![]() Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: Fifty years ago, Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and 100 others were arrested while picketing a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina in a demand for union recognition. Charleston was – and still is -- a notoriously difficult place to organize, and our guest Leon Fink says it “stirred the soul of the whole city.” Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt’s new book, “Reconsidering Southern Labor History,” explores the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. Beth English talked with Keri Leigh and Matthew on a recent episode of the Working History podcast. The New York Times declares the struggle for an 8-hour workday to be “un-American” and calls public demonstrations for the shorter hours “labor disturbances brought about by foreigners.” Other publications declare that an eight-hour workday would bring about “loafing and gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness” - 1886 IWW Marine Transport Workers begin West Coast strike - 1923 The Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and 100 others are arrested while picketing a Charleston, S.C., hospital in a demand for union recognition - 1969 Supreme Court rules that employers may not require female employees to make larger contributions to pension plans in order to obtain the same monthly benefits as men - 1978 Labor history courtesy Today In Labor History. graphic by Ricardo Levins Morales Comments are closed.
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