Today's Labor History

This week's Labor History Today podcast: Cutting along the Color Line; Quincy Mills, Professor of History at the University of Maryland in College Park on black barbers, the evolution of their trade, and its political meaning as a skilled form of labor.
Last week’s show: Cordwainers strike of 1805 

An explosion at Osage Coal and Mining Company’s Mine Number 11 near Krebs, Okla. kills 100, injures 150 when an untrained worker accidentally sets off a stash of explosives - 1892

Wobblie Tom Mooney, accused of a murder by bombing in San Francisco, pardoned and freed after 22 years in San Quentin - 1939

The presidents of 12 of the nation’s largest unions meet and call for reuniting the American labor movement, which split into two factions in 2005 when when seven unions left the AFL-CIO and formed a rival federation. The meeting followed signals from President-elect Barack Obama that he would prefer dealing with a united movement, rather than a fractured one that often had two competing voices. Unions from both sides of the split participated in the meeting. The reunification effort failed - 2009

- David Prosten