Throughout history, working class people have stood up and fought back against oppression and exploitation in the food system. Each month, Food Fight documents a timeline of historical labor struggles to inform and educate today’s workers on historical class struggle in the food industry. We commemorate their struggles each day of the month.
September 1
2010: Strikes in Mozambique over food prices escalate into bread riots
2022: Taco Bell workers strike in Kansas City
2023: Striking hotel workers in Los Angeles take over the streets and block intersections
September 2
2008: Chadian refugees riot over food ration reductions at a United Nations camp
September 3
2008: Catering workers strike at Lisbon’s Portela Airport
September 4
1936: Workers strike at Trocadero Grill in Vancouver
2020: Workers strike at Freddy’s restaurant in Durham over COVID concerns
September 5
2022: Workers strike at Sugar Taco in Los Angeles
2022: Customers “sip-in” at Starbucks in Philadelphia
September 6
2004: Hotel workers strike in San Francisco
September 7
2011: Longshoreman blockade a grain train in Longview
2011: Student guest workers present Hershey’s executives with a petition of 67,000 signatures
2016: Peeps workers strike in Bethlehem
2018: Hotel workers strike at 25 hotels in Chicago
September 8
1941: Workers in Norway strike after occupying Nazi forces cut milk rations
1965: Agricultural workers begin strike in Delano
2007: Kenyan agricultural workers strike at 18 tea plantations
2011: Striking longshoreman seize trains hauling grain in the Pacific Northwest
September 9
1939: Slaves in South Carolina begin the Stono Rebellion
1960: Students participate in a lunch counter sit-in to protest racial segregation in New Orleans
1985: Workers go on strike at Watsonville Cannery
September 10
1979: McDonald’s workers in Dublin end a six month strike
September 11
1791: Farmers and distillers in Pennsylvania wage an insurrection against whiskey taxes
2021: Workers go on strike at a Heaven Hill distillery in Bardstown
September 12
2009: TIG Asian Tapas Bar in Seattle receives a letter demanding a dishwasher’s stolen wages
2012: Workers strike at Walmart in Mira Loma
September 13
1943: Workers on the Belle Vue Harel sugar estate in Mauritius go on strike
September 14
2016: IWW members at Ellen’s Stardust Diner in New York stage a work refusal
2023: Workers at six locations of Seattle-based sandwich maker Homegrown go on strike
September 15
2012: Workers strike at Walmart in Elwood
2014: IWW members picket at Freshii in downtown Chicago
September 16
2007: Food riot in West Bengal
September 17
1960: Students stage a lunch counter sit-in at McCrory’s in New Orleans to protest segregation
September 18
2018: McDonald’s workers walkout in protest of sexual harassment
September 19
2012: Demand letter delivered to management at Admiral Pub in Seattle
September 20
1961: Auto workers in the UK go on strike to protect tea breaks
September 21
1939: Workers sit in at Shack Sandwich Shops in New York to protest racist hiring practices
September 22
2021: Efood delivery drivers stage a protest in Athens
September 23
2011: Student guest workers protest their working conditions outside of a Hershey’s plant in Palmyra
September 24
1903: Workers strike across fourteen flour mills in Minneapolis
2023: Workers stage a walkout at a Dollar General in Holland, MI
September 25
2023: Workers at five Santa Monica hotels walk off the job
September 26
2022: Fast food workers strike at San Francisco International Airport
September 27
1933: Grape pickers strike in Lodi
September 28
2020: Workers occupy Debenhams store in Waterford
2023: Workers strike at Rogers Sugar refinery in Vancouver
September 29
2004: Workers strike across four hotels in California
2022: Workers strike at Ansley Mall Starbucks in Atlanta
September 30
2020: Tea plantation workers strike in Assam