|
THIS WEEK'S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR RADIO SHOW
Inside The Doublewide
This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour, novelist Ann Goethals joins us to read from The Doublewide and talk about caregiving, community, and unseen labor. We’ve also got labor arts news updates, and, in Labor History in 2:00, we look at the fall of the Knights of Labor and the rise of the AFL. Plus a preview of next week’s special: the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s A Red Carol.
| | |
LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS
Hollywood Labor Comes Out Swinging Against WB-Netflix Deal: “This Merger Must Be Blocked”: In one of Ted Sarandos’ statements on Friday about his streamer’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the Netflix co-CEO proclaimed that the $82.7 billion deal would be “pro-worker.” Some of Hollywood’s most powerful unions would beg to differ. Read more in The Hollywood Reporter.
More Production Assistants Vote to Form Union with LIUNA: In another major win for a historically underrepresented group of entertainment industry workers, production assistants (PAs) on two more television series have voted to join Production Assistants United (photo), an affiliate of Laborers (LIUNA) Local 724. Read more.
Louvre trade unions call for rolling strike next week: Trade unions at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Monday called for a rolling strike next week over working conditions. The Louvre was forced to shut temporarily on June 16 this year after gallery attendants, ticket agents and security personnel organized a spontaneous walk-out over what they see as understaffing and overcrowding. Read more.
WHAT WE’RE READING: Theater for the Many (Jacobin): At a time when theater is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority, the theater company Working Theater partners with labor unions to recreate a working-class theater for the 21st century. Read more.
| | |
We’re Just $3,600 Away From Our Goal — and Your Gift Still Doubles!
We’re incredibly close to unlocking a full $10,000 match from a generous LHF supporter — just $3,600 to go! Every donation to the Labor Heritage Foundation is still being doubled, making your support go twice as far in strengthening labor arts, culture, and education.
If you missed Giving Tuesday, now’s the perfect time to help push us over the finish line.
CLICK HERE to contribute.
Thank you!
| | | If you SEE something, SHARE something! Forward the LHF newsletter to friends, family, colleagues and help us reach our goal of 10,000 readers! 👉 Subscribe free | | |
PICKET SIGNS OF THE WEEK: (above) Members of the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 61, voted nearly unanimously to empower their union leadership to call a strike if San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) administrators don’t settle a fair contract. This is the first of two votes needed to approve a work stoppage across the city’s public schools.
(below) Striking Starbucks workers were joined by members of other unions in front of the Empire State Building in Manhattan on December 4. Read more. Photo: Jenny Brown
Got picket sign? email us at info@laborheritage.org
| | |
LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK: ATU Local 689 Cinder Bed Road striking workers anthem
Battle’s Transportation/RHG Group workers, among the region’s lowest-paid transit employees, struck on Dec. 4. Just as in the 1989 strike by Cinder Bed Road workers – also Local 689 members – that inspired this video, fair wages are a major issue, along with company intimidation and harassment.
| | |
LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Each landmark, whether in stone, metal, or ‘new’ material, reveals hidden messages and suggests a particular web of meaning. I suggest a visit to an existing site, anywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Go by foot, car, bus, or rail; at each stop, you will find reminders, marked or not, to working Americans. Go east, west, north, south. Accept discovery’s joy; decode our heritage etched in marble and bronze."
Archie Green, an American folklorist specializing in laborlore (defined as the special folklore of workers) and American folk music. Sent in by Saul Schniderman.
| | |
LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK: POUR! POUR! POUR! By Pink Williams
“Workers rise, UNIONIZE!” says Williams. “I wrote this tune to pay tribute to the Starbucks workers who are fighting for their rights all over the world!”
| | |
LABOR ART OF THE WEEK: Ticket-Taker at Griffith Stadium, by James Amos Porter
“Note the clear division of labor and space within the composition. The black ticket-taker, dressed in white, stands prominently in the foreground, a literal gatekeeper. The white patrons stream past. This arrangement subtly underscores the racial dynamics of the era, reflecting the complex roles African Americans held in public life.” Artera; read more. Currently on view at The Phillips Collection.
Sent in by Lisa Garlock. Send your suggestions to us: info@laborheritage.org
| | Like this newsletter? Help us spread labor art by passing it along! | | CLICK HERE for our complete labor arts calendar; look for our Labor Arts Calendar edition on Monday | | |
TODAY’S LABOR HISTORY
2006
A U.S. immigration sweep of six Swift meat plants results in arrests of nearly 1,300 undocumented workers.
| | |
LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST: The Country Song That Powered a General Strike
This week on Labor History Today, we revisit the 1946 Oakland General Strike through the eyes of labor educator and activist Stan Weir — and uncover the surprising role a chart-topping “country” hit played on the picket line. After we hear the day’s events from Labor History in 2:00, host Chris Garlock digs into Weir’s vivid account of the strike’s carnival-like atmosphere, where bars rolled jukeboxes into the streets and “Pistol Packin’ Mama” — the first country song ever to top the Billboard pop chart — echoed off downtown buildings for 54 hours. We trace how an American Federation of Musicians strike helped turn the tune into a national sensation, and why its defiant energy resonated with the mostly women department-store strikers who ignited the Oakland uprising.
| |
| Where did AFL founder Sam Gompers die? | | | | LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: 214 African American delegates met in Washington, D.C., on December 6, 1869 to form the Colored National Labor Union as a branch of the all-white National Labor Union created three years earlier. Unlike the NLU, the CNLU welcomed members of all races. Isaac Myers was the CNLU's founding president; Frederick Douglas became president in 1872. | | |
SUPPORT LABOR ARTS!
Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2026 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.
| | | | |
