News & Updates

6 inch - Beyoncé

“6 inch is commonly understood to be an anthem for strippers,” says MacGyver Williams on this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour. “Sex workers need respect and dignity at work as well.” MacGyver co-hosted the show and serves on the LHF Board as Treasurer.

ON AIR: LISTEN TO OUR RADIO SHOW!

Check out this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: "Blood in the Streets" featuring photographer Chuck Avery's visual history of labor struggles, Kurt Stand's essay on Peekskill 1949, and MacGyver sharing her favorite labor songs.

The Labor Heritage Power Hour, hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, airs every Thursday at 1p on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.

Bookmans Workers File Petition to Form Union

Retail workers at a Bookmans Entertainment Exchange location in Tucson, Arizona, have filed a petition to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99. If successful, staff would make history as the first bookseller in the state to form a union. “It’s time for the people who keep Bookmans running to have a seat at the table and the ability to negotiate for a better work life,” said Local 99 president Jim McLaughlin.

“No Contract, No Cartoons”

After a weekend of rallies and solidarity events with other Hollywood labor allies, The Animation Guild (TAG)—Local 839 of the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)—officially began its contract negotiations on Monday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “We’re at a crossroads in this industry with uncertainties we haven’t faced before,” TAG President Jeanette Moreno King told a sea of members and other union allies during a Saturday rally in Burbank, California. “We’re not just defending our jobs, we’re defending the soul of this industry.”

Teacher loves “Union Songs for Kids”

“I wish I had this resource back when I was teaching middle and high school Social Studies,” says Tobias Harkleroad about our just-released Union Songs for Kids YouTube playlist. “It includes a great variety of union related songs that can be really helpful in exposing students to the social and artistic aspects of the Labor Movement throughout U.S. and World History that helped to inspire and sustain people and communities as they struggled for just wages and fair labor practices,” Tobias adds. If you’ve got suggestions for songs we should add (we’ve already added four new ones this week!), email us at info@laborheritage.org

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Mr. Lee - Rock Bottom Broke (Official Video) | Workers Song

Speaking of which, the AFL-CIO just released this year’s Executive Paywatch. This year’s report puts CEO-to-worker pay ratios in historical perspective by comparing how long the median worker would need to work to the construction dates of various world wonders over the history of human civilization. For example - one company's median worker would have to work starting in 4,053 B.C. in order to earn what the CEO made in 2023. For comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built circa 2,560 B.C.

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

“Donald Trump crossed a picket line when he worked at The Apprentice and last week laughed with Elon Musk about firing striking workers,” posted @TimDubnau. “The labor movement has a word for people like him. SCAB. Glad @CWAUnion called him out.”

LABOR POEM OF THE WEEK

Making a Good Living

She works, and works, again,

not enough to pay the rent

in full each month kids are left

with barely beans and

no doctors until their illness is

too much to bear --

Pepe Oulahan, in the Blue Collar Review; click here to read the whole poem.

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

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

August 16, 1894

George Meany, plumber, founding AFL-CIO president, born in City Island, Bronx. In his official biography, George Meany and His Times, he said he had "never walked a picket line in his life." He also said he took part in only one strike (against the United States Government to get higher pay for plumbers on welfare jobs). Yet he also firmly said that "You only make progress by fighting for progress." Meany served as secretary-treasurer of the AFL from 1940 to 1952, succeeded as president of the AFL, and then continued as president of the AFL-CIO following the historic merger in 1955 until retiring in 1979.

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST

The 1934 Minneapolis trucker’s strike

Labor historian Peter Rachleff on how a Midwest strike helped shape national labor law plus a preview of his talk on the 1886 takeover of the Richmond (VA) City Council by black and white union activists.

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

Who was Homer Martin?

Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees

An early United Auto Workers leader

The guy Homer Simpson was named after

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: On August 11, 1884, Federal troops drove some 1,200 jobless workers from Washington D.C. Led by unemployed activist Charles "Hobo" Kelley the group's "soldiers" included young journalist Jack London and William Haywood, a young miner-cowboy called "Big Bill".

"The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too."

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2024 program, which includes our annual Solidarity Forever Award, the Great Labor Arts Exchange, the DC Labor FilmFest and much more (check out our website for details!).

Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

RECENT NEWSLETTERS

Union Songs for Kids! (8/9) Rosie gets a gold medal (8/2)

Joe visits Red Square (7/26)

Love & Solidarity (6/28)

National History Day contest features labor history (6/21)

Enter our Labor Heritage Power Hour Theme Song Contest! (6/14)

Taylor Swift’s labor song (6/7)

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