Episodes

16 minutes ago
May 29 - No Dancing Allowed
16 minutes ago
16 minutes ago
On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That was the day fifteen women lost their jobs for dancing on their lunch break. The women worked for the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2 days ago
2 days ago
On this day in Labor History the year was 1946. That was the day the working people of New York stood up in true labor solidarity. It all started at stroke midnight on May 15th as messengers delivered the following statement to 489 municipal employees:

2 days ago
May 27 - Unconstitutional
2 days ago
2 days ago
On this day in Labor History the year was 1935. That was the day the United States Supreme Court unanimously declared the National Industrial Relations Act unconstitutional. The act had been passed just two years before, as the centerpiece of President Franklin Roosevelt’s plan to combat the Great Depression.

3 days ago
May 26 - Battle of the Overpass
3 days ago
3 days ago
Did you know that sometimes photographs have the power to help change the course of a labor struggle? That is what happened on this day in Labor History, the year was 1937. Detroit News photographer James “Scotty” Kilpatrick came with his camera to the River Rouge Ford plant.

4 days ago
May 25 - Philip Murray is Born
4 days ago
4 days ago
Unions were created to make living conditions just a little better than they were before they were created, and the union that does not manifest that kind of interest in human beings cannot endure.”
Those were the words of Philip Murray, born on this day in Labor History, the year was 1886. Philip Murray was born in Blantyre, Scotland, the son of a union coal miner.

5 days ago
May 24 - The Eighth Wonder of the World
5 days ago
5 days ago
On this day in Labor History the year was 1883. The “eighth wonder of the world, the Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic. 600 men worked on the project, which took 14 years to complete. Between twenty and thirty men died working on the bridge. This included the bridge’s designer, German-born John. A. Roebling.

6 days ago
May 23 - Solidarity in Toledo
6 days ago
6 days ago
How can unionized workers and unemployed workers stand together? Perhaps we can look to the past for examples of the power of such solidarity. On this day in Labor History the year was 1934. It was the height of the Great Depression.

7 days ago
7 days ago
On this day Labor History the year was 1895. Labor organizer Eugene V. Debs began a six month prison sentence in Woodstock, Illinois. Debs was the leader of the American Railway Union that had led a nationwide boycott and strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894.

Wednesday May 21, 2025
May 21 - The Little Wagner Act
Wednesday May 21, 2025
Wednesday May 21, 2025
On this day Labor History the year was 1945. That was a very important day for workers on the islands of Hawaii.
It marked the passage of the federal Hawaii Employment Relations Act, more popular known as the “Little Wagner Act.”

Tuesday May 20, 2025
May 20 - Rights on the Rail
Tuesday May 20, 2025
Tuesday May 20, 2025
On this day Labor History the year was 1926. That was the day President Calvin Coolidge signed the Railway Labor Act.
For decades railroad labor disputes had often become bloody affairs.