Latest News & Updates

Washington Post members strike

More than 700 members of NewsGuild-CWA Local 32035 struck the Washington Post yesterday. Journalists, production specialists, and drivers walked out on a one-day strike that was anticipated to be the largest strike in the capital region in recent history. NewsGuild members urged supporters to send a letter to Post leaders in support of the people who produce the newspaper. Read more here.

SAG-AFTRA members approve hard-won deal

Members of SAG-AFTRA ratified the 2023 TV/Theatrical Agreement on Tuesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Members approved the new, multiyear contracts covering television, theatrical and streaming production by a vote of 78%. “I’m proud of our SAG-AFTRA membership,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said. “They struck for 118 days… to secure over $1 billion in gains, along with the union’s first-ever protections around AI technology. This is a golden age for SAG-AFTRA, and our union has never been more powerful.”

- AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Union-Made Holiday Gift Guide

The AFL-CIO has expanded its gift guide this year. In addition to the usual assortment of delicious union-made food and drinks, toys and games, and more, there are also gifts for big spenders. Gifts that you can make at home, with union products! Gifts for those who’d rather have an experience. Find that perfect gift, from stocking stuffers to sports equipment to a unique book or theater performance. “Best of all, you can feel proud knowing your gifts are made by workers who stood together for family-supporting wages and good benefits. Supporting union-made goods will help workers and communities across the country—you are essentially voting ‘Union Yes’ with your wallet.”

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour radio show, More Perfect Union’s Senior Writer Sean Morrow on the power of social media, Stephen J. Silvia on The UAW's Southern Gamble and Michael Zweig on “Class, Race, and Gender”.

(NOTE: Sean Morrow will host this month’s Bread and Roses on Tuesday, December 12, 7p at the Takoma Busboys and Poets; FREE; click here for tickets)

The Labor Heritage Power Hour, hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, airs at 1p ET Thursdays on WPFW 89.3FM or listen to the podcast anytime.

PICKET SIGN of the Week

@ActorsEquity has filed multiple Unfair Labor Practice charges with the BLRB on behalf of @EquityStripNoHo. WGAW members and union strippers picketed on Dec. 7 for a safe and reasonable workplace.

Writers Guild of America West (photo from Writers Guild strike in August)

Labor VIDEO of the Week

Click Clack Moo; a great tale for the little activist in your life.

Got labor video? Email us at info@laborheritage.org

https://youtu.be/zwkMKVu7dxo?si=NbeZvqUVZRHYLd33

Labor SONG of the Week

People Have The Power

Patti Smith

We asked Congressman Jamie Raskin (D., MD) to be one of our speakers at the upcoming MLK Ball and here's his response: "Yes, I would love to! What a great invitation. Thank you. Can you guys sing ‘People Have the Power’ by Patti Smith?”

Get your Ball tickets here now!

Labor ART of the Week

Calvin & Hobbes – Bill Watterson

Got labor art? Email us at info@laborheritage.org

Labor POEM of the Week

Working Mother

You tell me about diaper/cereal mornings

going on the bus bus bus world bus

way out there to friends school

where you taught Spanish all day

carrying your oldest (and only) then

to the nursery there

What's that, twenty miles? Thirty?

Feels like fifty. There aren't

bullet trains. I'm talking about

thirty stops bus

maybe come, maybe don't

comes when it does not breathing

slugs designed to discourage

all but the poorest with

dark lives

most people wouldn't take a bus here

two miles to the grocery to fill their bellies

much less to a job, school, Job? Don't

bother

I was hard, dragging my

children up like I had to, so when

the gifts of the world come to our

gifted children, our best gifts, Our

gifts to the world.

They feel they aren't worthy

and the world doesn't fit them.

We have to keep telling them

they are

going soul and body where no being

had been before.

My life made me hard.

I wish it hadn't. How are these grown

children such gorgeous quivering orchids

in this place, and out of us

finding lives.

They will.

Mary Franke, Blue Collar Review

Got a labor poem? Email us at info@laborheritage.org

Labor QUOTE of the Week

“A struggle is going on in all of the civilized world between oppressors and oppressed of all countries, between capitalist and laborer...”

On this date in 1886, 25 unions founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in Columbus, Ohio; Cigarmaker’s union leader Samuel Gompers was elected president. The quote is from the AFL’s founding document’s preamble.

Got a labor quote? Email us at info@laborheritage.org

LHF's comprehensive listing of labor's cultural events: music, films, theater, books, history and more...

Click here to add your labor arts event!

BOOK/Author: CLASS, RACE, AND GENDER, with Michael Zweig, in conversation w/Ralikh Hayes

Sat, December 9, 7pm – 9pm

Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 3128 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA (map)

FREE but you must register here.

BOOK/Author: CLASS, RACE, AND GENDER, with Michael Zweig, Bill Fletcher Jr. & Nikki M.G.

Sun, December 10, 6pm – 8pm

Busboys and Poets Takoma, 235 Carroll St NW, Washington, DC 20012, USA (map)

FREE but you must register here.

FILM: STRIKE! (the films)

Tue, December 12, 7pm – 9pm

Busboys and Poets Takoma, 235 Carroll St NW, Washington, DC 20012, USA (map)

Doors open 6:30p; seating is first-come, first served; FREE but you must register here.

Sean Morrow, Senior Writer at More Perfect Union, will host a series of brief

frontline films about the recent SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and UAW strikes.

ART: Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina

Weekly on Thursday, Friday (10:00am – 8:00pm), until Jan 6, 2024

University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI

FREE; details here

EXHIBIT: Collective Ribbon: The Interwoven Voices of the Triangle Fire Memorial

Weekly on weekdays (10:00am – 6:00pm), until Dec 16, 2023

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, 24 West 12th Street, NYC

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

On this week’s Labor History Today podcast, Labor history, justice, and Jesuits: All Who Labor podcast host Anna Nowalk speaks with Georgetown University’s Brother Ken Homan about the distance between what we say we believe and how those values are lived out, particularly as it relates to the Jesuits. The conversation stretches from topics further in the past, such as slavery, to more current labor activism at universities.

114-day newspaper strike begins, New York City - 1962

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

In what year did the first sit-down strike in the U.S. take place?

1877

1906

1930

LAST WEEK'S QUIZ: On Dec 1, 1930, Kellogg cereal company adopted the 6-hour day.

"The worker must have bread,

but she must have roses, too."

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2023 program, which this year includes our annual Solidarity Forever Award, the Great Labor Arts Exchange, the DC Labor FilmFest and much more (check out our website for details!).

Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

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