20 June 1941 Henry Ford recognizes the UAW.

15 December 1941 The AFL pledges that there will be no strikes in defense-related industry plants for the duration of the war.

28 December 1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army to seize the executive offices of Montgomery Ward and Company after the corporation failed to comply with a National War Labor Board directive regarding union shops.

1946 Workers in packinghouses nation-wide went on strike.

1 April 1946 A strike by 400,000 mine workers in the U.S. began. U.S. troops seized railroads and coal mines the following month.

4 October 1946 The U.S. Navy seized oil refineries in order to break a 20-state post-war strike.

20 June 1947 The Taft-Hartley Labor Act, curbing strikes, was vetoed by President Truman. Congress overrode the veto.

20 April 1948 Labor leader Walter Reuther was shot and seriously wounded by would-be assassins.