A daily, pocket-sized history of America's working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.
Episodes
Sunday Sep 08, 2019
Sunday Sep 08, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1901. That was the day that Francisco Ferrer opened the Escuela Moderna in Barcelona, Spain. Ferrer was anarchist and educator. Explaining what he hoped to accomplish with these new schools. He said, “There must be a co-education of the different social classes as well as of the two sexes.”
Saturday Sep 07, 2019
Saturday Sep 07, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1980. The 32nd Annual Emmy Awards show took place despite 51 of the 52 nominated performers boycotting the event. At issue was a strike by members of the Screen Actors Guild. Powers Boothe was the only nominated actor to attend.
Friday Sep 06, 2019
Friday Sep 06, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1941. The Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, part of the CIO, and Armour & Company signed a master contract. This was the first such contract in the meatpacking industry. Within two years, three other major meatpackers also signed agreements with the union.
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
What are your plans for Labor Day weekend? Are you going to enjoy a barbecue with friends or family, or maybe march with your union in a parade? Do you know the history of this holiday? On this day in Labor History the year was 1882.
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. At least 10,000 tailors went on strike to protest their sweatshop working conditions. The New York Times reported “contract tailors of New York and Brooklyn celebrated Labor Day yesterday by going on strike.” Unemployed tailors pledged not to work as scabs.
Tuesday Sep 03, 2019
Tuesday Sep 03, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1928. 300 musicians working in Chicago went on strike against 250 movie theaters. They were protesting their impending replacement by talking pictures. This was part of a nationwide wave of protest by the American Federation of Musicians.
Monday Sep 02, 2019
Monday Sep 02, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1885.White miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming planned to wipe out the town’s entire Chinese community. Chinese immigrants came to the United States looking for work, first in the California gold mines, then as laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad.
Sunday Sep 01, 2019
Sunday Sep 01, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1859. That was the day the first Pullman sleeping car made an overnight trip.The first Pullman sleeper was a renovated day coach. That first trip was made on the Chicago and Alton Railroad between Bloomington, Illinois and Chicago.
Saturday Aug 31, 2019
Saturday Aug 31, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1991. Three thousand five hundred buses rolled into Washington, D.C.
They were loaded with protesters, there to participate in Solidarity Day.
Friday Aug 30, 2019
Friday Aug 30, 2019
On this day in Labor History the year was 1921. That was the day that one of most pitched battles in US labor history, the “Battle of Blair Mountain” began in West Virginia. Coal fueled the engines of industry, keeping the trains moving and the steel mills humming.