The Battle of Blair Mountain
Following a wave of strikes, by 1920 the United Mine Workers (UMW) had succeeded in winning union contracts for miners across much of the nation, but coal barons in the southern West Virginia were determined to keep workers down. Company bosses cut...
Bloody Showdown on the Road to Union Rights
The mines of Appalachia were no place for the timid during the “coal wars” of the early 20th century. Following World War I, coal companies exploited workers, who were forced to endure miserable, dangerous job conditions. Wielding dynamite, picks,...
Black Women Advance Labor’s Cause In an Unlikely Setting: 1881 Atlanta
A little known yet largely successful job action waged in 1881 by black women in Atlanta is credited with helping to set the stage for a century of labor and civil rights struggles.
Studs Terkel: The Voice of Work and the American Worker
Late last year, the city of Chicago — and working people everywhere — lost a great voice when Louis “Studs” Terkel died at age 96.
For more than 70 years, the radio and TV host and prolific author chronicled the aspirations of working people in...
Sports Unions Work to Level the Playing Field
Although their average salary is considerably higher and their “work year” is much shorter, members of the nation’s four major sports unions share much in common with their counterparts in other industries, especially the historical basis for their...