Labor's Home Front: The American Federation of Labor During World War II In this history of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) during wartime, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor Andrew E. Kersten discusses how the AFL’s battles to achieve workplace equality and prevent attacks on union shops shaped the union federation into a progressive force that would eventually merge with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). During the war years, 4 million members in more than 20,000 union locals were part of the AFL. With chapters on union women, workplace safety, the rivalry with the CIO and postwar planning, Kersten’s study contributes a highly readable chapter to America’s 20th century union movement. Available at The Union Shop Online.™
Communities Without Borders: Images and Voices from the World of Migration Photojournalist David Bacon documents the lives of migrant workers in photographs, oral histories and essays by workers who all too often are invisible members of our society. From Guatemalan meat packers in Nebraska to women weavers in Oaxaca who sell their textiles in California, Bacon’s compilation goes beyond simple ethnography, with workers offering nuanced critiques of their experiences and piquant stories of their daily lives. “Communities Without Borders” offers a look into a world few Americans think about, and does so without cliché or easy answers. Available at The Union Shop Online.™
The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace, and Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York At the dawn of the 20th century, America’s workers were engaged in a struggle for industrial democracy, particularly for fair and safe workplaces. In the latest installment of the “Labor in Crisis” series, historian Richard A. Greenwald links the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire with the trade industry agreement known as the Protocols of Peace and other developments in the struggle for workers’ rights in New York City. From the 1909 “Uprising of Twenty Thousand” to the Factory Investigating Commission that arose out of the Triangle Fire, New York was the site of several Progressive Era labor triumphs—and Greenwald’s book explores them all. Available from www.powells.com.
MUSIC
Classic Labor Songs The late Joe Glazer helped compile this collection from Smithsonian Folkways, the Smithsonian Institution’s nonprofit recording label. “Classic Labor Songs” includes more than 25 workplace and labor songs from traditional artists such as Glazer, Woodie Guthrie and The Almanac Singers, and contemporary singers like Anne Feeney and Joe Uehlein. This array of ballads, gospel, bluegrass and folk songs will please any musical palette, while conveying the vibrancy of important chapters of labor history. Available at The Union Shop Online.™
WEBSIGHTING
Working Families Take on Wal-Mart In response to Wal-Mart’s latest public relations campaign, “Working Families for Wal-Mart,” Wal-Mart Watch has launched “Working Families for Wal-Mart?” a website that offers facts on Wal-Mart and its sorry history of employee mistreatment, discrimination, poor environmental practices and more. The site includes a blog, an action center, a “Battle-Mart” section that offers a plan for keeping Wal-Mart out of your community, document archives and a place to submit your experience with Wal-Mart. http://workingfamiliesforwalmart.com/
