Advertise on podcast: Labor History Today

Labor History Today: UMWA Secretary-Treasurer Michael Phillippi connects Mother Jones’ legacy with today’s labor struggles at Miners Day in Mount Olive, Illinois. Then, we remember Jack Metzgar with our 2021 interview about Bridging the Divide and the value of working-class culture. Hosted by Chris Garlock. Thanks to James Goltz of JASE Media Service for the Miners Day recording. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On Labor History Today: A Virginia road and a century-old song reveal how workers carry solidarity across generations. Anthony Dominiczak of the Labor Memory Project takes us along Gravel Lick Road in Castlewood, Virginia, where a family memorial and an abandoned coal plant connect the Harlan County Coal War, the Pittston strike and a more recent fight over a landfill. Then, marking Joe Hill’s 147th birthday, we share an episode from Solidarity Works, the United Steelworkers podcast. Chelsea Engle explores the immigrant worker, IWW organizer and songwriter whose songs still speak to working people today. Plus, Rick Smith, with Labor History in 2:00. Hosted by Chris Garlock. Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Explore more labor history and the Labor Landmarks Map at laborheritage.org. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On Labor History Today: An automobile museum full of cars—but where are the workers who built them? Retired autoworker and union leader Mark Strolle helped answer that question with “Assembled in Lansing,” a new permanent exhibit at Michigan’s R.E. Olds Transportation Museum. In this conversation with Chris Garlock, a shorter version of which originally aired on the Labor Heritage Power Hour, Strolle traces Lansing’s labor history through sit-down strikes, the successful one-day Lansing Labor Holiday, and the union contracts that helped generations of workers buy homes, send their children to college and retire with dignity. He also shares his own experiences from 16 years on the assembly line: the physical toll, the unpredictable layoffs and the union community that helped workers weather both. And he connects that history to today’s challenges, from deindustrialization to AI and automation. Plus, on Labor History in 2:00, Rick Smith remembers Woody Guthrie, the Dust Bowl troubadour whose songs spoke to working people’s struggles. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On Labor History Today: What can labor history teach us about the present—and the possibility of change? In this episode, we share excerpts from the relaunch of the Working History podcast. Beth English talks with historians Sarah McNamara, Julie Greene, Eileen Boris, and Mae Ngai about the many kinds of work and workers that belong in labor history, from immigrant and domestic workers to the people who built the Panama Canal. Plus, Rick Smith tells the story of Shays’ Rebellion on Labor History in 2:00. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today: Delta pilots trace the 1894 Pullman Strike’s connections to Labor Day and today’s airline labor law; more than 400,000 unionists march on Washington for 1981’s Solidarity Day; and Latin American tunnel workers wage a five-year fight against wage discrimination in Vancouver. Plus, Youngstown remembers the devastating steel-mill shutdown known as Black Monday. Sources: Engage: The Podcast For Delta Pilots; On The Line: Stories of BC Workers; Labor History in 2:00 Music: Rails of Rage (Pullman Strike, 1894) - Bridget Roos Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today, we explore how working people preserve the history that official markers, museums and tours too often leave out. Every Labor Day, union members and community activists gather at Ralph Chaplin’s gravesite in Tacoma, Washington, to sing “Solidarity Forever” and honor the Wobbly poet, writer and artist who created labor’s enduring anthem. Vance Lelli and Nathe Lawver of the Pierce County Central Labor Council share the story of the annual commemoration—and explain why Chaplin’s words still resonate more than a century later. Then we travel to Ybor City, Tampa’s historic cigar-manufacturing district, where the familiar tourist story of “bread, cigars and chickens” obscures a radical legacy of immigrant workers, strikes, socialism and antifascist organizing. Labor Memory Project producer Anthony Dominiczak talks with Tampa organizers Roger Ezra Butterfield and Manny Ramirez about their working-class history tour—and their effort to secure recognition for Ybor City’s former Labor Temple. Plus, on Labor History in 2:00: New York City’s Union Square becomes a National Historic Landmark. Produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today: John Dick and Dave Elsila of the Michigan Labor History Society take Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant on a tour of Transcending, Detroit’s spectacular monument to working people and the achievements of organized labor. Plus, a musical tribute to Dolly Parton and her songs of work, family and working-class life. Labor History in 2:00 marks the Battle of Blair Mountain and FDR’s 1935 effort to make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share. CLICK HERE to watch a video of our tour of Transcending. Music: Detroit City, 9 to 5, Coat of Many Colors, Daddy's Working Boots, In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) & Working Girl Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today: The IWW’s Little Red Songbook was created to “fan the flames of discontent”—and its songs have carried solidarity into workplaces, union halls, picket lines and jail cells ever since. To mark the 117th anniversary of its first publication, listeners share their favorite songs from the legendary collection: “We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years,” “Mr. Block,” “The Red Flag,” “The Preacher and the Slave” and “Dump the Bosses Off Your Back.” We also hear “Ain’t Done Nothing If You Ain’t Been Called a Red,” now proposed for the forthcoming 39th edition. Plus, Labor History in Two explores the birth of the Little Red Songbook in Spokane in 1909 and the arrival of the first ship carrying captive Africans to colonial Virginia in 1619. Featuring Judy Ancel, Tom Hoffman, Michael Kyriakakis, Robert Lindgren and Saul Schniderman, with music by Utah Phillips, Faith Petric, Carsie Blanton, Billy Bragg, the Tyneside People’s Choir, Pete Seeger and more. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today: Richard Trumka traces the history of labor art from the coalfields of Harlan County and the Flint sit-down strike to the Pittston mineworkers’ strike. Speaking at the Labor Heritage Foundation’s Great Labor Arts Exchange in June 2009, the future AFL-CIO president explains how songs, murals, films and stories preserve workers’ struggles and carry solidarity from one generation to the next. Trumka was elected AFL-CIO president on September 16, 2009, and served until his death on August 5, 2021. Plus, Labor History in Two looks back at how anti-communist hysteria was used in 1938 to divide workers and undermine the growing CIO. Music: Which Side Are You On? by George Mann, Elise Bryant and Florence Reece. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today: Dave Zirin discusses his new book, The People's Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn, exploring the historian's influence on generations of activists—and even on Hollywood. Then, marking the August 7 birthday of labor organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, producer Anthony Dominiczak looks back at the life of the legendary "Rebel Girl" and the fight over her historical legacy. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week’s Labor History Today: A hand-held fan donated to the Museum of Vancouver tells the story of Canadian workers who volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Its wooden struts bear the signatures of loggers, miners, and trade unionists from British Columbia who traveled thousands of miles to defend Spain's democratically elected government. From the On the Line: Stories of BC Workers podcast, historian David York explores the lives behind those names and the labor movement's long tradition of international solidarity. At a time when authoritarian movements are once again on the rise, their story is a powerful reminder that the fight for democracy and workers' rights knows no borders. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

As Spain and Argentina meet in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, Labor History Today looks beyond the action on the pitch to explore soccer's deep roots in working-class communities and labor struggles. British labor journalist and trade unionist Simon Sapper traces the history of "the people's game," from its origins in factory towns and mining communities to today's battles over billionaire ownership, rising ticket prices, and the commercialization of the world's most popular sport. Then we revisit one of the most important—and least remembered—labor struggles of the Progressive Era. While the 1912 "Bread and Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts is well known, a similar uprising unfolded just months later in Little Falls, New York. In an interview from our friends at the Green and Red Podcast, historian James Cheney, author of Women, Immigrants, and the Working-Class Battle in Little Falls, New York, 1912–1913, tells the story of the immigrant women textile workers who launched a spontaneous strike that drew support from the Industrial Workers of the World and became a landmark in labor history. Finally, on Labor History in 2:00, we remember the 1969 Charleston Hospital Workers Strike, when more than 400 Black hospital workers walked off the job, forging a powerful alliance between the labor and civil rights movements in the fight for dignity, equality, and union rights. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

On this week's Labor History Today: As the nation reflects on Independence Day, we turn from the "Great Men" of history to the voices of the people. We begin with Frederick Douglass's searing 1852 speech, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, performed by James Earl Jones, then hear from the Labor and Working-Class History Association's People's 250 project, where workers, historians, and activists share stories that place working people at the center of the American story. Plus, on Labor History in 2:00: July 4 Freedom to Join a Union Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Thanks to Democracy Now for the James Earl Jones clip.  #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

This week on Labor History Today: Silk stockings were all the rage in the 1920s, but the workers who made them paid the price. When the H.C. Aberle Hosiery Company in Philadelphia imposed wage cuts and harsher working conditions in 1930, more than a thousand workers walked out, setting off one of the city's most dramatic labor struggles. As tensions escalated between strikers, strikebreakers, police, and company management, 22-year-old Carl Mackley was killed in a confrontation that galvanized Philadelphia's labor movement. Tens of thousands attended his funeral, and his legacy lived on in the pioneering Carl Mackley Houses, a union-sponsored cooperative housing project built during the New Deal. Labor Jawn’s Sam James and Gabe Christy trace the origins of the strike, the violence that engulfed Kensington, the fight for arbitration, and how one young worker's death became a lasting symbol of labor solidarity. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Labor History Today visits Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, widely considered the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. In this excerpt from The Manufacturing Report, host Scott Paul tours the historic mill with National Park Service Ranger Allison Horrocks. Together they explore how Samuel Slater brought Britain's closely guarded textile technology to the United States, the role of Moses Brown and early investors, the rise of the Rhode Island mill system, and the transformation of work from home-based production to factory labor. The conversation also examines the human costs of industrialization, including child labor, the commodification of workers, the emergence of wage labor, and the first worker resistance to the factory system. Plus: Labor History in Two remembers the 1929 Gastonia textile strike and the struggle of Southern textile workers to organize. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory