Louis Waldman could barely speak English when he got his first harsh lesson in U.S. labor relations. In a chandelier factory, where he worked for $2 a week, a woman's hand was smashed in an unguarded machine. Waldman, 17 and fresh from Yancherudnia in the Ukraine, was fired when he refused to sign a paper saying the accident was her fault.
His second job brought a second lesson. As an apprentice garment cutter, Waldman took part in the great cloakmakers' strike of 1910. For reporting on the employer's violation of the subsequent settlement,...
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