY/United) was created by the merger of the Senate Professional Association (SPA) and the State University Federation of Teachers (SUFT) as the bargaining agent for all faculty and non-teaching professionals at the State University of New York.

1973-1976
A dispute took place between Local 259-M of the Graphic Arts International Union and the Amsterdam Printing and Litho Corporation. Local 259-M initially lost a National Labor Relations Board election, but protested the company's conduct during the election and won a subsequent election. The company refused to recognize Local 259-M as the bargaining agent, eliminated a Christmas bonus, changed wages, and reduced the work week without consulting the union. A 1976 determination by the National Labor Relations Board found the company to be engaging in unfair labor practices and ordered it to restore the workweek, and pay lost bonuses and lost wages.

1974 September
Albany police formed the Albany Police Officers Union (APOU). Mayor Erastus Corning II refused to recognize the union as a bargaining agent.

1975
When the State Legislature mandated that public employee pension funds be invested in risky New York City bonds in an effort to solve that city's financial crisis, the Civil Service Employees Association went to court and obtained a ruling that declared the mandate unconstitutional.

1975 January 3
Blue collar employees of the City of Albany voted 171-88 to unionize as the Albany Blue Collar Workers Union. Council 66 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, was selected to act as the union's bargaining agent.

1975 September
The Schenectady Federation of Teachers went on strike after being unable to negotiate a contract over the issue of class size. The strike lasted fourteen days and resulted in the SFT winning its negotiating point. However, because strikes by public employees are illegal under the Taylor Law, a number of SFT members (including the president) were prosecuted and sentenced to short jail terms for their participation in the strike. The strike (which coincided with a number of other teacher strikes in the Capital Region) was one incident that brought out animosities between the National Education Association (which viewed itself as a professional organization) and New York State United Teachers (which had continued to view itself as a labor organization of education professionals). A major disagreement between NEA and NYSUT was that NEA required all locals to be represented by the same percentage of ethnic and racial minorities as existed in the state's population. NYSUT argued that this goal was not possible in many locals. By July 1976, SFT voted to disaffiliate with NEA, following NYSUT's example.

1975-1976
After an exposé by the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, General Electric was cited for polluting the Hudson River by dumping PCBs used in producing capacitors at GE plants in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward.

1977
Local 8652 of the United Steelworkers of America was chartered. This was apparently the first union since the 1880s to represent steelworkers at what had become the Portec Corporation, Railway Products Division, in Troy.

1977 January 26
As one way for the Teamsters to increase their representation among municipal workers, Local 294 won bargaining rights for the Albany County sewer district plants in Menands and the Port of Albany. These groups had previously rejected unionizing efforts by AFSCME, Council 66.

1977 March 8
Albany city officials decided not to ask the Court of Appeals to block an arbitrated raise for police.

1977 April 1
After two years of arbitration and demonstration by unionized Albany police and firefighters, city officials ordered raises of as much as 20 percent for six hundred public safety employees. The Albany Permanent Professional Firefighters Association (APPFA) and the Albany Police Officers Union (APOU) signed their new contracts. Police and firefighters would have to wait until June to receive the retroactive pay that accumulated while the city challenged the two arbitrated awards.

1977 May 26
The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court decided that the Albany Blue Collar Workers Union president, George Strokes, must be reinstated as a City of Albany Public Works Department operator and given back pay, because his August 22, 1975 dismissal was based on anti-union hostility.

1977 August 30
The Albany Blue Collar Workers Union, representing three hundred to five hundred employees in the city's departments of Water and Public Works, broke off negotiations for a new contract over disputes for more pay and changes in vacation policy, sick leave policy, and work rules.

1977 September 20
Non-union Albany employees (except for elected officials) were awarded one-time bonuses of up to $250 less than two weeks after Mayor Erastus Corning II won the democratic primary race for mayor and after Corning had fought for months to keep unionized employees from receiving raises. Howard C. Nolan, who was supported by the three municipal unions that had fought Corning for a year, lost. Corning said, "We felt we had to do something. This particular group of workers was left out in the cold."

1977 November 16
The City of Albany broke off talks with the Albany Permanent Professional Firefighters Association, which was seeking a 10 percent raise in salaries. The city refused to grant any raises or other financial benefits.

1977 November 16
The City of Albany offered its blue-collar workers (members of the Albany Blue Collar Workers Union) a 5 percent raise. Wages for this group began at $2.20, so even with a raise many of its members would earn below the federal minimum wage.

1978
The Schenectady Building and Construction Trades Council joined with its counterparts in Albany and Troy to form the Tri-Cities Building and Construction Trades Council.

1978
The Civil Service Employees Association undertook a trial affiliation with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and became AFSCME Local 1000. In 1981 the affiliation was made permanent. CSEA is the largest local in AFSCME, which is the largest affiliate in the AFL-CIO.

1978 March 21
The State Court of Appeals unanimously upheld an Appellate Division decision of 26 May 1977, that the Albany Public Works Department must rehired George Strokes, president of the Albany Blue Collar Workers Union.

1978 November 30
Albany's South Mall was the site of a boycott rally against the products of J. P. Stevens Company, whose "runaway shop policy" and anti-union policies had resulted in the closing of twenty-one textile mills in the Northeast.

1978 June 7
The Albany Common Council approved pay raises for more than three hundred employees in the Public Works and Water departments. These employees were members of the Albany Blue Collar Workers Union. Employees making $2.30 per hour would now make $2.65, the federal minimum wage. Those employees who made more than minimum wage would receive a 6 percent increase.

1978 September 17
The Albany Police Officers Union wanted to negotiate a pay hike, but Mayor Corning refused to talk, citing a technicality. As a form of a job action, police wrote parking tickets (especially around City Hall) at an increased rate-more than seven hundred in one day.

1978 December
Plant employees at the American Steel and Aluminum Company decided that they no longer wanted representation from the machinists' union but from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

1979 January 2
Teamsters filed a request with the National Labor Relations Board asking for new representation at the American Steel and Aluminum Company.

1979 January 26
The Teamsters withdrew their petition to represent plant employees at the American Steel and Aluminum Company, because Machinists charged that its local had been raided.

1979 January 29
Seventeen members of the newly formed People's Rights Union filed unfair labor practice charges against the American Steel and Aluminum Company. Management recognized the International Association of Machinists, Local 838, as the representative for these workers. Local 838 worked out a deal with American Steel and Aluminum. Some plant employees said they did not want representation from Local 838 and filed for recognition of the People's Rights Union with the National Labor Relations Board.

1979 January 30
Approximately twenty members of the People's Rights Union voted unanimously not to return to work until their new union was recognized. No union members had worked at the American Steel and Aluminum Company since January 28.

1979 February 6
The twenty-three members of the People's Rights Union from the American Steel and Aluminum Company plant were unemployed, replaced by a new work crew.

1979 April 5
About three hundred area Teamsters from Local 294 joined the union's selective strike against seventy-three major trucking firms. Other truckers were out of work due to a general lockout by managers of many trucking firms.

1979 April 19
Six thousand four hundred corrections employees from Council 82 went on strike. National Guardsmen, civilian employees, prison supervisors, and approximately 1,100 non-striking members of Council 82 manned New York State's prisons during the strike. The strike lasted sixteen days. Because the strike was illegal under New York State's Taylor Law, Council 82 was fined $2.5 million for contempt of court. The fine was later reduced to $150,000 which the court allowed to be paid in monthly installments so as to permit Council 82 to continue its daily operations. Council 82 also temporarily lost its privilege of dues check-off, which meant that dues were not automatically deducted from members paychecks and had to instead be individually collected at each prison.

1979 May 14
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 200, representing Albany County nursing home employees negotiated its first contract after seven months of talks and job actions. The contract included at least a 7 percent increase in wages and better benefits.

1979 June 18
Members of the Albany Police Officers Union overwhelmingly approved their first negotiated contract with the city. The contract included a 10.5 percent pay hike in the first year, fixed work shifts, modified grievance procedures, and sick leave.

1979 July 3
Local 2055 of AFSCME Council 66 went on strike for improvements in wages, working conditions and benefits. Beginning workers were paid 25 cents below the minimum wage.

1980-2001

1981 February 24
Six hundred and fifty draftsmen of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 147 held a one-day strike. Other strikes were planned to complain that General Electric's management was forcing people to work at higher paying job without a change in salary.

1981 March 13
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 147 held its fourth one-day strike. Charles Rossi, president of Local 147, said General Electric had been subcontracting work and that the outside draftsmen were being paid more than union members. Four hundred grievances had been filed against GE over misclassification of jobs.

1982
Painters and Allied Trades Local 201 of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades of the United States and Canada, representing painters in Albany, Schenectady, and Rennsselaer counties, was formed by the merger of Local 12 of Troy, Local 62 of Schenectady, and Local 201 of Albany.

1983
The Capital District Joint Board of the Shirt, Collar and Pajama Workers of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America merged with the Glove Cities Area Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The merged entity retained the name Glove Cities Area Joint Board.

1983
Following the merger of the International Printing and Graphic Communications Union (itself the successor to a merger between the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America with the International Stereotypers', Electrotypers', and Platemakers' Union of North America) with the Graphic Arts International Union, the Albany Printing Pressmen, Assistants and Offset Workers Union became Local 23-C of the Graphic Communications International Union. The "C" stood for "commercial" and designated the local as one devoted in general to commercial work.

1984 January
The Solidarity Committee of the Capital District (SCCD) was formed from the Greyhound Strikers Solidarity Committee of the Capital District that was created by Albany area labor union activists who supported the Amalgamated Transit Union strike against Greyhound Bus Lines in the fall of 1983. The SCCD was originally considered a standing committee of the Albany County Federation of Labor (ACFL), the umbrella organization of area AFL-CIO union locals. However, relations between the SCCD, which welcomed members of non-AFL-CIO unions, and the AFL-CIO were often tense. After the Schenectady Central Labor Council complained that the SCCD was overstepping the ACFL's geographic jurisdiction, national AFL-CIO officials asserted in 1990 that because the January 1984 ACFL meeting minutes made no mention of the SCCD's standing committee status, the SCCD had no formal ties to the AFL-CIO.

1984 October
International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers Local 318 stuck Campbell Plastics.

1984 November 15
After a two-week strike, workers at Campbell Plastics (members of IUE Local 318) voted 230-54 to accept the company's third contract offer.

1984 or 1985
Water from a burst pipe in the Schenectady Labor Temple flooded the basement and destroyed many of the historical records union locals had stored there.

1984-1985
Council 82 defeated an attempt by The Union of Federated Corrections Officers (TUFCO) to replace it as bargaining representative for New York State security and law enforcement personnel.

1987
The Utica Graphic Communications Union No. 58-C merged into Local 259-M of the Graphic Communications International Union.

1987 March 3
William H. Bywater, president of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine & Furniture Workers, came to Schenectady to swear in new officers of Local 301, Atomic Energy Workers.

1987 April 29
Sixty professional and technical workers at Schenectady City Hall wanted to split from the Civil Service Employees Association, Local 847, and join Teamsters, Local 294. The professional employees (mostly male) were said to feel outnumbered by the clerical employees (mostly female), but Violet Urbaitus, president of Local 847, pointed out that most of the employees were male.

1987 April 31
CSEA, Local 847, signed a contract with Schenectady City Hall on the 160-day deadline, averting the possibility of splintering the union.

1988
The International Typographical Union (ITU) merged with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), with the former ITU operating as an autonomous sector of CWA. As a result, the Albany Typographical Union No. 4 became a local of CWA. Although CWA and ITU envision someday a large union covering the printing and electronic communications industry, and to encompass locals currently affiliated with the Graphic Communications International Union and the Newspaper Guild, for the time being, the Albany Typographical Union No. 4 remains an autonomous local representing workers in the typographical trade.

1988 December
After sixty-five years of operation, Ford Motor Company closed its Green Island Plant.

1989
Swedish Match, which bought Universal Match Corporation in 1981, closed its Hudson plant, marking the end of the Match Workers' Union, Local 379 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Technical, Salaried & Machine Workers.

1989
Portec closed its Railway Products Division plant in Troy, ending the existence of Local 8652 of the United Steelworkers of America.

1989 January 5
On the day beginning the bicentennial celebrations for the city of Troy, Cluett Peabody announced the closing of its Troy operations and its intentions to consolidate with its factory in Atlanta. One hundred and twenty members of Local 429 of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers were affected by the closing, which was brought on by a hostile takeover bid.

1989 October 24
United Automobile Workers Local 930, representing workers at Ford Motor Company's Green Island Plant, closed its office, but its records were saved by the Capital District Labor History Project.

1989 October 27
Troy's last remaining iron mill closed.

late 1980s
The Solidarity Committee of the Capital District expanded its efforts beyond the Capital District, to include Latin America, Asia and Africa. Most notably was the Committee's involvement in anti-apartheid demonstrations, boycotts and food and clothing drives.

1990
The United University Professions Oral History Project was conducted, with taped interviews capturing the recollections of many of those involved in the formation of UUP and its early years of operation.

1994
Council 82 defeated an attempt to replace it as bargaining representative for New York State security and law enforcement personnel.

1994 March
Registered nurses at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady conduct informational picketing after working without a contract for three months. The nurses, members of the New York State Nurses Association, were seeking cost-of-living increases. A tentative contract was reached in April 1994.

1994 April
Members of Local 294 of the Teamsters Union conducted picketing at several locations in support of a nationwide Teamsters Union strike. The industry's plan to utilize more part-time workers was a key issue of contention.

1994 April
Day care workers in Troy conducted picketing during the annual dinner of the Rensselaer County Commission on Economic Opportunity in an effort to unionize and seek higher pay.

1994 September 1
Members of Local 301 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers stage a one-day strike at General Electric's Schenectady plant in protest of lay-offs announced by GE.

1995 February 27
Approximately five thousand students from state and city university campuses, including members of the Graduate Student Employees Union, held a protest at the Capitol over proposed tuition increases and aid reductions.

1995 March
Members of the Civil Service Employees Association picketed an appearance by Governor George Pataki protesting his announced plan to consider temporary lay-offs and permanent job cuts among the state workforce.

1995 October
Members of the Newspaper Guild of Albany conducted informational picketing in front of the Times Union. The Guild's last contract had expired August 1, 1994.

1995 November
Members of the Cohoes Police Officers Union picketed in front of city hall, objecting to a new limit on overtime.

1996 May
Maintenance workers at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, members of the International Union of Electronic Workers Local 301AE, walked off their jobs in protest of labor conditions at the Knolls' plant in Niskayuna and its plant on Atomic Project Road in West Milton. The strike was called to protest alleged contract violations, including allowing non-union workers to perform union work.

1996 December
Local garment workers picketed in front of Macy's and Federated Department Stores Inc. alleging that the retailer allowed its brand-name products to be made under sweatshop conditions. In addition, representatives of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE, formed by the merger of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union) staged a demonstration near the Capitol Building.

1997 August
Members of Local 294 of the Teamsters Union joined a nationwide strike against the United Parcel Service. The primary issue was the use of part-time employees. As a show of solidarity, members of other local unions joined the teamsters on the picket line and pledged to boycott UPS.

1997 September 2
Members of Painters Local 201 picketed the construction site of the headquarters for the New York State Dormitory Authority to protest the hiring of a non-union painting company. Construction workers honored the informational picket line and walked off the job.

1998 July 15
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the former home of Kate Mullaney in Troy, which had recently been declared a National Historical Landmark due to Mullaney's role as a pioneer in the labor movement.

1998 August
Local members of the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers joined a strike of over seventy-three thousand workers on the East Coast against Bell Atlantic.

1999 April
Council 82 lost a representation election to the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), 8,070 votes to 12,135. Council 82's membership was reduced from approximately twenty-five thousand to five thousand, leaving it to represent city, county and municipal security personnel. One complaint made by NYSCOPBA during the representation campaign was Council 82's affiliation with the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees and the dues Council 82 paid to AFSCME.

1999 April 15
Picketing General Electric retirees seeking an increase in their monthly pension payments walked from the IUE union hall to the General Electric plant in Schenectady.

1999 June 7
About two hundred and thirty members of United Electric, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 332 held a one-day strike at the General Electric plant at Fort Edward to protest the handling of temporary work reassignments.

1999 September 18
Politicians, union officials, and members of the Irish-American community attended the dedication of a Celtic cross marking the grave of Kate Mullaney, which had been unmarked since her death in 1906. The Troy Area Labor Council raised $16,000 for the cross.

2000 August
Local members of the Communication Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers picketed in several locations as part of a strike against Verizon Communications.

2001 April
Members of the Tri-City Building and Construction Trades Council conducted picketing on the University at Albany campus asking the State University Construction Fund to institute a project labor agreement that provides a single set of rules for labor relations and a central method of resolving disputes on major public construction projects.