Today's Labor History

​This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Striking Images: Labor on Screen and in the Streets
Maybe class-conscious films like 2020 Academy Award winners "American Factory" and "Parasite" are the rule and not the exception. So argues Kathy Newman this week in a fascinating chat with our very own Sherry Linkon, who's quickly becoming a genuine LHT rock star!
Plus, Saul Schniderman on how sales clerk Leura Collins’ decision to buy some chicken led to the Weingarten Rights.
Last week's show: (2/9): John Sayles on “Matewan,” “Yellow Earth” and more. This is already one of our most popular shows; check it out and you'll hear why! 
 
February 18
One of the first American labor newspapers, The Man, is published in New York City. It cost one cent and, according to The History of American Journalism, “died an early death.” Another labor paper, N.Y. Daily Sentinel, had been launched four years earlier - 1834 

Faced with 84 hour workweeks, 24 hour shifts and pay of 29 cents an hour, fire fighters form The International Association of Fire Fighters. Some individual locals had affiliated with the AFL beginning in 1903 - 1918

February 19
A few weeks after workers ask for a 25 cent hourly wage, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit (streetcar) Co. fires 173 union members “for the good of the service” and brings in replacements from New York City. Striker-scab battles and a general strike ensued - 1910

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in favor of sales clerk Leura Collins and her union, the Retail Clerks, in NLRB v. J. Weingarten Inc. – the case establishing that workers have a right to request the presence of their union steward if they believe they are to be disciplined for a workplace infraction - 1975

Farm Labor Organizing Committee signs agreement with Campbell Soup Co., ending seven-year boycott - 1986
 
- David Prosten

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