News & Updates

Chippendales Dancers’ Newest Act – Unionizing!

Frequently described as “the Broadway of burlesque,” the Chippendales Dancers are famous for their high-production value and elaborate choreography. Now, saying “we need to have a world-class workplace – and that means fair pay, decent benefits, safety and accountability,” the all-male dance troupe is organizing with Actors’ Equity Association. Based out of the Rio — a hotel and casino in Las Vegas — the Chippendales say their wages and benefits are significantly worse than other entertainment acts in the city. A supermajority among the two-dozen or so cast members signed union authorization cards last week.

Hitting High Notes: Toledo Symphony Wins 39% Pay Boost

Musicians at the Toledo Symphony Orchestra won a 39% wage boost in the new five-year contract they ratified last month. Casey Gsell, TSO principal bassoon and chair of the Orchestra Committee called it “a true testament to what we can achieve when we work together.” The deal for members of the Toledo Federation of Musicians (TFM)/American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 15-286 also includes higher matching contributions to their 403(b) retirement plans, the establishment of two new core string positions and conversion of several previously part-time roles into full-time positions.

GLAE 2025: Mark Your Calendars; Propose a Workshop

Reminder that the 2025 Great Labor Arts Exchange will be held June 20-22 in Silver Spring, Maryland in the Silver Spring Civic Building, with evening events at nearby McGinty's Public House. Registration is not yet open but you can be among the first to know by signing up here, and if you’ve got an idea for a workshop, click here.

Check Out These Photos of Union Transit Workers

Workday Magazine's Isabela Escalona wrote about a very cool photography exhibit that's currently on display at St. Paul's East Side Freedom Library. “Archive in Motion: The ATU Workers of Metro Transit” collects film photos of union transit workers taken by Leslie Grant and Jeffrey Skemp and includes portraits of workers, still-life shots of the objects bus operators carry, the architecture, and scans of archival images. The photographers worked with ATU Local 1005 to connect with subjects, including Kira Ross, Metro Transit's first Black woman mechanic. “Archive in Motion" is on display through November 9; Grant and Skemp will speak at a free event on October 26.

- Peter Rachleff

Studying Labor in the Movies

Participants in an online Johns Hopkins University class will use the prism of labor films to view both labor history and current efforts by workers to organize. “A lively discussion is expected and participants will have a greater understanding of what a labor union is, what it can and cannot do, and view how accurately it is portrayed in film,” says James Ward Morrow, who will lead the Labor in the Movies class, which starts October 31. Morrow is Assistant General Counsel and Legislative Counsel for AFGE.

CLICK HERE to listen to the show!

The Labor Heritage Power Hour: Working Theater/Workers Unite! Film Festival: ”Something is fundamentally broken when you can only go see a Broadway show if your family takes in $300K a year…These are symptoms of an American theater which is not working,” says COLM SUMMERS, Artistic Director at Working Theater in New York City, one of the only theater companies in the country that’s dedicated to creating theater specifically for, about and with working people.

“So you can make film on your phone now…and what that ends up doing is sometimes we don't have the most polished end product, but we have an end product that has lots of power and emotion in it. It's right from the heart. It's the truth of what actually is happening on the ground, which is even more important,” says ANDREW TILSON, Director of the Workers Unite! Film Festival, which is launching its’ 13th season next week.

Like this newsletter? Share the wealth and pass it along to colleagues, friends and family!

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK

The Saga of KOIN TV Workers vs The Empire (Episode 1)

"On September 24th the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the last of Nexstar/KOIN-TV's last appeal and they are now returning to the bargaining table, for the first time since July 2022!" reports Princess Carrie Biggs Adams. "We will be bargaining 15 hours per week in Portland starting Wednesday October 9th!"

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

Posted by @FlyingWithSara

LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Decades of deep-seated inequality (and) deep-seated poverty…it takes more than a few years to reverse. I think what we've done is we've really planted seeds and many of them have started to bloom."

Julie Su, Acting Secretary of Labor, on the Power at Work podcast.

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK

The new Minneapolis Strike Mural, plus the nearby historic plaque, located on the Sherwin-Williams Building, 701 N 3rd St, Minneapolis, MN 55401. Read more here.

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

Unrest (Film)

Friday, October 11, 2024, 7:30 PM until 9:03 PM

Dryden Theatre, 900 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607

Unrest, the balance wheel of a mechanical timepiece as well as political action, is the apt title for this film’s connection of anarchism and watchmaking in late 19th-century Switzerland.

The Road to Matewan (Book reading)

Saturday, October 12, 2024, 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, 401 Mate St (Community Center on the 2nd floor), Matewan, WV 25678

In The Road to Matewan, William Pancoast writes an ode to the land of Appalachia while giving a voice to its marginalized people. Reading by the author; copies of The Road to Matewan will be available for purchase at the event.

The Cradle Will Rock (Folk Opera)

Saturday, October 12, 2024, 7:30 PM & Sunday, October 13, 2024

Cecile Goldman Theater DCJCC, 1529 16th St NW, Washington, DC

This piece became a thundering work of American history when governments and unions alike tried to ban its legendary first performance.

Miners Day 2024 (Labor history event)

Sunday, October 13, 2024, 12:00 PM until 5:00 PM

Union Miners Cemetery, Mount Olive, Illinois

Miner's Day celebrates the hard work and sacrifices of miners who have played a crucial role in the development of industries and communities worldwide. Performance by Mother Jones re-enactor Loretta Williams and General Bradley re-enactor Dale Hawkins, Music by Wildflower Conspiracy and Casting Runes. Miners lunch provided to guests at the cemetery.

DC Labor Chorus helps "Promote the Vote" (Music)

Sunday, October 13, 2024, 3:45 PM until 4:15 PM

Olney Theater, 2001 Olney Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD

Support the Chorus as they sing their own version of "get out the vote" songs.

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

October 11, 1948

Nearly 1,500 plantation workers strike Olaa Sugar, on Hawaii’s Big Island.

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

What Can We Learn From the Great Depression? Chris talks with labor historian Dana Frank; her new book is What Can We Learn From the Great Depression? Stories of Ordinary People and Collective Action in Hard Times. The book takes a new look at working-class activism during the 1930s from the perspective of our own time, examining mutual aid, and eviction protests, the expulsion of a million Mexicans, a sit-down strike by African American women working as wet-nurses, and a white supremacist fascist organization in Ohio known as the Black Legion.

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

The 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act is also known as what?

“Wilson’s Revenge”

"Labor’s Magna Carta"

“Clayton’s Conspiracy”

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: The October 5, 1945 “Battle of Burbank” involved Conference of Studio Unions members and set decorators.

"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

Not Playing Around: World of Warcraft Workers Win Union (10/4)

Bill Lucy: “Change is possible” (9/27)

‘Equal Pay for Equal Paint!’ (9/20)

Dallas Black Dancers Fight for Their Union (9/13)

Netflix hit “The Union” is a miss (9/6)

Labor Day weekend films, music & more! (8/30)

No justice, no dancing (8/23)

Beyoncé’s labor anthem (8/16)

Share This Email