A daily, pocket-sized history of America's working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.
Episodes
Sunday Sep 06, 2015
Sunday Sep 06, 2015
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.
Saturday Sep 05, 2015
Saturday Sep 05, 2015
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.
Friday Sep 04, 2015
Friday Sep 04, 2015
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.
Thursday Sep 03, 2015
Thursday Sep 03, 2015
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.
Wednesday Sep 02, 2015
Wednesday Sep 02, 2015
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.
Tuesday Sep 01, 2015
Tuesday Sep 01, 2015
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.
Monday Aug 31, 2015
Monday Aug 31, 2015
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.
Sunday Aug 30, 2015
Sunday Aug 30, 2015
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.
Saturday Aug 29, 2015
Saturday Aug 29, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1996. That was the day that workers at the Lusty Lady strip club in San Francisco made their final push to make their case for the right to join a union. They made history by winning the union vote fifty-seven to fifteen.
Friday Aug 28, 2015
Friday Aug 28, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1963. That was the day of one of the most iconic stands for justice and equality in United States history. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” to a quarter-million people in Washington D.C.