Labor Radio-Podcast Daily

At DC City Council hearing last Friday. Today’s labor history: Attorney General Ed Meese urges employers to spy on workers. Today’s labor quote by Sebastian Junger.

“We're still here!” Today’s labor history: "Black Tuesday" crash throws world economy into years-long crisis. Today’s labor quote by Oscar Owens.

(Originally posted 11/4/2018) This week's labor history: Patrick Dixon talks with Clara Mejía Orta about workers in the cannabis industry in California, and Writers Guild of America West president David Goodman remembers the 2007 strike by 12,000 film and television screenwriters. Plus: Bill Fletcher on the 1892 general strike that brought 20,000 black and white workers together in New Orleans; David Fernandez-Barrial on the four million jobs created by the Civil Works Administration in 1933 for Depression-era unemployed; and Dan Duncan pays tribute to the workers lost when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975. 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. Engineered by Chris Garlock. Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services unionist.com/ This week's music: Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard - It's All Going to Pot youtu.be/S-sBlrClJc0 Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot youtu.be/Rjhah6Y_1dQ

“We're committed to fighting for these workers until they get the contract they deserve.” Today’s labor history: Gateway Arch completed without a single worker death. Today’s labor quote by Malcolm X.

First strike at WMATA since 1978; Hyatt Regency Baltimore Hotel workers settle contract. Today’s labor history: silk dye workers strike in Paterson. Today’s labor quote by John Sweeney.

New board game teaches the power of collective action. Today’s labor history: strike by Teamsters, Scalesmen and Packers paralyzes New Orleans. Today’s labor quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.