Today's Labor History

​Circus workers of the world, unite! Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast.
On this week’s show: A rollicking hour with former union clowns Murray Horwitz and Chris Bricker; both were graduates of the Ringling College of Clowns, Class of 1971 and went on to become professional clowns and then union reps at the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus. Horwitz went on to become an American playwright, lyricist, NPR broadcaster, and arts administrator, and Bricker is a longtime labor organizer and saw-playing member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 1000, the acoustic travelling musicians union.

Fair Labor Standards Act passes Congress, banning child labor and setting the 40-hour work week - 1938

At the urging of Black labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, Franklin Roosevelt issues an executive order barring discrimination in defense industries - 1941

Decatur, Ill., police pepper-gas workers at A.E. Staley plant gate one year into the company's two-and-a-half-year lockout of Paperworkers Local 7837 - 1994

Labor history courtesy Union Communication Services

---