2021-12
2021-12
Sunday Dec 19, 2021
Striketober & The Great Resignation: Take this job and shove it!
Sunday Dec 19, 2021
Sunday Dec 19, 2021
This week’s show explores the question of how “Striketober” and “The Great Resignation” happened simultaneously. Union organizing and strikes surged this Fall while millions of workers quit their jobs. Labor historian Gabriel Winant spoke about “Putting the current labor upheaval in historical context” at a December 10 labor history discussion hosted by the East Side Freedom Library in St Paul, Minnesota. Winant is the author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Manufacturing and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America and his latest essay, Strike Wave, was published in the British journal New Left Review in late November. Winant’s historical perspective seems especially useful as we look ahead to a new year and a rejuvenated labor movement, and we’ve included an inspiring report on local organizing in St Paul bookstores: these are the sparks that are firing the tinder of worker discontent across the country.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1945. That was the day workers ended their ninety-nine-day strike against the Ford Motor Company in Windsor, Ontario.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
This week's music: Take This Job and Shove It: Moonshine Bandits, Dead Kennedys, Canibus With Biz Markie.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle #LaborHistory @AFLCIO @LaborHeritage1 @ESFLibrary @UChicagoHistory @NewLeftReview
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
The first pay equity strike; Massachusetts’ longest strike
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
Sunday Dec 12, 2021
In the late 1970s, San Jose city employees were frustrated with flat wages and pay inequities for women workers. They believed that job categories dominated by women were undervalued and underpaid, and they proved it through a multi-year campaign for pay equity led by AFSCME Local 101/Municipal Employees Federation, AFSCME Council 57. Their efforts went a long way towards closing pay gaps, but it wouldn’t have happened without a strike in 1981. AFSCME secretary-treasurer Elissa McBride brings us the story of the first pay equity strike in U.S. history.
In December of 1954, Boston meatpackers in CIO Local 11 were just over a month into a strike against the Colonial Provision Company. That strike went on to make history, continuing for 14 months, the longest in Massachusetts history. Interracial cooperation was also a hallmark of the struggle by the Boston meatpackers, who were also redbaited and had their union decertified. The story of how these workers fought back – and won – is still inspiring and has lessons for today’s battles.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1947. That was the day that the United Mine Workers leader, John L. Lewis wrote the AFL stating “We disaffiliate.”
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.Our story of the Boston meatpacker strike came from the film Glory Days: Boston Colonial Packinghouse Workers Recall the Strike of 1954 – 55, produced and directed by Cynthia McKeown, released in 1988; remastered in 2019. Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, compiled by David Prosten.
This week's music: 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton (plus a funk cover by Love Raptor) and Celebration by Kool and the Gang, both top hits in 1981, the year of the pay equity strike.
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
Founding the American Federation of Labor
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
Sunday Dec 05, 2021
For today’s show, we’re digging deep into our archives while we put together some exciting new shows. This was just our fourth show, released on December 3, 2017, and it features a round-table chat with labor historians Joe McCartin and Leon Fink. Hopefully we’ll be able to get Joe and Leon back in the studio soon for some more of these fascinating chats.Our topics included the founding of the American Federation of Labor; AFL-CIO President John Sweeney welcoming the collapse of World Trade Organization talks in Seattle, and the birth of Newspaper Guild founder Heywood Broun. PLUS: Saul Schniderman on miner’s ballads and George Farenthold on the founding of National Nurses United. Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.Leon Fink, Professor Emeritus of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, edits the journal, "Labor: Studies in Working Class History."Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, compiled by David Prosten.
This week's music: Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union; Bruce Springsteen - My Hometown; Hazel Dickens - The Mannington Mine Disaster.