On this day in labor history, the year was 1974.
That was the day Karen Silkwood was killed in a mysterious car crash.
Though her death was ruled a one car accident, some maintain she was forced off the road.
Silkwood was a union activist and representative for Local 5-283 of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers.
She worked at Kerr McGee’s Cimarron plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets for nuclear reactor fuel rods.
Meryl Streep popularized her life in the 1983 film, Silkwood.
Karen’s union loyalty only grew after the company crushed a strike in 1972.
She was elected to the union bargaining committee just as the company moved to force a decertification election.
She also served as a union health and safety rep.
Silkwood found a number of apparent violations: routine contamination exposure, faulty respiratory equipment, falsified inspection records, and improper storage of radioactive material.
She met with OCAW leader, Tony Mazzocchi to highlight safety issues in a campaign to beat back decertification.
It worked.
Then Karen testified before the Atomic Energy Commission, worried about her own contamination.
It was clear her home was contaminated too.
She worked tirelessly to gather the documentation and the evidence, detailing the company’s life-threatening negligence.
And on this day, Karen Silkwood was headed to Oklahoma City to meet Mazzocchi’s assistant, Steve Wodka and a New York Times reporter to present evidence she collected.
She never made it.
Her car was found with rear end damage, near skid marks, in a ditch along Route 74.
While the company attempted to smear her as a drug addicted lesbian who deliberately contaminated herself, they would eventually settle with her family for nearly $1.4 million.
Karen Silkwood became a model and a hero for women workers and all those who fight for safe workplaces.
July 25 - Pushing Back Against Wartime No-Strike Pledge
July 24 - The Great Railroad Strike Reaches Louisville
July 23 - The 1913 Michigan Copper Miners Strike
July 22 - The 1916 Preparedness Day Bombing
July 22 - The Michigan Copper Miners Strike of 1913
July 21 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Erupts
July 20 - Bloody Friday
July 19 - The ‘34 General Strike in San Francisco Winds Down
July 18 - Striking for Dignity
July 17 - Lumber Workers Put Down Their Axes
July 16 - Bloody Thursday
July 15 - The 1959 Steel Strike
July 14 - A Summer of Public Sector Strikes
July 13 - Striking News in Detroit
July 12 - The ILGWU Comes to Tupelo
July 11 - The Little Steel Strike Begins to Collapse
July 10 - Organizing During Wartime
July 9 - Organizing ALL of NYC Transit
July 8 - WPA Building Trades On Strike
July 7 - State Militia Confront Pullman Strikers
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