A new labor bookstore has just opened online — laborsbookstore.com — that’s bringing back into print a number of the valuable union-building tools lost to the labor community when Union Communication Services shut down last year. One of the most popular titles, “The Union Steward’s Complete Guide,” is being brought back in a brand-new updated edition, along with a healthy selection of used labor books, from Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” to Juliet Schor’s “The Overworked American.” “I checked on YouTube, and it also quotes Dolly Parton (in her song "9 To 5") as saying ‘fat promotion,’ (Labor Quote, 1/29), but I'm pretty sure she's saying ‘fair’ promotion,” writes Paul McKenna. “Doesn't ‘fair’ promotion make more sense?" It does indeed. Although Lyrics.com has the line as “fat promotion” the more authoritative Genius lyrics site says "9 to 5, for service and devotion/You would think that I/Would deserve a fair promotion". Check it out for yourself in the video below. "I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice." Tenayuca led 12,000 pecan shellers – mostly Latino women – on a 3-month strike in San Antonio, Texas that began on this date in 1938. This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Voices from the Lansing Auto Town Gallery On today’s show, auto worker Dorothy Stevens on her pioneering career at the Fisher Body plant in Lansing, MI. Also this week, Karen Nussbaum on Dolly Parton’s hit song, Bill Fletcher on the wildcat strike by the Eldon Avenue Axle Plant Revolutionary Union Movement, and the Cool Things from the Meany Archives team digs into the AFL’s cornerstone. Last week's show: (1/19): MLK: All Labor Has Dignity January 31 Ida M. Fuller is the first retiree to receive an old-age monthly benefit check under the new Social Security law. She paid in $24.75 between 1937 and 1939 on an income of $2,484; her first check was for $22.54 - 1940 After scoring successes with representation elections conducted under the protective oversight of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the United Farm Workers of America officially ends its historic table grape, lettuce and wine boycotts - 1978 Union and student pressure forces Harvard university to adopt new labor policies raising wages for lowest-paid workers - 2002 Five months after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans school board fires every teacher in the district in what the United Teachers of New Orleans sees as an effort to break the union and privatize the school system - 2005 February 1 Led by 23-year-old Kate Mullaney, the Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y, raises earnings for female laundry workers from two dollars to 14 dollars a week - 1864 25,000 Paterson, NJ silk workers strike for eight-hour work day and improved working conditions. 1,800 were arrested over the course of the six-month walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their employers’ terms - 1913 February 2 Sixteen thousand silk workers in Paterson, NJ and 32,000 in Lawrence, Mass. strike for shorter work week with no cut in pay - 1919 Legal secretary Iris Rivera (photo above) fired for refusing to make coffee; secretaries across Chicago protest - 1977 The 170-day lockout (although management called it a strike) of 22,000 steelworkers by USX Corp. ends with a pay cut but greater job security. It was the longest work stoppage in the history of the U.S. steel industry - 1987 - David Prosten |