Labor History Today

On today’s Labor Radio Podcast Daily: The Worker Power Hour tackles the housing crisis and wage stagnation in Southern California. In labor history, on this date in 1970, Delano grape growers signed their first union contracts with the United Farm Workers. Quote of the day: Cesar Chavez. @1932Teamsters @wpfwdc @AFLCIO #1u #UnionStrong #LaborRadioPod Proud founding member of the  Labor Radio Podcas...

This week on Labor History Today: author Mark S. Ferrara joins labor educator Linda Donahue to explore the hidden history of the workers who built and lived along the Erie Canal. Based on Ferrara’s book The Raging Erie, the conversation uncovers the stories of Native Americans whose land was taken, immigrant laborers who carved the canal by hand, orphan children who worked as mule drivers, and the...

Ben Fletcher was one of the most important black labor leaders in American history. Yet he’s almost entirely unknown. In today’s show, from the Working Class History podcast (originally aired here on 7/23/23), we learn about this little-known dock worker and labor organizer, who helped organize thousands of workers on the Philadelphia docks into the most powerful multiracial union in the country....

For decades, rumors have circulated about a strike in space. The story goes that in 1973, the three astronauts on the Skylab 4 mission took an unplanned day off to protest ground controls management style, and the job action resulted in improved working conditions. It's a great story, but according to crew member Ed Gibson, that's not exactly what happened. Reporter Meagan Day says the real story...

This week on Labor History Today, we bring you a special episode celebrating folk legend Pete Seeger. In the first episode of A Weekend With Pete Seeger , recorded in 1999, Seeger sings, plays banjo, and shares stories of a lifetime fighting for labor rights, peace, and the environment. Captured just before his 80th birthday, these intimate conversations—long tucked away—bring Seeger’s voice and s...

On today’s Labor History Today, from our friends at The Docker Podcast , we join ILWU longshore workers James Brophy and Leith Jasinowski-Kahl to mark the 90th anniversary of the 1935 Battle of Ballantyne Pier. From police violence on Vancouver’s waterfront to the songs that keep resistance alive, they share why this history still matters today. And on Labor History in 2:00 : the year was 1936; Je...

This week on Labor History Today, we bring you a special episode from the We Rise Fighting Labor Podcast , exploring the power and potential of today’s mass protests—from the streets of LA to immigrant rights rallies; where is all this energy going, and what vision can turn protest into real, lasting change? Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of...

On this week’s Labor History Today: We remember legendary union leader Tony Mazzocchi—his fight for worker safety, his role in founding the Labor Party, and his lasting impact on labor arts. Plus, Seth Newton Patel’s song about the untold story of the multiracial cowboy strike of 1883, and a look back at the 1937 miners’ solidarity strike.

This week on Labor History Today: From the Library of Congress’ America Works podcast: Bill Favaro shares the origins of his family’s Louisiana rod & reel shop, and Juan Salcido Sanchez reflects on a lifetime caring for racehorses. Plus, we mark two deadly events in mining labor history—from Butte, Montana (1917) to Cripple Creek, Colorado (1904). Music: “The Miners” by The Elders. Questions,...

On this week’s Labor History Today: "This drunk came on and he started showing me a bad time, and I up and popped him and knocked him out. The soldier got one arm, I got the other and we put him beside the telephone pole. We got back in, gave a bell, and away we went. Never knew what happened to the guy. He could still be sitting there—I don’t know." That was Pearl Wattum, one of Vancouver’s legen...

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property (Encore) Steve Fraser discusses his book “Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American History” and political scientist and historian Michael Munk connects 2024 Minneapolis with the general strike that took place there in 1934. Plus, Meany Archivist Ben Blake on how the labor movement h...

On this week's Labor History Today: Before she turned 20, Emma Tenayuca led thousands of Mexican American pecan shellers into one of the largest strikes of the 1930s. A fearless young organizer from San Antonio, Texas, Tenayuca fought for workers’ rights, racial justice, and dignity—despite arrest, red-baiting, and death threats. Her story, largely left out of mainstream labor history, still reson...

On this week’s Labor History Today podcast: In a special crossover episode with the Power At Work podcast, historians Joe McCartin and Veronica Martinez-Matsuda join me and Power At Work host Seth Harris to connect the past to labor’s present “perilous moment.” They explore the legacy of the 1981 PATCO strike, today’s threats to federal workers' rights, the farm labor movement’s long exclusion fro...

On this episode of Labor History Today, we mark the 40th anniversary of the end of one of the most significant labor struggles of the 20th century: the 1984–85 British Miners’ Strike. Former miner and strike veteran John Dunn shares his harrowing personal account of the violence, repression, and community solidarity that defined the year-long battle between the National Union of Mineworkers and Ma...

Sara Nelson’s inspirational keynote at the April 6, 2021 symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jeremy Brecher’s classic labor history book “Strike!” On today’s Labor History in 2 : Our Thing is DRUM! Originally released May 2, 2021. To contribute a labor history item, email  laborhistorytoday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Ini...

This week on Labor History Today: The 25th annual DC Labor FilmFest kicks off May Day at the AFI Silver! Host Chris Garlock previews the powerful lineup of films about work and workers with AFI programmers Todd Hitchcock, Abbie Algar, Eli Prysant, and Javier Chavez — including LILLY, The Last Showgirl, and more. Plus: On Labor History in 2:00, we remember the 1914 Ludlow Massacre. And historian Ni...

On Labor History Today: Para Power:  AFT president Randi Weingarten talks with Nick Juravich, associate director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston, about class, race and education and his book Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education . PLUS: Nick’s almost-favorite labor song, and, on Labor History in 2:00, Florence Reece is born. Labor History Today is a member of the La...

On Labor History Today: In 1934, as part of an effort to boost morale and encourage citizens to find community in their traditions, the Roosevelt administration sent artists to homesteads throughout the country to lead group activities—including listening to and making folk music. On today’s show, a conversation centered around A Chance to Harmonize: How FDR’s Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save Amer...

On Labor History Today: Kings and presidents and CEOs like to think that they make history but real history is actually made by thousands of small actions like this: a handful of grounds workers at a local school district refusing to handle South African chicken wire, multiplied around the globe until, eventually, the entire racist system of apartheid collapses. Today’s episode tells the impressiv...

On Labor History Today: Joe McCartin, Leon Fink and Patrick Dixon discuss the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that undocumented workers don’t have the same rights as Americans, Sam Walton’s anti-union legacy, and they remember dock union leader Harry Bridges and the Texas cowboys strike. PLUS: Saul Schniderman on Martin Luther King and striking sanitation workers in Memphis. Music this week include...

Labor History Today: During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 800 nurses walked out on strike in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. As concern rises about the return of measles and cuts to healthcare staff and budgets, this edition of the Labor Jawn podcast from February 2022 is especially timely. And, a double-hit of Labor History in Two : The day The Grapes of Wrath opened in movie theaters, and the...

Labor History Today: This week’s edition of the show takes us to Australia, but the history of slavery and the ongoing failure to come to terms with the resulting racism and discrimination there echo uncomfortably loudly here in the United States as Donald Trump ramps up his campaign to stamp out any effort to acknowledge that such things exist, as though by simply abolishing the words diversity,...

On Labor History Today: A visit to the Northern Ireland city of Derry and a search for the real Factory Girls. On this week’s Labor History in Two : Jefferson Outlaws the Slave Trade; Greyhound Bus Drivers Strike Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at  LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by...

As Black History Month comes to a close, the On the Line podcast marks the occasion with a fascinating look back at the history of train sleeping car porters, almost all of whom were Black. It's a story that has only recently started to be told, and combines the history of Black employment in Canada, unionization and the fight for dignity and equality. On The Line examines those long-lost days mos...

For 150 years, Richmond's place in history has been as "the capital of the Confederacy." But this label hides a much richer and more complex history. On today’s show, originally aired on Feb. 20, 2022, we hear from Peter Rachleff, Co-Executive Director of the East Side Freedom Library , a retired professor of history at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and author of " Black Labor in Rich...