News & Updates

Editor’s Note: Bread and roses, indeed.

First the bread: Saying that “Now is the time to mobilize,” the AFL-CIO urges concerned citizens and activists to join tomorrow’s big day of action on the National Mall, “where union members and allies will gather to tell Elon Musk and President Trump to get their hands off our union contracts!” Meet at the Washington Monument at 12 noon.

Then the roses: this year’s DC Labor FilmFest line-up at the AFI Silver went live this week; click here to check it out and stay tuned for more details and extras soon! 

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS

Activists Launch “Patrons for the Kennedy Center” to Defend Arts and Democracy: A small group of activists has been making waves at the Kennedy Center by donning vests reading “Hands Off the Arts!” and handing out flyers urging public support for the arts. Encouraged by positive responses, organizers — including Karen Nussbaum and Debbie Schneider — are now expanding the effort into a broader network: Patrons for the Kennedy Center. Read more.

Minnesota Science Museum Workers Ratify Historic First Contract: After over 550 days of dedicated organizing efforts, members of AFSCME Council 5 who work at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) are celebrating their first-ever union contract. Read more.

Video Game Workers Vote to Authorize Strike at Microsoft: Hundreds of ZeniMax Workers United-Communications Workers of America (ZWU-CWA) members have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. Read more.

Workers at Famous LA Museums Launch Effort to Form Union: Staff at Los Angeles’ Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pits have gone public with their intent to join AFSCME District Council 36. Read more.

Austin Alamo Drafthouse Staff Demand Voluntary Recognition: Workers at an Alamo Drafthouse location in Austin, Texas, have announced their efforts to join the UAW following sudden company-wide layoffs at the beginning of the year. Read more here.

Reports from AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Bread & Puppet touring East Coast

Puppet show! Puppet show! Bread & Puppet Theater is on the road on their spring tour, traveling from Vermont down the Eastern Seaboard through April 27. “The obligation to be alive and act against the actors of death is just one of humanity’s many obligations,” says director Peter Schumann. “We also have the obligation to courage and the obligation to plant garlic in the rubble of the empire. Possibilitarians know this and bring giants, dragons, horses, sheep, butterflies, and the exact dance of death required for this exact moment.” Details here.

READERS WRITE: Shelley does her part

Shelley does her part: “Enclosed please find my check that not only covers my (GLAE) registration but adds a bit to the effort of keeping Labor Culture alive,” writes Shelley Kessler. “In these days of incredible challenges, we can fight for the rights of working people with our weapons of artistic creation. I embrace these goals with a strong heart and a dedication to help advance the struggle. Use the extra funds wherever they are needed to help lift the load.”

Thanks, Shelley; this will provided a much-appreciated boost to our Straus $10K Matching Grant; click here now to help us make goal!

Pittsburgh Guild’s unwanted record: “The current Pittsburgh Guild Strike (has been going on for) more than 2 years,” writes LHF reader G Natale, responding to our April 1 item about the 114-day 1963 newspaper strike being the longest in U.S. history.

CWA members at AT&T Southwest continued to show support for their bargaining team with creative signs. Members used St. Patrick’s Day and April Fools’ Day to send messages to the company that they remain unified and ready to fight for a fair contract. 

CWA Newsletter

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LILLY – 2025 DC Labor FilmFest Opening Night

Check out the full line-up here!

We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister

We don’t know if this will be played at the big union rally on the National Mall tomorrow, but just in case, you can brush up on the lyrics here.

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated on this date in 1968 in Memphis, where he had been supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of this tragedy, riots broke out in many cities, including Washington, DC.

Primero de Mayo: “Big Pancho”

Judith F. Baca’s Primero de Mayo: “Big Pancho” (2006) is a powerful sculpture that encapsulates themes of labor, cultural heritage, and resistance, especially within the context of Chicano history and activism, reports LHF intern Mircy Coca Soriano. Read more.

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

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

Sunday: Rebel Voices & Charlie King, 'O Give Me a Home'

March 28, 1968

Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. Violence during the march persuades him to return the following week to Memphis, where he was assassinated. 

Taking a Stand: Union Solidarity Against Apartheid

The impressive story of international solidarity by union members in British Columbia who worked tirelessly in support of those fighting to end apartheid. It comes to us from On The Line: Stories of BC Workers, a consistently terrific podcast from our friends in the free and independent country of Canada.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: Mark Twain was a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union (now part of CWA). On March 22, 1886 he spoke in Hartford, Conn., extolling the Knights of Labor’s commitment to fair treatment of all workers, regardless of race or gender.

Trump's EO “The very definition of union-busting” (3/28)

Celebrating Mother Jones’ Irish heritage (3/21)

Jeff Bezos has a Rocketship Called: New Shepard (3/14)

The Communist Folk Singers Who Shaped Bob Dylan (3/7)

Contest: Songs and Chants for the Strike Line (2/28)

Free Black History Month Virtual Screenings (2/21)

Cast your vote for 2025 Labor Oscars! (2/14)