McLean County Labor History

When McLean County entrepreneurs began developing their businesses in the 19th century, few of them thought about dealing with organized workers.

A light car, drawn by a single horse,
gallops up to the end of a rail and starts forward,
the rest of the gang taking hold by twos,
until it is clear of the car.
They come forward at a run.
At a word of command the rail is dropped 

orn and raised on Bloomington’s west side, Patrick Henry Morrissey became a national labor leader in his early thirties.

In 1935, switchboard operators for the Wabash Telephone Company handled an average of 60,000 calls coming through its downtown Bloomington building.

The old Laborers' Local 362 union hiring hall is being demolished this week. The building featured a mural created by Kari Sandhaas in the 1980s, which displayed Bloomington-Normal’s historical relationship with labor and unionizing.

Today's Connect Transit bus system can trace its roots in Bloomington-Normal back more than 130 years. 

A new form of transportation connected Bloomington residents in the late 1800's, a horse railway.