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October 31, 2015
A Century Later, Labor’s Legendary Troubadour Lives On
Joe Hill (This article first appeared in the November/December 2015 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.) One hundred years have passed sinc...
August 31, 2015
‘Big Bill’ Haywood: The ‘Wobbly’ Giant
“Big Bill” Haywood was a big man with a big heart and a big dream – to build one big union for workers from every industry. He could break a man’s jaw...
April 30, 2015
May Day: Fighting for the Eight-Hour Day
Chicago in the 1880s was a hotbed of labor organizing. Fed up with the status quo, where industrial workers toiled long hours in squalid conditions, t...
February 28, 2015
From ‘Collective Begging’ Collective Bargaining
March 2015 marks the 45th anniversary of the Great Postal Strike of 1970. The courage and solidarity shown by thousands of union members during the wi...
February 28, 2015
Rose Schneiderman Organizes Garment Workers in New York
Rose Schneiderman was a trailblazer for workers’ rights in the Lower East Side of New York City at the turn of the 20th Century. She organized and co-...
December 31, 2014
A Look Back: The Charleston Five
Soon after dockworkers formed a picket line at the Port of Charleston, SC, in January 2000, five among them became the focus of worldwide protests and...
September 30, 2014
The ‘Strike for Better Schools’
Almost 70 years after a strike by St. Paul teachers, their battle holds lessons for today’s postal workers and other public employees: The educators d...
August 31, 2014
The Real Norma Rae
Early On May 30, 1973, the J.P. Stevens textile mill in Roanoke Rapids, NC, fired 32-year-old Crystal Lee Sutton. Before Sutton left the plant, she cl...
June 30, 2014
War on the Waterfront
Early in the morning on July 5, 1934, storefront owners in the Mission District of San Francisco were opening their doors. In the financial district,...
April 30, 2014
Ludlow Massacre Forges Mine Workers’ Struggle
Life was not easy a century ago for coal miners in Southern Colorado, where heavily industrialized mines produced high-grade coal needed by the steel...
February 28, 2014
Black Women Raise Their Voices in the Tobacco Industry
By 1938, Louise "Mamma" Harris had worked at the I.N. Vaughan Export stemmery in Richmond VA for nearly six years. The women who worked at Export were...
December 31, 2013
APWU Helps Usher in the End of Apartheid
Twenty years ago South Africa held its first free and fair election. Amid violent attacks by groups seeking to disrupt the historic vote, a delegation...
October 31, 2013
Photographer Honored Workers, Helped End Child Labor
In August, the Postal Service released a series of stamps honoring American workers. Many of the stamps’ images were captured in the 1930s by photogra...
August 31, 2013
1934: Southern Workers Spark Massive Textile Strike
In 1934, thousands of workers in Southern textile mills walked off the job seeking better pay and working conditions. The job actions they launched sp...
June 30, 2013
To Stand Up, Auto Workers Sat Down
On Dec. 30, 1936, workers in Flint MI began a historic “sit down” strike that helped win union representation for auto assembly employees across the n...
April 30, 2013
‘Dust Bowl Troubadour’ Sang for Unions, Justice
For more than a century, labor musicians have lifted spirits and helped build solidarity on union picket lines. But most Americans seldom heard labor’...
February 28, 2013
Eleanor Roosevelt: ‘One of Us’
Although she belonged to a prominent New York family and could have chosen a life of leisure, Eleanor Roosevelt was a tireless advocate for social and...
December 31, 2012
Addie L. Wyatt: Labor, Civil Rights Leader
Last year we bid farewell to an important advocate for justice for working families everywhere: The Rev. Addie L. Wyatt. Though not widely known outsi...
October 31, 2012
Minnesota Timber Workers Triumph Over Lumber Barons
In 1937, at the height of the Great Depression, Minnesota’s timber workers triumphed over daunting odds to launch two successful strikes, achieve unio...
August 31, 2012
Union Workers and 9-11
Following the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001, the nation paid tribute to the workers who faced unimaginable danger when they responded to the terro...
June 30, 2012
Joe Glazer: Singer, Songwriter, Union Activist
Music has played an important role in the labor movement’s efforts to uplift, organize, and build solidarity among workers for more than a century. An...
April 30, 2012
Exploited Children Organize, Defeat Newspaper Titans
Just over a century ago, several thousand child laborers captured the nation’s attention when they took on two of the nation’s biggest newspaper publi...
February 29, 2012
Pecan Shellers’ Strike Sparked Hispanic Workers’ Movement
In Depression-era south Texas, a young Mexican-American woman broke tradition when she stood up for oppressed workers in her community and made an imp...
December 31, 2011
In World War II, Black Women’s Army Unit Delivered
In 1945, an Army battalion of African-American women played an important role in U.S. efforts to defeat Nazi forces in Europe — even though many Ameri...
October 31, 2011
Remembering Postal Heroes 10 Years Later
Just weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with the country still wracked with fear and anger, we learned of another deadly threat: Ant...
August 31, 2011
‘Si, Se Puede,’ Yes, We Can
It is next to impossible to think of the modern labor movement — and the struggles of farm workers in the United States — without César Chávez. A firm...
June 30, 2011
Maine Governor Removes Artist’s Labor Tribute
The Republican governor of Maine has censored an artist’s tribute to the state’s workers — infuriating unions and many others who called it a brazen a...
March 31, 2011
Regina V. Polk: Breaking the Mold
“I only met Regina Polk once. Briefly. That’s a teamster? I thought. The beauty? The cape? The high heels? The perfect make-up? Where’s the beer belly...
December 31, 2010
Rev. James Orange: A Champion for Labor and Human Rights
Reverend James Orange played a critical role in actions that led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and later applied his organizing sk...
October 31, 2010
1913 Silk Strike United Diverse Workforce
A 1913 strike among silk industry workers in Paterson, NJ proved that laborers could stand up to the factory bosses who exploited them. The strike uni...