Latest News & Updates

Hey Larry,: Here's your weekly dose of the very latest labor arts news from around the country; please take a moment to forward it to colleagues, friends and family and help build our movement. You can also sign up folks here. Thank you!

Chris

New York City Ballet Orchestra secures new contract

American Federation of Musicians (AFM) members at the New York City Ballet reached a deal with management for a new contract. The three-year agreement, announced Tuesday, includes an increase in compensation of about 22% over three years. “The marriage of music and dance is a hallmark of N.Y.C.B.,” the company and the orchestra said in a joint statement. “We are thrilled that this agreement has been finalized and we look forward to a successful season featuring our wonderful musicians and dancers who are among the greatest performers in the world.”

-AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Artistic workers at Opera Colorado win their union

Members of Opera Colorado won their union by a 91–8 vote and will be represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). The workers include solo singers, stage directors, assistant stage directors, stage managers, assistant stage managers, choreographers, solo and ensemble dancers, chorus members, and singers participating in the company’s Artists in Residence program. AGMA said it hopes negotiations for Opera Colorado workers’ first collective bargaining agreement will “commence shortly.” “I think this is a ringing declaration,” said Joshua Zabatta, who has sung with Opera Colorado since 2016. “We made it very clear, with an almost 92% vote, we want change, and we want to make art in a creative and supportive environment where we have the tools that we need.”

-AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Artists featured in AFL-CIO’s Native American Heritage Month profiles

Throughout Native American Heritage Month in November, the AFL-CIO profiled leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Native Americans have made to the labor movement and toward expanding the rights of working people. Those featured included Eric Moore of IATSE and SAG-AFTRA member DeLanna Studi.

Eric has been a Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 728 member for 25 years and is currently a rigging CLT on "Mayans M.C." He is half Hopi from Arizona and half Tewa from the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico.

SAG-AFTRA member DeLanna Studi is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation and has over 25 years experience as a performer, storyteller, educator, advocate and activist. Since 2007, she has served as chair of the SAG-AFTRA National Native Americans Committee.

New Joe Hill memorial unveiled in Salt Lake City

November 19 was the 108th anniversary of the execution of labor activist Joe Hill in what is now Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City. A new monument was dedicated there on November 18, hosted by the Central Utah Federation of Labor/AFL-CIO. The marker “will stand as a symbol of his enduring spirit and will serve as a reminder of the power of collective action,” its organizers say.

Read more here, and click here for Howard Berkes 1990 NPR report on Joe Hill.

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour radio show, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler launches a brand-new feature called “My Favorite Labor Song”, plus a preview of the DC Labor Chorus’ upcoming holiday concert, and Radical Songbook host Michael Funke’s “Making Cars Medley” of songs in honor of the UAW’s historic Stand Up Strike.

The Labor Heritage Power Hour, hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, airs at 1p ET Thursdays on WPFW 89.3FM or listen to the podcast anytime.

PICKET SIGN of the Week

Support striking workers at Macy's

More than 400 UFCW 3000 retail workers at Macy’s stores in Tukwila, WA struck from November 24-26; details here.

Labor VIDEO of the Week

Unveiling the new Joe Hill monument in Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City. Hill was executed by firing squad in Sugar House Park — then the site of the Utah State Prison — on Nov. 19, 1915.

Got labor video? Email us at [email protected]

https://youtu.be/zwkMKVu7dxo?si=NbeZvqUVZRHYLd33

Labor SONGS of the Week

“There Is Power in a Union” (above) is one of Joe Hill’s most enduring recruiting songs. After his execution, the song was sung at his funeral in Salt Lake City and again at his funeral in Chicago. The song is performed here by Folk Hogan in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House Park.

8 Hours (click here to listen) The R.J. Phillips Band’s new song celebrates the lives of Joe Hill, Mother Jones and Bill Haywood, as well as the struggles of labor’s rank and file. “Let us never forget the struggles and ideals of those who came before us,” says band leader Joe DeFilippo.

Got a labor song? Email us at [email protected]

Labor ART of the Week

Cesantia/Unemployment

Chilean arpillera, unknown male prisoner, circa 1980. Conflict Textiles collection. On view now at UMass Boston’s Healey Library.

Got labor art? Email us at [email protected]

Labor POEM of the Week

cleaning up history

i am raising a subscription

to erect a statue

to the unknown janitor –

to the slave wiping blood

from the republic’s marble walls

while Marcus Antonius praises

his good friend Caesar.

it will be a monument

to the rest of us,

to those who must follow, armed

with mops and buckets,

after the great men of history

have tracked their muddy boots

across the kitchen floors

of our lives.

no expense will be spared; this memorial

will be stronger than the tantrums of heroes,

more durable than the spite of kings.

not even the most sycophantic of scholars

will be able to ignore

its concrete proof

that history itself requires

a regular spring cleaning.

M.C. Warrior worked for over thirty years at the sharp end of production in B.C., principally as a logger and then as a commercial fisherman. A lifelong trade unionist, he was an IWA (International Woodworkers of America) logging Camp Chairman and later Secretary-Treasurer of the Vancouver Fishermen’s Local 1 of the UFAWU (United Fishermen & Allied Workers Union). This poem is from Disappearing Minglewood Blues (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2020).

Got a labor poem? Email us at [email protected]

Labor QUOTE of the Week

“The entertainment industry is filled with interesting projects and amazing people. It is an honor to work with members of my local and the other guilds and locals in our industry.”

Eric Moore, IATSE 728 member (see "Artists featured in AFL-CIO’s Native American Heritage Month profiles, above)

Got a labor quote? Email us at [email protected]

LHF's comprehensive listing of labor's cultural events: music, films, theater, books, history and more...

Click here to add your labor arts event!

DC Labor Chorus Evening of Favorite and Sacred Songs

Saturday, December 2⋅7:30 – 9:00pm

Washington Ethical Society, 7750 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20012, USA

UPDATE: The DC Labor Chorus concert on December 2 is SOLD OUT, “But WE DO EXPECT SEATS TO OPEN UP on the night of the concert.” Tickets will be released at the door at 7:15 pm on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no need to register for these last-minute tickets - just show up. However, you DO need to register here if you want to receive a link to watch the performance on livestream.

10th Annual Larry Penn Tribute Concert

Sunday, December 3⋅6:00 – 9:00pm

Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co., 224 W Bruce St, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA

$10 cover charge; click here to buy tickets in advance.

The late Larry Penn (photo) was known for his songwriting and folk singing about trains, trucks, labor songs and kids songs.

BOOK/Author: CLASS, RACE, AND GENDER, with Michael Zweig, in conversation w/Ralikh Hayes

Saturday, December 9⋅7:00 – 9:00pm

Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 3128 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

FREE but you must register here.

ART: Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina

Weekly on Thursday, Friday (10:00am – 8:00pm), until Jan 6, 2024

University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI

FREE; details here

EXHIBIT: Collective Ribbon: The Interwoven Voices of the Triangle Fire Memorial

Weekly on weekdays (10:00am – 6:00pm), until Dec 16, 2023

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, 24 West 12th Street, NYC

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

On this week’s Labor History Today podcast, the Leadville Irish Miners’ Memorial; On this week's show we travel to the Evergreen Cemetery in Leadville, Colorado; where on September 16th a new memorial was unveiled commemorating the 1,100 unmarked graves of Irish workers and their families who fled the famine in their homeland to toil deep in the Colorado copper mines and who died penniless in the Promised Land. This week's show comes to us from the Labor Exchange radio show, Colorado's only labor focused radio show on KGNU Community Radio (88.5 FM / 1390 AM)

James Oppenheim’s poem “Bread and Roses” published in The American Magazine; the phrase was originated by state factory inspector Helen Todd around the issue of women's suffrage - 1911

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

What happened on this date in 1930 at the Kellog cereal company?

Kellog locked out its workers

Kellog workers staged an “eat-in” at the factory

Kellog adopted the 6-hour day

LAST WEEK'S QUIZ: George Meany became president of the AFL on Nov. 25, 1952 after the death of William Green.

"The worker must have bread,

but she must have roses, too."

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2023 program, which this year 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.

RECENT NEWSLETTERS

Museum workers win in LA (11/17)

New monument honors union victims of Centralia tragedy (11/10)

Exit singing: Elise Bryant retires from LHF (11/3)

Elise Bryant shows why she’s “Queen of the Night” 10/27)

“TRIANGLE: Scenes from a Prosecution” (10/20)

Triangle Fire Dedication Ceremony streams live today (10/11)

Leadville Irish Miners’ Memorial to be unveiled Saturday (9/13)

Springfield (OR) Labor Mural dedication (9/8)

The ’63 March, 60 years later

Solidarity and song at the UALE/LHF Southern Women’s School (8/10)