Episodes
Sunday Oct 11, 2015
October 11 Resting in Peace and with Dignity
Sunday Oct 11, 2015
Sunday Oct 11, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1936. 50,000 people gathered in the small town of Mount Olive, in southern Illinois. They had come to commemorate a new memorial to renowned labor leader Mother Jones and the honor mine workers who had lost their lives. Five special trains and twenty-five Greyhound buses helped bring the crowd to the Union Miners Cemetery.
Saturday Oct 10, 2015
October 10 Murder in the Fields
Saturday Oct 10, 2015
Saturday Oct 10, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1933. That was the day that forty armed cotton growers shot at a group of striking workers in the small town of Pixley, California. That year a wave of labor unrest had swept through the fields of California’s agriculture industry. Nearly 50,000 workers participated in strikes throughout the year.
Friday Oct 09, 2015
October 9 The United Hebrew Trades is Founded
Friday Oct 09, 2015
Friday Oct 09, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1888. That was the day that the United Hebrew Trades was founded in New York City. The new effort was patterned after the United German Trades. The goal was to organize Yiddish speaking workers.
Thursday Oct 08, 2015
October 8 The Not So Friendly Skies for Women
Thursday Oct 08, 2015
Thursday Oct 08, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1986. Female flight attendants won an important legal victory. Can you imagine losing your job because you decided to get married? It might have happened if you were a flight attendant working in the mid-Twentieth century.
Wednesday Oct 07, 2015
October 7 Happy Birthday Joe Hill
Wednesday Oct 07, 2015
Wednesday Oct 07, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1879. The man who came to be known as Joe Hill was born Joel Emmanuel Hagglund in Gavle, Sweden. Hill traveled the United States organizing for the grassroots labor organization the Industrial Workers of the World.
Tuesday Oct 06, 2015
October 6 Fighting for a Say in the Great White North
Tuesday Oct 06, 2015
Tuesday Oct 06, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1996 fifteen thousand workers at the General Motors Plant in Quebec walked off the job. Members of the Canadian Auto Workers union were frustrated with their wages. They were also angry about layoffs and GM’s moves to outsource some of the auto production to non-unionized labor.
Monday Oct 05, 2015
October 5 Solidarity, The Noblest of Causes
Monday Oct 05, 2015
Monday Oct 05, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1983. That was the day that Lech Walesa was awarded the Noble Peace prize for his work founding the Solidarity union of Poland. The son of a carpenter, Walesa worked as an electrician in a shipyard.
Sunday Oct 04, 2015
October 4 Truman Takes Control of the Nation's Oil Refineries
Sunday Oct 04, 2015
Sunday Oct 04, 2015
Saturday Oct 03, 2015
October 3 A Standard of Living that is A Cut Above
Saturday Oct 03, 2015
Saturday Oct 03, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1943. That was the day the United Packinghouse Workers of America was chartered under the CIO. The new union was the result of the CIO’s Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee. Started in 1937 the Organizing Committee was an effort to build a union that broke down barriers between races and crafts in the meatpacking industry.
Friday Oct 02, 2015
October 2 A Shot of Opportunity Please
Friday Oct 02, 2015
Friday Oct 02, 2015
Did you enjoy a cup of coffee to start your day this morning? On this day in Labor History the year was 2007. That was the day that Starbucks agreed to post information about union rights on an employee bulletin board at its store in Grand Rapids Michigan. The International Workers of the World were attempting to organize the baristas at that store.