Labor History in 2:00

On this day in Labor History the year was 1939.  This was the day readers were first introduced to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1919.  Labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs was sent to prison for speaking out against World War I.

There are some songs that stand at the core of the labor movement. Year after year these songs ring out on picket lines, at labor rallies, and in union halls around the world. These Songs inspire and build solidarity between workers.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1941. 

For years auto workers had participated in a series of sit down strikes and walk outs.  They had won union recognition from almost every major auto maker.  

On this day in Labor History the year was 1930. That was the day that Dolores Huerta was born in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico.  

The fight for an eight hour work day was one of the most difficult and important efforts of the US labor movement. 

Slogans such as “Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for what we will!” became the rallying cry of working people.

On this day in Labor History the year was 1911. At 6:30 in the morning an explosion shook the Banner Mine, owned by the Pratt Consolidated Coal Company. Banner was located near what would later become Birmingham, Alabama.  

Their slogan was “Justice for Janitors!” Their chant was “Si se puede!” “Yes we can!”

Their image was a red and black poster of a mop raised high in a clenched fist. 3,000 members of SEIU Local 1877 marched in the streets of downtown Los Angeles.  

Often Southern states are the focus of histories of slavery in the United States. 

But did you know that in the early 1700s one in five residents of New York were enslaved Africans? 

On this day in Labor History the year was 1954. It began what some have called the “longest major strike in U.S. history.”  The strike was against Kohler, the Wisconsin-based manufacturer of bathroom fixtures