September 10 - Minneapolis Printers Organize

Labor History in 2:00 · Sep 10, 2026 · 1m

On this day in Labor History the year was 1859. That was the day that the St. Anthony and Minneapolis Typographical Union Number 42 was founded in Minnesota. It was one of the oldest unions on record in the state. Three years’ earlier, printers in St. Paul had formed a union, Local 30, with a dinner to honor Benjamin Franklin’s birthday. At the time just over 6,000 white people lived in Minnesota. Typographical workers were very important to the early labor movement in the United States. These printers were vital to spreading the word about the cause of labor to other workers in the era…