News & Updates

Video Game Workers Organize with CWA: Workers across the United States and Canada announced on Wednesday that they are forming a direct-join, industrywide video game union with CWA in partnership with the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Read more here.

SAG-AFTRA Reaffirms Commitment to DEI and Accessibility: In the wake of studios rolling back equity pledges under the Trump administration, SAG-AFTRA’s national board passed a resolution this weekend acknowledging the vital role that diversity and accessibility plays in the entertainment industry and reaffirmed the union’s commitment to these principles. Read more.

- AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Strikers Vow to Carry On: Last week, striking production and advertising workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PPG) accepted a buyout offer after the newspaper outsourced production of its print edition, eliminating 31 union jobs. Journalists and newsroom staff represented by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh (TNG-CWA Local 38061) remain on strike. With some workers having been on strike for 29 months, CWA’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike is the longest-running current strike in America. Read more here.

- CWA Newsletter

Rovics’ new album: Deport the Billionaires

With songs ripped from the headlines and picketlines, singer/songwriter David Rovics this week released Deport the Billionaires. The album features eight songs “written in the past few weeks about the latest horrors of Trump 2.0, plus 2 remixes of a couple of oldies,” says Rovics, and includes Deport the Billionaires, When the People United and The Richest Man in the World Says So.

Celebrating Mother Jones’ Irish heritage

The latest edition of Illinois Heritage – the publication of the Illinois State Historical Society -- features Mother Jones and last year’s Mother Jones parade on the cover, as well as an article on the labor leader and Irish immigrant. Details here or email executivedirector@historyillinois.org

Readers Write: “What's a shepard?”

“What's a shepard?” wonders reader Earl Peach (Jeff Bezos has a Rocketship Called: New Shepard 3/14 LHF newsletter).

Bezos’ New Shepard rocketship was named after Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space, on a suborbital flight, in 1961.

“Hi folks, thanks for the weekly announcements,” writes Joanne. “I think you have a typo in this one - it asks for support for a ‘2024’ program. Best wishes.”

Thanks for the catch; please do support our 2025 work!

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

Posted by @AFLCIO: “Working people deserve a government that fights for them, not billionaires and bosses. That’s exactly why we need Gwynne Wilcox back on the independent @NLRB board!” Send your Picket Sign OTW suggestion to us! info@laborheritage.org

THIS WEEK ON THE LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: American Steel, 2020 PA nurses’ strike; Alex Lin talks about her new play, American Steel and the Labor Jawn podcast remembers The St. Mary’s Nurses’ Strike of 2020. Plus we preview “Union”, the R.J. Phillips Band marks the 60^th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march and, from Labor History in 2:00, the 85^th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath premiere. Bonus track: Bruce Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad.

CLICK HERE to listen to the show!

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LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK

War on the Workers - Anne Feeney (LIVE)

Anne Feeney at "Swords into Plowshares" on the Detroit leg of the 2013 Summer of Solidarity Tour.

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK

Send your Labor Song of the Week suggestions to us! info@laborheritage.org

LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Liv Ullman, featured in the "Legendary Ladies A to Z" exhibit on display at the American Labor Museum.

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK

DSA/LHF’s DC Labor History Walk in May 2024, at Michael Lantz’s “Man Controlling Trade” (1942), outside the Federal Trade Commission building in D.C.

ICYMI: Trump administration slashes division in charge of 26,000 U.S. artworks

The future of a vast collection of public artwork is in doubt as the Trump administration plans to fire workers who preserve and maintain more than 26,000 pieces owned by the U.S. government, including paintings and sculptures by renowned artists, some dating to the 1850s. Read more here.

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

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

Friday: Romero Theater Troupe 20th Anniversary Celebration

Sunday: Up the Rough Side of the Mountain: African Americans & the History of the Labor Movement

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

March 21, 1853

American Labor Union founded. A socialist labor organization whose membership was largely confined to the states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming, the ALU later took part in the creation of the Industrial Workers of the World.

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST: The St. Mary Nurses Strike of 2020; 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 day Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

Mark Twain was a member of which union?

Writers Guild of America

National Writers Union

International Typographical Union

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: The Supreme Court on March 15, 1917, approved the 8-Hour Act under threat of a national railway strike.

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

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2025 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

Jeff Bezos has a Rocketship Called: New Shepard (3/14)

The Communist Folk Singers Who Shaped Bob Dylan (3/7)

Contest: Songs and Chants for the Strike Line (2/28)

Free Black History Month Virtual Screenings (2/21)

Cast your vote for 2025 Labor Oscars! (2/14)

Artists fight to save EMF’s “heart and soul” (2/7)

Power At Work awards first-ever Labor Grammys (1/31)

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