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News Article | 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 international solidarity – symbols of the fight for justice. And after a 22-month battle, a groundbreaking victory over worker repression and racial...
News Article | 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 didn’t strike only on their own behalf – they walked a picket line for better schools. In 1946, the idea of a teachers’ strike was revolutionary. But i...
News Article | 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 climbed atop a table on the shop floor and raised above her head a piece of cardboard with the word “UNION” scrawled on it, turning slowly in a circle s...
News Article | 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, bankers and businessmen were trading stocks. Across the harbor, the Oakland Bay Bridge construction crew was hard at work. The police stood watch as 5...
News Article | 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 and railway industries. The largest mining operation in the region, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I), was controlled by oil magnate John D. R...
News Article | 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 among the poorest in Richmond; they had to wrap themselves in tobacco burlap to stay warm in the winter. The stemmers earned an average of $3 a week...
News Article | 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 of APWU representatives traveled to South Africa to act as election observers.
News Article | 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 photographer Lewis Hine, whose pictures celebrate the skills, daring and dignity of the industrial workers who built the nation. But Hine was more than a gift...
News Article | 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 spread to New England and the Mid-Atlantic states and became one of the biggest industrial strikes in U. S. history. Though the strike was unsuccessful,...
News Article | 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 nation.
News Article | 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’s voice — until one prolific entertainer helped popularize songs about the plight of everyday workers. Although he is mostly remembered as the man who...
News Article | 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 economic justice.
News Article | 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 outside Chicago, the diminutive, African-American woman made important contributions that “helped open the way for redefining women’s roles within the gene...
News Article | 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 union recognition, and negotiate unprecedented improvements in wages and living conditions. Their success arose from a collective resolve to gain control...
News Article | 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 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Three hundred fortythree firefighters and 72 police officers were among those who lost their lives, and...