Today's Labor History

​This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Escape on the Pearl; Black Labor Week
DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton connects a historic escape attempt by slaves with today’s fight for DC statehood; AFGE’s Black Labor Week on “Black History, Race and Racism in America,” and on Labor History in 2: The Fight for Equality in 1830.
Last week’s show: Labor Day: no picnic in a pandemic

The Workingman's Advocate of Chicago publishes the first installment of The Other Side, by Martin A. Foran, president of the Coopers' International Union. Believed to be the first novel by a trade union leader and some say the first working-class novel ever published in the U.S. - 1868

A coalition of Knights of Labor and trade unionists in Chicago launch the United Labor party, calling for an 8-hour day, government ownership of telegraph and telephone companies, and monetary and land reform. The party elects seven state assembly men and one senator - 1886

A 42-month strike by Steelworkers at Bayou Steel in Louisiana ends in a new contract and the ousting of scabs - 1996

California Gov. Gray Davis (D) signs legislation making the state the first to offer workers paid family leave - 2002

- David Prosten

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