News & Updates

IN THIS ISSUE:

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR —Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant (MI); Baristas vs. Billionaires (NY); Rochester Labor Film Series: East of Wall (NY); Matewan Walking Tour (WV)

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS — News unions join lawsuit against ICE/DHS; Workers Unite! FilmFest Season 14 launches; New Power Hour app

FORGOTTEN: THE MURDER AT THE FORD ROUGE PLANT — Jazz opera tells how Detroit became a union town; on stage this weekend in Detroit.

YOUR VOICE: READERS WRITE — Seeking a home for vintage labor songbooks; honoring PR labor leader Santiago Iglesias Pantín

THIS WEEK’S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR — Baristas vs. Billionaires; Roberts’ Fire & Gerard’s Grit

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Art of Labor: Off Our Walls

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK — Hero Feds

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK — “When You Organize,” from Forgotten

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK — “Farmworkers and Deportees – Survival is Resistance”

LABOR POEM OF THE WEEK — “Craftsman”

TODAY’S LABOR HISTORY — 1933 Pixley cotton strike turns deadly

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST — Remembering Mary Kenney O’Sullivan

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ — Pixley murders verdict

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

FRI/SAT/SUN: Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant (MI)

FRI: Baristas vs. Billionaires (NY)

FRI: Rochester Labor Film Series: East of Wall (NY)

SAT: Matewan Walking Tour (WV)

ONGOING:

Don't Stand Alone: Black Labor Organizing in New Orleans (LA)

American Labor in Print (MA)

In Camps, Under Trees, and Evicted (CA)

Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County (IL)

Jim Brozek: Honest Work (WI)

Art of Labor: Off Our Walls (PA)

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS

News Unions Join Lawsuit Against ICE Over Attacks on Journalists: The Chicago News Guild, TNG-CWA Local 34017, and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) Local 41 have joined a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over excessive violence targeting reporters covering protests at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Read more.

Workers Unite! FilmFest Season 14 launches Oct 17–23: Catch labor shorts, features, and Q&As opening week at Cinema Village, with additional screenings and panels citywide through Nov 1. Full program listings (thru 10/23) and tickets on Eventbrite.

Power Hour App Now Available: Good news, Power Hour fans! You can now listen to the Labor Heritage Power Hour anywhere with the brand-new WPFW Radio app. Stream the show live or whenever you want, plus check WPFW’s full program schedule—all from your phone. Download “WPFW Radio” today from the Apple App Store or Google Play. WPFW in your pocket—Jazz and Justice (and the Power Hour) wherever you are.

FORGOTTEN: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant This Weekend in Detroit

In the jazz opera FORGOTTEN: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant, twenty-five actors, singers, dancers, and musicians tell the story of how Detroit became a union town. FORGOTTEN – which is being staged this weekend in Detroit -- includes 22 original songs that trace historic events including the Ford Hunger March, Battle of the Overpass, and the Flint sit-down strike. A central character is the Rev. Lewis Bradford, who hosted the Detroit radio show “The Forgotten Man’s Hour,” and who was found dead in 1937 on the Ford Rouge shop floor, leading to an investigation forty years later. Other historic characters include Henry and Clara Ford, Harry Bennett, and Father Charles Coughlin.

YOUR VOICE: Readers Write

Vintage Labor Songbooks: “Good morning, good people,” writes Jeanne Mackey. “I’m cleaning up my papers, looking to pass on vintage labor songbooks etc. Any ideas of who might enjoy these?”

Email info@laborheritage.org if interested.

Honoring a PR Labor Leader: “I've been enjoying your website,” writes Tim Iglesias. “I became a member. You are doing wonderful work! I'm with a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and promote the legacy of Santiago Iglesias Pantin (1872-1939), an important labor leader in Puerto Rico. He was critical to the early development of PR's labor movement, founded a union, survived three assassination attempts, and went on to become a successful elected politician who was instrumental in passing numerous labor reforms. I am his youngest grandson.

We just started in October 2024. One of the projects we want to do is produce a high-quality video for union members in Puerto Rico to let them know about Santiago Iglesias Pantin and to inspire their labor activism by his legacy. We are working with labor leaders in Puerto Rico on this project.”

Email info@laborheritage.org for more details.

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The "Art of Labor: Off Our Walls" exhibit is on view through October 24 at the historic Bost Building, 623 E. 8th Ave. in Homestead, Pennsylvania, but if you can’t make it in person, here’s a brief (15m) video featuring much of the artwork. The show features over 130 paintings, photographs, artifacts and ephemera from the collections of historians Joe and Delsa White, Steffi Domike and Rivers of Steel. The Bost Building is currently open Monday through Friday; call (412) 464-4020 for hours

Thanks to reader Michael B Schwartz for passing along the video; share your labor video tips with us at info@laborheritage.org. 

When You Organize; from Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant, which is being performed this weekend, October 10-12, in Detroit, MI; click here for details and tickets.

Photo by David Bacon, from FARMWORKERS AND DEPORTEES - SURVIVAL IS RESISTANCE in Zeke, the Magazine of Documentary Photography, September 2025

Photo - Immigrant families march through downtown Fort Bragg, protesting the wave of immigration raids by the Trump administration. Angry marchers carried signs with denunciations that declared “MAGA: Mexicans Ain’t Going Anywhere!”

Thanks to Shelley Kessler for sending this in; send your labor art tips to us at info@laborheritage.org

Like this newsletter? Help us spread labor art by passing it along!

CLICK HERE for our complete labor arts calendar; look for our Labor Arts Calendar edition on Monday

TODAY’S LABOR HISTORY

1933

Six days into a cotton field strike by 18,000 Mexican and Mexican-American workers in Pixley, Calif., four strikers are killed and six wounded; eight growers were indicted and charged with murder.

Craftsman

In spare moments,

I watch you work your magic

How you cut and paint

Each slab of wood to perfection

A picture of finality

Though you would never

Call it finished

And now they say

Your work is not needed

You can get this kind of stuff

Online, anywhere

Maybe you can -- but the heartbeat

Will never be felt

And don't get me started

On quality

Cathy Porter in The Blue Collar Review, a quarterly journal of poetry and prose published by Partisan Press.

Remembering Mary Kenney O’Sullivan (Encore)

On this week's Labor History Today: Mary Kenney O’Sullivan, first AFL woman organizer; novelist Jack London’s classic definition of a scab; Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union leads Missouri Highway sit-down; Roosevelt creates National War Labor Board to mediate labor disputes during World War II. 

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: On October 4, 1927, work began on the carving of Mt. Rushmore, a task 400 craftsmen would eventually complete in 1941. Despite the dangerous nature of the project, not one worker died.

Power and Light in a Dark Time (10/3)
In Camps, Under Trees, and Evicted (9/26)
Cecil Roberts Delivers Big Win For Mine Wars Museum (9/19)
The Gospel of Labor Art (9/12)
LHF brings labor arts to SEIU’s Dream • Rise • Organize in Tucson (9/5)

Labor Day Weekend Guide: Strike Songs, Sing-Along, Bread & Roses (8/29)