Labor Arts News & Updates

Labor Heritage Foundation Honors SEIU President April Verrett at 2026 Solidarity Forever Awards

Labor leaders, organizers, artists, musicians and activists gathered Thursday evening at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC for the Labor Heritage Foundation’s 2026 Solidarity Forever Awards, honoring SEIU President April Verrett for her leadership in organizing, worker advocacy and labor culture.

In one of the evening’s most memorable moments, Verrett declared that “culture moves people before politics ever will,” urging the labor movement to think boldly and creatively about organizing in the current political climate. “We cannot meet this moment with business as usual,” Verrett said. “We need a labor movement that is bold enough to think differently, creative enough to reach people where they are, and courageous enough to tell the truth about what we’re up against.”

Calling solidarity “a song… art… memory… imagination,” Verrett praised the Labor Heritage Foundation for understanding that labor culture is central to organizing and movement power.

Read more and see photos here.

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR


Fri: Labor at Wayne: Finally Got The News screening and panel discussion (MI)

Fri: Durham Labor Choir Spring Concert (NC)

Fri: SELF DRIVER (DC Labor FilmFest)

Sat: Memorial Day Massacre Commemoration (IL)

Sat: American Factory Screening (WA)

Sun: ANTIFASCIST SINGALONG - NJS IUC Solidarity Singers (NJ)

Sun: Late Shift (DC Labor FilmFest)

Mon: The US Working Class On and Off Screen (Virtual)

Mon: Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution (MD / Online)

Got a Labor event? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

THIS WEEK'S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR RADIO SHOW
Labor Is Art: On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: SEIU President April Verrett declares that “labor is art” at New York’s worker-powered “Ball Without Billionaires,” while the Labor Heritage Power Hour also previews the DC Labor FilmFest screening of Late Shift, the acclaimed Swiss drama about healthcare burnout and understaffing. Plus: historian James Benton on NAFTA’s impact on working-class America, a new People’s 250 organizing story from Washington, DC, and labor history from the 1968 Paris General Strike and the victorious 1975 La Tolteca strike led by undocumented Mexican women workers.

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS


IATSE Reaches Agreement Covering ‘Beast Games’ Season 3 Crew

The agreement covers more than 500 crew members working on the production in Greenville, North Carolina. Read more.

IATSE Strike Halts Filming of ‘CoComelon’ Spin-Off in California

22 crew members walked off the job in Sun Valley, California, demanding union recognition from IATSE. Read more.

Workers at Xbox Studio Double Fine Move to Unionize

CWA said workers organized to “preserve and extend [their] commitments to creative excellence, diversity and inclusion, and worker quality of life,” adding that Microsoft has agreed to remain neutral during the organizing effort. Read more.

‘Runway to Runway’ Explores Flight Attendants’ Fashion — and Their Fight for Rights

A new exhibition at Seattle’s Museum of Flight highlights not only the evolving style of flight attendant uniforms, but also the labor struggles behind them. Read more. 

Youth Artists Design 2026 Bread & Roses Heritage Festival Logo

The Bread & Roses Heritage Festival is once again partnering with young artists to create this year’s festival logo — continuing a tradition that connects labor history, art and community creativity. Read more.

Labor Artist and Historian Bill Yund Dies at 83

The Pennsylvania labor movement is mourning the loss of artist, illustrator and cartoonist Bill Yund, whose work brought labor history — and humor — to generations of workers and activists. Read more.

Labor Musician and Union Leader Todd Smith Dies

The Cleveland Federation of Musicians Local 4 remembered Smith as “a union official, labor attorney, singer/songwriter, wood craftsman, supreme defender of workers’ rights and so much more.” Read more.

WHAT WE’RE READING

“Their Greatest Effort Ever”: The British General Strike at 100

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK 
SELF DRIVER screens at 9:15 tonight at AFI Silver; If you have nothing to lose, how far would you go? 
Got labor video? email us at info@laborheritage.org

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK
Workers at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City joined three dozen UAW Local 2110 organizers to picket the museum’s annual gala at the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle on Wednesday night, May 6, demanding higher wages and better benefits. Read more.

Got labor art? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK: The Great Class War - Jesse Welles

Got a Labor song? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK

This year’s logo for the Bread & Roses Heritage Festival in Lawrence, Massachusetts, created by local high school freshman Franny as part of a tradition that connects labor history, art and community creativity. Read more.

Got Labor art? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

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LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK 
“Culture moves people before politics ever will.”

SEIU president April Verrett, at last night’s LHF Solidarity Forever! Award event. Read more. 
Got a labor quote? Email us: info@laborheritage.org

LABOR LANDMARK OF THE WEEK 
The Blackwater Fire Memorial: This monument in Cody, WY Lists the men who fought the Blackwater fire on August 21, 1937. They died just to the right of the marker.

Details on the LHF Labor Landmarks Map.

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What Haymarket’s Three Monuments Reveal: On Labor History Today: What do Chicago’s three Haymarket monuments reveal about labor history, public memory, and who gets to shape the story of the past? Labor historian Peter Cole explains. Plus: Australia’s early fight for the eight-hour day, and Labor History in 2:00 on the 1934 West Coast Maritime Strike.

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

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

1906: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of Samuel Gompers and other union leaders for supporting a boycott at the Buck Stove and Range Co. in St. Louis, where workers were striking for a nine-hour day.

1917: The Library Employees’ Union is founded in New York City, the first union of public library workers in the United States. 

1919: The Winnipeg General Strike (photo) begins

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: The constitution of the Brotherhood of the Footboard was ratified by engineers in Detroit, MI on May 8, 1863; the union later became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

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