Episodes
Monday Oct 21, 2019
October 21 - Organizing Paradise and Making it Better
Monday Oct 21, 2019
Monday Oct 21, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1999. That was the day that 270 workers from the Embassy Vacation Resorts in Maui voted to join Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees. Local 5 got its start in Hawaii in 1938.
Sunday Oct 20, 2019
October 20 - Merle Travis, Songs of the Working Man
Sunday Oct 20, 2019
Sunday Oct 20, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1983. That was the day that musician Merle Travis died. Known for his unique finger-picking guitar style, Travis wrote songs that captured the hard life of the coal miner.
Saturday Oct 19, 2019
October 19 - In the Streets and at the Shareholder Meetings
Saturday Oct 19, 2019
Saturday Oct 19, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1980. In what the Chicago Sun Times called it the “biggest labor management war of the last two decades.” The battle for union recognition at ten J.P. Stevens’s textile plants ended in victory.
Friday Oct 18, 2019
October 18 - Walking in Their Shoes
Friday Oct 18, 2019
Friday Oct 18, 2019
On this day in Labor History, and we are going all the way back to 1648. More than a hundred years before the American Revolution, an early trade organization was founded in the Colony of Massachusetts. They called themselves the “Company of Shoemakers.”
Thursday Oct 17, 2019
October 17 - The Making of a Monopoly
Thursday Oct 17, 2019
Thursday Oct 17, 2019
On this day in Labor History, the year was 1877. That was the day that John D. Rockefeller, and his company Standard Oil struck a deal with the Pennsylvania Railroad that would cement his monopoly on the nation’s oil refineries. In the early 1870s Rockefeller was building his oil empire out from its center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
October 16 - Striking a Blow at Slave Labor
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
On this day in Labor History, the year was 1859. That was the day that abolitionist John Brown led a raid at the armory in Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia. His goal was to strike a blow toward ending slavery.
Tuesday Oct 15, 2019
October 15 - Labor’s Magna Carta
Tuesday Oct 15, 2019
Tuesday Oct 15, 2019
On this day in Labor History, the year was 1914. That was the day that President Woodrow Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act. The act also became known as Labor’s “Magna Carta.”
Monday Oct 14, 2019
October 14 - Labor Standing in Solidarity Against the Nazis
Monday Oct 14, 2019
Monday Oct 14, 2019
On this day in Labor History, the year was 1933. That was the day the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor decided to call for a boycott of Nazi Germany’s goods and services. Jewish labor leaders in the United States led the push for the boycott.
Sunday Oct 13, 2019
October 13 - Delivering a Better Future
Sunday Oct 13, 2019
Sunday Oct 13, 2019
On this day in Labor History, the year was 2000. That was the day the newspaper carriers for the San Jose Mercury News ended their walkout. Eighty percent of the newspaper carriers were Vietnamese immigrants to the United States. Many were elderly, or recent immigrants with families.
Saturday Oct 12, 2019
October 12 - Bury Me with My Boys in Mt. Olive
Saturday Oct 12, 2019
Saturday Oct 12, 2019
“Bury me with my boys in Mt. Olive, and let no traitor draw breath over my grave.” Such was the last wish of labor leader Mother Jones. She wanted her final resting to place to be alongside the coal miners who gave their lives in the struggle to bring fair wages and a safe working environment to Virden, Illinois.