Labor Radio-Podcast Daily

DC residents urged to testify at Council health committee hearing

“We need to win more” or UMC will face more cuts to services and jobs. Today’s labor history: local postal workers die after inhaling anthrax at the Brentwood mail facility. Today’s labor quote by William "Big Bill" Haywood.

DC janitors approve contract

New 4-year contract raises hourly wages by up to $2.50 for 10,500 workers. Today’s labor history: "Pretty Boy" Floyd – the "Sagebrush Robin Hood" -- killed by FBI agents. Today’s labor quote by Woody Guthrie.

From logging to Senate President

“It was the people that had the lobbyists and the big suits and soft hands that were making sure that things stayed the way they were.” Today’s labor history: dairy farmers strike. Today’s labor quote by Merle Travis.

Labor History Today (10/20): Immigrant Girl, Radical Woman

On this week’s show: Robbin Légère Henderson talks about her grandmother, Matilda Rabinowitz Robbins, on the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast. Henderson shares stories from Robbins’ autobiography, Immigrant Girl, Radical Woman: A Memoir from the Early Twentieth Century, explaining how the optimism of a 13-year-old immigrant from the Ukraine was soon undone by the realities of working in garment sweatshops on the East Coast, leading to Matilda Robbins’ brief but influential role as a labor organizer for the International Workers of the World from 1912 to 1917. She was one of only two women organizers for the IWW during its early years, along with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Plus a clip from Mother Jones In Heaven, a one-woman musical by Si Kahn, starring Vivian Nesbitt as “Mother” Jones, with musical accompaniment by John Dillon, recently performed at The Robin Theatre in Lansing, Michigan. 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. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock.

Elijah Cummings, friend of working people

"Brother Cummings was a longtime friend of working men and women, not just in Maryland but across the country and around the world." Today’s labor history: 58,000 Chrysler workers strike. Today’s labor quote by Louis Brandeis.

UAW gets contract at GM

Tentative agreement could end monthlong strike. Today’s labor history: Salt of the Earth strike begins. Today’s labor quote from The Bible.

Strike averted for 10,500 janitors

Local janitors – members of 32BJ SEIU -- won a tentative agreement for a new four-year contract. Today’s labor history: John Brown launches guerilla warfare against slavery. Today’s labor quote by John Brown.

DC janitors: making noise and making history

SEIU 32BJ’s Maria Naranjo on the origins of "chingchinas," the soda can noisemakers. Today’s labor history: International Working People's Association founded. Today’s labor quote by John Sweeney.

AFL-CIO ad campaign supports striking GM workers

The strike by more than 48,000 auto workers continues to galvanize the country. Today’s labor history: International Working People's Association founded. Today’s labor quote by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Labor History Today (10/13): Reconciling a Slaveholding Past

On this week’s show: Jody Allen, Assistant Professor of History at the College of William and Mary and Director of The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation. Jody discusses William and Mary's slaveholding past and the genesis, research, and ongoing community outreach of The Lemon Project with Working History podcast host Beth English. Plus: SEIU 32BJ’s Maria Naranjo on the origins of "chingchinas" -- soda can noisemakers -- during the Justice for Janitors campaigns of the mid-Eighties. 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. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock.