Labor Arts News & Updates

Good Trouble Starts on the Shop Floor

Beat apathy. Build your team. Rock your picket line. The Labor Notes Troublemakers School comes to Washington, D.C., Saturday, December 5, with practical workshops for workers ready to organize—and a few lessons in strategic mischief.

For LHF readers, “Rockin’ Your Rally/Picket Line” and “Creative Tactics and Strategic Mischief” offer a chance to put imagination to work building solidarity. Other sessions tackle workplace safety, assertive grievance handling, overcoming divisions, running effective meetings, and turning an issue into a campaign.

New to organizing or a seasoned steward? Bring your co-workers, bargaining team, or picket captains to swap strategies with fellow activists and hear from workers on the front lines.

The school – co-sponsored by LHF – runs 9 a.m.–4 p.m. at McKinley Technology High School, 151 T St. NE, Washington, D.C. Registration includes lunch and costs $40, with a $20 low-income/hardship rate.

Register here. Questions? Contact Danielle Smith.

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR


Fri: Rochester Labor Film Series: WTO/99 (NY)

Sat: 2026 Paul Robeson Peace & Justice Awards Gala (DC)

Mon: Unruly Unionism: Jimmy Hoffa’s Key to Organizing the Service Sector (MI & Virtual)

Mon: Jane Fonda on “Art Works” with Ken Grossinger (CA)

Got a labor arts or history event? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

THIS WEEK’S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR 


Dearest Billionaires, Solidarity Forever. 

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour,  Josh Solomon and Erika Brett of The Empty Pockets explain how a polite letter to the boss became “Dearest Billionaires,” as California votes on a billionaire tax. Labor journalist Max Alvarez reflects on why working people’s stories matter, and we hear one of his favorites, Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Then historian Kathryn Moore traces “Solidarity Forever” back to the West Virginia coalfields, on Mine Wars Forum.

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS


Czech Public Media Workers Go On Strike Over Funding Overhaul Plan 
Czech Television's Chief Editor said the strike is unprecedented in the history of Czech public service media. Read more.

Ushers at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Join IATSE 
The newly unionized unit covers 23 ushers at the Beverly Hills venue. Read more.

Universal Studios Hollywood Workers Still Facing Food and Housing Insecurity 
Two years ago The Hollywood Reporter reported on widespread poverty among these park workers. According to the union not much has changed. Read more.

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK
The AFL-CIO Honors Labor Icon Dolores Huerta

Si se puede, sister - Siempre te echaremos de menos.

Got labor video? email us at info@laborheritage.org

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

Encore workers on the picket line at the beginning of the strike (photo: David L. Ryan/Boston Globe Staff.) Workers at the Encore Boston Harbor resort ratified a new contract on November 5th, ending a strike that started at the beginning of September. 
Got a creative picket sign to share? email us at info@laborheritage.org

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK
Dearest Billionaires - The Empty Pockets 

Hear Josh Solomon and Erika Brett tell the story behind this song on this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour.

Got a Labor song? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK

visible exertion and blue zone - Hugo McCloud

Hugo McCloud turns discarded plastic into portraits of workers who keep everyday life moving. In visible exertion and blue zone (2024), at Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery, a man carries three stacked boxes through a sunlit street in India, his face hidden behind his load. Hand-cut, layered, and heat-fused plastic connects the artist’s painstaking labor with the exertion he depicts—and asks what we value and whom we overlook.

Sources: BOMB Magazine, online exhibition. Sent in by Lisa Raye Garlock.

LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK


“ It's not a revolutionary thought, but what if we just spent that money, you know, making the world a better place?”


Josh Solomon (at far left), The Empty Pockets; hear him on this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour. 


Check out LHF’s Labor Arts and Culture Database for more labor quotes like this!

LABOR LANDMARK OF THE WEEK 

Emma Tenayuca—'Lideres de La Communidad' Mural
San Antonio, Texas

(A tip of the cowboy hat to Texas following the election Tuesday) 
Emma Tenayuca was a Mexican American labor and civil rights activist from San Antonio who began organizing as a teenager after witnessing police violence against striking workers. In the 1930s, she rallied women workers and challenged the discrimination and harsh conditions facing Mexican Americans. Her best-known effort was leading the 1938 pecan shellers’ strike, which grew to 12,000 workers and drew national attention despite police repression. After fleeing San Antonio amid threats of violence, she became a teacher and eventually returned home; her activism was later recognized as an important part of labor and Chicano history.

Details on the LHF Labor Landmarks Map.

THIS WEEK'S LABOR HISTORY TODAY

Sí, Se Puede. Solidarity Forever.

On this week's Labor History Today: we honor Dolores Huerta, the pioneering organizer and United Farm Workers co-founder who died this week at 96. Then, how did “Solidarity Forever” become labor’s enduring anthem? From the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum’s Mine Wars Forum podcast, historian and museum co-founder Catherine Venable Moore traces Ralph Chaplin’s song to West Virginia’s Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike. Along the way: socialist newspapers, union-busting violence, and the work of building solidarity across differences.

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY


1887: Transport worker and author of "The Internationale’s" lyrics Eugène Pottier dies in Paris at the age of 71.

1922: A coal mine explosion in Spangler, Pa. kills 79. The mine had been rated gaseous in 1918, but at the insistence of new operators it was rated as non-gaseous even though miners had been burned by gas on at least four occasions.

1978: An autumn of workers' action against the Shah of Iran culminates in a general strike calling for his abdication.

Find more labor history in the LHF Labor Arts & Culture Database.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: The Upholsterers International Union merged into the United Steelworkers on October 31, 1949.

RECENT NEWSLETTERS
Remembering Dolores; honoring Elise (10/30)
Workers Take the Screen. Woody Takes the Stage. (10/23) 
Ballet Dancers Organize. Museum Workers Join In. (9/16)
Workers Make Art…and History (10/10)
Workers Take the Stage—and the Picket Line (10/3)