News & Updates

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

FRI: Laborfest: Argentina 1985 (CA)

SAT: High Iron (WY)

Ongoing: Power & Light: Russell Lee's Coal Survey (DC)

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“UPS Teamsters secured air-conditioned vehicles in our national contract in 2023, but UPS is slow walking their delivery, particularly in the hottest regions where drivers need heat relief the most.”

@Teamsters

"This Machine Still Kills Fascists" Album Trailer - Dropkick Murphys 

The Folk Song Army - Tom Lehrer

American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer died on July 26, 2025 at the age of 97.  

Detroit Industry Murals - Diego Rivera

At the Detroit Institute of Arts.

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

1921: Sid Hatfield, police chief of Matewan, W. Va., a longtime supporter of the United Mine Workers union, is murdered by company goons. This soon led to the Battle of Blair Mountain, a labor uprising also referred to as the Red Neck War.

1938: Police in Hilo, Hawaii open fire on 200 demonstrators supporting striking waterfront workers. The attack became known as "the Hilo Massacre."

1942: The American Federation of Musicians begins a strike against the major American recording companies in a fight over royalty payments. Decca records settled with the union after one year, followed shortly by Capitol Records, while Victor and Columbia held out for another year before agreeing to the union’s terms. The strike did not affect musicians performing on live radio shows or in concerts. 

“We know the road ahead is tough, but we will not accept a contract shaped by Texas’s anti-worker law and rhetoric.”

Meow Wolf Workers Collective-CWA Local 7055 bargaining committee member Alexis Stewart, who is a Guest Services worker at Meow Wolf Grapevine's The Real Unreal.

The Raging Erie: Life, Labor, and the Canal That Changed America

This week on Labor History Today: author Mark S. Ferrara joins labor educator Linda Donahue to explore the hidden history of the workers who built and lived along the Erie Canal. Based on Ferrara’s book The Raging Erie, the conversation uncovers the stories of Native Americans whose land was taken, immigrant laborers who carved the canal by hand, orphan children who worked as mule drivers, and the canallers who helped shape America’s expansion westward.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: On July 26, 1877, in Chicago, 30 workers were killed by federal troops, and more than 100 wounded at the "Battle of the Viaduct" during the Great Railroad Strike.

Still Hot, Still Fighting: Labor Art Heats Up the Summer (7/25)

'Saturday Night Live’ VFX Artists Ratify Historic First Union Contract (7/18)

Sing, Strike, Remember (7/12)

Anne Feeney Hellraiser Fund Offers New Grants for Activist Artists (7/4)