News & Updates

IN THIS ISSUE:

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR — American Steel…A Thousand Pines…Art of Labor: Off Our Walls…In Camps, Under Trees, and Evicted.

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS — Dance protest at Kennedy Center…Kaman’s Art Shoppes workers organize…remote DreamWorks staff go public…USW’s Leo Gerard remembered

THIS WEEK’S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR — Stories of solidarity and survival

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Maintenance Artist

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK — Honking for justice in NM

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK — Victory Song of the Dressmakers

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK — Pressing Editions: American Labor in Print
LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK — Ursula K. Le Guin

TODAY’S LABOR HISTORY — Lewis Hine born…Temple grad workers win union

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST — Cecil Roberts on why “you must continue to fight.”
LABOR HISTORY QUIZ —Sit-down strike, bread riot or “sew-down”?

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

FRI: American Steel (NY)

FRI: Rochester Labor Film Series: A Thousand Pines (NY)

FRI: Art of Labor: Off Our Walls (PA)

FRI: In Camps, Under Trees, and Evicted (CA)

ONGOING:

Jim Brozek: Honest Work (WI)

Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County (IL)

Don't Stand Alone: Black Labor Organizing in New Orleans (LA)

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

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS

Dance Protest Backs Kennedy Center Workers: Pride at Work and Hands Off The Arts joined D.C. dance group Project ChArma at the Kennedy Center’s National Dance Day on September 20 for a high-spirited protest supporting workers in the building—especially UAW-organizing employees recently fired in what organizers call illegal union-busting. Read more.

Kaman’s Art Shoppes Employees at San Diego Zoo Join IATSE:

Workers at Kaman’s Art Shoppes—who bring magic to the San Diego Zoo experience through creating caricatures, letter brush art and body art for guests—voted overwhelmingly to form a union with Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 122. Read more.

Remote DreamWorks Animation Staff Go Public with Organizing Campaign: The Animation Guild (TAG), IATSE Local 839, announced on Wednesday that remote artists and animation workers at DreamWorks Animation have declared their intention to form a union. Read more.

Steelworkers’ Leo Gerard Remembered for Leadership and Love of Labor Art: On Sunday, former United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard, the longest-serving leader in the union’s history, passed away. Gerard is remembered as a relentless advocate for his members, a champion of international solidarity, and great supporter of labor art and culture. Read more.

Reports from AFL-CIO Daily Brief and Pride At Work newsletter.

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On September 19, after a year of stalled contract negotiations, members of CWA Local 7076 delivered a petition, signed by over 1,300 state employees and supporters, to New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office. Read more.

"Maintenance Artist"

New film profiles NYC artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, artist-in-residence at the city’s Department of Sanitation since 1977. Ukeles redefines art as maintenance and care, highlighting the often unseen labor that keeps cities running and expanding who gets to experience public art.

Victory Song of the Dressmakers

A new video by Saul Schniderman spotlights a song distributed in 1936 by the ILGWU Education Department. That year the union issued two 12-inch 78 rpm records of labor songs sung by its International Chorus—the first labor-song recordings in the U.S.

The exhibit Pressing Editions: American Labor in Print, at the Cahoon Museum of Art in Cotuit, MA., (on Cape Cod) explores the ways printmaking has enabled artists and audiences to explore urgent issues of labor in the United States.

Thanks to Saul Schniderman for sending this in! If you spot labor art, let us know at 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

1874: Sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine is born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In 1908, Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee and spent the next decade documenting child labor to help the organization’s lobbying efforts to end child labor in American industry.

2001: Graduate student employees at Temple University in Philadelphia win union recognition. The Temple University Graduate Students Association ratified its first contract in May 2002, significantly improving graduate employment in terms of healthcare and wages, and marking the first time that graduate students in the state bargained a contract with their employer.

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

Sci-fi and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin; shared by labor journalist Kim Kelly at the 2025 Camp Solidarity session on “Strengthening Solidarity in the Face of Fascism.” 

Cecil Roberts: “ You must continue to fight”

On this week’s Labor History Today: From Camp Solidarity in Matewan, West Virginia—the heart of the legendary Mine Wars—UMWA President Cecil Roberts reflects on the long struggle of coal miners to claim America’s promise that “this land belongs to all of us.” On the eve of his retirement, Roberts’ words connect today’s fights for justice with a century of labor history rooted in the hollers of Appalachia.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: According to folklorist John Garst, steel-drivin’ man John Henry, born a slave, outperformed a steam hammer on September 20, 1887 at the Coosa Mountain Tunnel or the Oak Mountain Tunnel of the Columbus and Western Railway (now part of the Norfolk Southern) near Leeds, Ala. Other researchers place the contest near Talcott, W. Va.

Cecil Roberts Delivers Big Win For Mine Wars Museum (9/19)
The Gospel of Labor Art (9/12)
LHF brings labor arts to SEIU’s Dream • Rise • Organize in Tucson (9/5)

Labor Day Weekend Guide: Strike Songs, Sing-Along, Bread & Roses (8/29)

Zoltoid, The Worker Safety Oracle (8/22) 

Dropkick Murphys Rock Cleveland for Union Rights (8/15)