News & Updates

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’ve got tickets for the MLK “Gonna Take Us All” Ball originally scheduled for January 19, they’ll get you in the door on our new date, Sunday, February 23 at McGinty's. If you don’t, no worries, there’s still time to join the celebration; click here for tix. Like Emma Goldman always said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution"! Or something like that.

- Chris 

PNLHA Hosts 56th Annual Labor History Conference in Portland

The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA) will hold its 56th Annual Labor History Conference on April 25–26, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. With the theme “Threads of Solidarity: Labor’s Legacy and Future,” the event will explore the history of labor movements in the Pacific Northwest while addressing contemporary challenges facing workers. The two-day conference will feature panels and workshops on topics such as young workers organizing, unions and immigration policy, labor and the environment, race and labor in the Pacific Northwest, and the history of labor in regional industries. Attendees will also have opportunities to network and build connections through social events designed to foster collaboration and dialogue. Aimed at union members, activists, scholars, and anyone interested in labor history and social justice, the conference provides a platform to reflect on labor’s achievements and strategize for a stronger future. Click here for details. 

Great Labor Arts Exchange returns to DC area June 20–22

Registration is now open for the 2025 Great Labor Arts Exchange (GLAE), set to  take place from June 20 to 22 in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. This annual event celebrates labor arts, including music, poetry, visual arts and more, and serves as a vibrant gathering for activists and artists dedicated to promoting workers' culture and heritage. Click here to register, as here to propose a workshop. NOTE: Early Bird registration rates are in effect through Feb 28. 

@ueunion: Last week, members of UE Locals 256, 1103, and 1122 attended counter-inaugural protests to demonstrate their resolve to resist any attacks from the Trump administration.

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Emma Goldman - Anne Feeney

The Rebel Girl - Hazel Dickens

 "The only people whose names are recorded in history are those who did something. The peaceful and indifferent are forgotten; they never know the fighting joy of living." Those words were spoken in Seattle by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on January 28,1917. Flynn certainly embraced the “fighting joy of living,” as a leader in the Industrial Workers of the World. She became a full time organizer for the IWW in 1907.

– Labor History in 2:00 Send your suggestions to us at info@laborheritage.org

The Application

At the base of the form

there is a blank for free-form exposition.

The attached question posed,

the one that cannot be answered with check marks,

is: why would you be exemplary at this job?

The reality is that I do not need

to be good at this job,

I simply have to appear to be a more desirable

potential employee than all the other

street-urchins, losers, and malcontents

that have wandered in to join this lottery.

I write: my skill set

matches your undocumented need.

And every day

I learn more, grow and transform.

Maybe it is my penmanship this exercise judges.

Ken Poyner, Blue Collar Review

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

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

Friday & Sunday: The Garbologists (Washington, DC)

Ongoing:

Historic photographs of Yakima Valley farmworkers (Yakima, WA)

Gospel of the Working Class: Exhibition (Chattanooga, TN)

January 31, 1938

12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Tex. – mostly Latino women – walk off their jobs at 400 factories in what was to become a three-month strike against wage cuts. Strike leader Emma Tenayuca was eventually hounded out of the state. 

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: MLK in Memphis

“We Will Not Be Turned Around”, Part 3 of AFSCME’s I AM STORY podcast about the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: In what could be considered the first workers’ compensation agreement in America, pirate Henry Morgan on January 26, 1695 pledged his underlings 600 pieces of eight or six slaves to compensate for a lost arm or leg. Also part of the pirate’s code, reports Roger Newell: shares of the booty were equal regardless of race or sex, and shipboard decisions were made collectively.

Is ‘Severance’ a show about unions? (1/24)

SAG-AFTRA donates $1 million for LA fires relief (1/17)

Tabitha Arnold’s Gospel of the Working Class (1/10)

Get ready to choose the 2025 Labor Grammy winners! (1/3)

Picket signs from the Amazon & Starbucks strikes! (12/20)

The Kaos of class struggle on Netflix (12/13)

Cliff Divers & Whiteboard Geeks unionize (12/6)

Carsie Blanton on “Rich People” (11/22)