Labor History Today

Coronavirus essential workers’ rights

On this week’s show, organizer and union rep John Barry on “Coronavirus ‘essential workers’ have rights too;” ethnographer Candacy Taylor on "Beauty Shop Culture and the Labor of Hairdressing" and Tales from the Reuther Library podcast host Dan Goldner celebrates Frances Perkins’ birthday.

Socialists, suffragettes and fear at work

On this week’s show, Kurt Stand, who – at least until recently – was a bookseller at Busboys and Poets here in Washington, DC, tells us about his last days at work before the COVID-19 shutdown. Carl Goldman reminds us of the day in 1913 when 20,000 striking textile workers and their supporters gathered in front of the house of the socialist mayor of Haldeon, New Jersey, and Jessica Pauszek tells the story of Tough Annie, a woman of means who threw in her lot with working women in London during the struggle for women’s suffrage.

COVID-19: An injury to one is the concern of all

Al Neal’s “Silent streets: Life halts, but not for all workers,” and Joe McCartin on “Class and the Challenge of COVID-19.” Plus Saul Schniderman and John O’Connor remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

The Great Postal Strike, Watergate and “Casey Jones, the Union Scab”

Longtime labor lawyer Jules Bernstein on the 1970 postal strike, AFL-CIO president George Meany on the Watergate scandal, and Pete Seeger on “Casey Jones, the Union Scab.”

Neutron Jack, Joker and Parasite

Labor historian Joe McCartin on “Neutron Jack” Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, who died last week; Sherry Linkon on class conflict in two recent award-winning movies, Joker and Parasite. Plus music from SongRise, a DC-based women's social justice a cappella group.

Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote

Professor Robyn Muncy, co-curator of “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote,” on the role organized labor played in the lengthy and difficult struggle for women’s rights. Plus Saul Schniderman on the origins of Women’s History Month and “Rise Up: Songs of the Women's Movement," the PBS show celebrating that history.

African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South

William P. Jones on “The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South,” plus a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to AFL-CIO urging the formation of a “Committee on Inquiry Into the Administration of Justice in the Freedom Struggle.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak. 2020 Bonus: Patrick Dixon on Chaplin’s “City Lights” as a labor film. (Show originally released 2/24/2019)

Striking Images: Labor on Screen and in the Streets

Maybe class-conscious films like 2020 Academy Award winners "American Factory" and "Parasite" are actually the rule and not the exception. So argues Kathy Newman this week. Plus, Saul Schniderman on how sales clerk Leura Collins’ decision to buy some chicken led to the Weingarten Rights.