Jenny Carson profiles some of the dynamic early leaders of the New York laundry workers union uprising of the 1930s, and how their fight for a democratic union met resistance from a notable CIO union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. It is a window into her longer treatment in A Matter of Moral Justice, published by University of Illinois Press –editor
Read more →
John Logan updates us on the spunky Starbucks workers campaign against the Goliath of union avoidance, asks what the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is doing or could do to help, including his perspective on how this fits into the long history of the National Labor Relations Act and union-busting tactics.
Read more →
Editor: On March 25, 2023 a new memorial will be placed at the site where 123 women and 23 men garment workers, mostly recent immigrants, died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Mary Anne Trasciatti tells of the long road to bring this memorial to New York City.
Read more →
At the 2022 Oscars, Guillermo del Toro’s remake of Nightmare Alley could win four awards for its portrayal of life in a Great Depression-era carnival. The story follows Stan, played by Bradley Cooper, as he moves between stages and jobs in the traveling entertainment industry.
Read more →
“Freedom” is a fickle force, especially when it is expressed in the guise of aggressive flag-waving nationalism. Recent convoys in Canada and the U.S. have claimed the word to define themselves as they descended on their nation’s capital cities in recent weeks.
Read more →
“Protest” or “hunger strike?” Officials at the Robert N. Davoren complex (R.N.D.C.), a jail part of the Rikers Island correctional facility, have offered conflicting statements on the actions of a group of detainees who protested their living conditions on January 8th.
Read more →
Labor Online interviewed Jacob Zumoff about his new book, The Red Thread: The Passaic Textile Strike last year. In the course of the interview he mentioned the way that this strike creatively used film to build support for the workers cause.
Read more →
Jason Resnikoff’s essay The Paradox of Automation: QWERTY and the Neuter Keyboard is now available with free access until March 31, 2022 of Labor: Working Class Studies of the Americas. The essay gives new perspectives on how typing, considered one of the “office wife” service duties, became “neutered,” in the late twentieth century.
Read more →
According to a recent study by the AFL-CIO, on average 275 workers in the United States die each day due to job injuries and illnesses caused by working in unsafe spaces. In Canada, a 2020 report indicates 1,027 workers died of work-related causes in 2018, marking an increase of 76 from 2017.
Read more →
Bob Rossi is a long-time member of the Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota, (SNPJ) who has interviewed and corresponded with dozens of SNPJ members in writing a history of the 1920s coalfield culture and union battles. This post is derived from a presentation he gave to SNPJ Lodge #371 in Cle Elum, Washington in September.
Read more →