News & Updates

Union Songs for Kids!

Lisa Simpson’s Union Strike Song leads off a new LHF YouTube playlist put together by longtime labor activist Karen Nussbaum (9 to 5, Working America), designed specifically for youngsters. “I teach my grandchildren to stand up for themselves and to be kind to others,” says Nussbaum “That’s Union 101. But how do I teach them they are part of a long tradition of fighting alongside others for what’s right? How do they learn they are from a union family? Union songs for kids! If they’re singing ‘you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ to the union’ at 4, then you’ve got them for life.“

That’s why Labor Heritage Foundation is making these kid-friendly union -- and union related -- songs available. Play them for the young people in your life and they’ll learn to “stand tall” and that there is, indeed “power in a union.”

Email us at info@laborheritage.org to add your favorite union songs; as Pete Seeger always said, “Carry it on!”

ON AIR: LISTEN TO OUR RADIO SHOW!

The 1934 Minneapolis trucker’s strike: Labor historian Peter Rachleff on how a Midwest strike helped shape national labor law plus a preview of his talk on the 1886 takeover of the Richmond (VA) City Council by black and white union activists. Plus labor music from The Heartland Labor Forum and, on Labor History in 2:00, the birth of the original Rebel Girl, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

The Labor Heritage Power Hour, hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, airs every Thursday at 1p on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.

Storm King Art Center Workers Approve First Union Contracts

Last week, workers at Storm King Art Center (SKAC), in New York’s Hudson Valley, ratified their first contracts, ending months of negotiations over benefits and better wages.

Box Office Workers at Oregon Shakespeare Festival Join IATSE

Box office workers at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) unanimously voted last week in favor of joining the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 154.

SAG-AFTRA Video Game Performers Picket at Warner Bros. Studios

Hundreds of SAG-AFTRA members, union allies and other supporters picketed in front of the Warner Bros. Studios on Thursday, fighting for fair artificial intelligence (AI) protections for workers who perform in video games.

Philadelphia Musicians Aim to Form Union at Arden Theatre

Musicians who perform at Arden Theatre in Philadelphia have filed for a union election to join the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 77 after a supermajority of workers signed union authorization cards.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre: “Can You Hear Us Now?”

Late last week, the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) filed unfair labor practice charges against Dallas Black Dance Theatre with the National Labor Relations Board, after management terminated a veteran dancer and banned dancers – who voted to unionize in May -- from teaching.

Send a Letter: Let DBDT Leadership Know that You Support the Dancers – American Guild of Musical Artists

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Working Forty-five; Randy Rainbow’s new version of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5. Thanks to Bob Barnes and Shelley Kessler for passing it along.

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

Writers Guild of America West @WGAWest walks the strike line in solidarity with @sagaftra video game performers. Union strong! #VideoGameStrike

LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK

” Being a security guard means having a job you can care about, but won’t take over your life,” Metropolitan Museum of Art guard Emilie Lemakis told The New York Times. “It’s not going to steal your soul. You take off your uniform, you leave and then you have your life. I think a lot of people work here because they just want to make a living and be surrounded by art, , so it attracts a lot of creative people. I myself make a lot of art about my job. We have this employee art show, and I created pieces for it that are about the museum. Once, I collected a whole bunch of late slips — when you’re late, you get this yellow slip — to make a big paper airplane.”

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

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

August 9, 1998

73,000 Bell Atlantic workers end a successful two-day strike over wages and limits on contracting out of work.

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST

The AAUP and the Black Freedom Struggle, 1955–1965: Between 1955 and 1965, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) investigated numerous southern institutions of higher education that had dismissed faculty members for publicly supporting desegregation and racial equality.

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

A 1894 "Hobo Army" of unemployed workers included which of these?

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: Uriah Smith Stephens, born in Cape May, NJ on August 3, 1821, was a tailor by trade; in 1869 he led nine Philadelphia garment workers to found the Knights of Labor.

"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.

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1934 and Now: The Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strikes (5/31)

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