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.
June 2 - Wartime Strike Defies Presidential Seizure
June 1 - Standing Up by Sitting Down
May 31 - The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot
May 30 - The Memorial Day Massacre
May 29 - The Little Steel Strike Revs Up
May 28 - The 54th Massachusetts
May 27 - Rubber Workers Push Back Against War Profiteering
May 26 - SWOC Strikes Little Steel
May 25 - Striking Teamsters Triumph
May 24 - Operation Humanity Marching for Dignity
May 23 - The Battle of Toledo
May 22 - The Battle of Deputies’ Run
May 21 - Striking to Save Their Union
May 20 - Relief Workers Sit Down in Vancouver
May 19 - Explosion on the Jersey Docks
May 18 - The TVA Transforms the South
May 17 - Striking for Dignity and Respect
May 16 - Minneapolis Teamsters Lead the Way
May 15 - The Winnipeg General Strike Begins
May 14 - Wobblies On the Waterfront
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