Historical Archive
Historical Articles
Labor has opposed Taft-Hartley for decades. Here’s why it’s time to repeal it.
On June 23rd, 1947, the United States Senate—following the House of Representatives—voted 68-25 to override Harry Truman’s veto and enact the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as Taft-Hartley, into law. By doing so, Congress—over the vocal objection...
Historian Erik Loomis on the Murder of Black Sharecropper Organizer Ralph Gray on July 16,1931
Follow Erik Loomis on Twitter This Day in Labor History: July 16, 1931. A white mob murdered the black sharecropper organizer Ralph Gray in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. Let's talk about Black radical rural organizing and the sickening white violence that would...
Historian Erik Loomis on the Steel Strike of 1959
Follow Erik Loomis on Twitter This Day in Labor History: July 15. 1959. The Steel Strike of 1959 begins. Let's talk about the fight to preserve the good lives for workers unions had won since World War II. Perhaps the most underrated event in American labor...
Historian Erik Loomis on the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
After the Civil War, industrialists engaged in an enormous rail building program. Much of this was funded through shaky and corrupt means, leading to the Panic of 1873. When the bubble burst in 1873, many railroads went bankrupt and those who survived forced workers...
Historian Erik Loomis on the Bisbee Deportation of 1917
Mine owners in Bisbee, Arizona round up Wobblies, Mexicans, and anyone they found suspicious and drop them into the New Mexico desert. Let's talk about the Bisbee Deportation and the huge violations of workers' rights in World War I. The summer of 1917 was tense in...
Gregg Shotwell — Live Bait & Ammo #185: Protect and Serve
The pertinent question is: who will union members, police or otherwise, accept apartnership with? Will workers accept partnerships made with business moguls by bought-off union officials? Or will they strive for solidarity with other workers likethemselves?Will union...
UAW HISTORY: Shrinking UAW Tries to Steer a Steady Course Through Troubled Times (1982)
Some experts, including dissidents within and labor analysts on the outside, raise a larger issue: whether the union understands that a fundamental restructuring of the auto industry worldwide is occurring. These experts, including Harley Shaiken, a work specialist at...
UAW HISTORY: The union-management GM strike, 1970
The strike itself is sometimes actually part of the strategy to control the workers - albeit a costly one. A fascinating series of articles in the Wall Street Journal described "union-management cooperation" to get the workers back to work and build up the authority...
A Tale of Corruption by the United Auto Workers and the Big Three American Automakers
What follows is a somewhat complex tale of what happens when a labor union, structured to be unaccountable to the rank-and-file membership, embraces a system of labor-management cooperation rather than a class-conscious understanding that workers and their employers...
UAW HISTORY, 1987 — ‘Team Concept’ Foe Wins UAW Van Nuys Vote
For months, Pete Beltran has asserted that the team concept would erode traditional union protections, damage the national UAW and eventually cost jobs at the Van Nuys plant. He also asserted that the system, which eliminates strict job classifications and calls on...
June 11, 1974 Wildcat Strike at Dodge Truck Plant
On this day in labor history, the year was 1974. That was the day workers at the Dodge Truck plant in Warren, Michigan went out on a wildcat strike. Workers were fed up with endless attacks from management and disappointing contract negotiations the year before....
UAW HISTORY, 1988 — UNION REBEL: Jerry Tucker; The Man Who Is Fighting the U.A.W. From Inside
When the governing body of the United Auto Workers union meets on Dec. 5, an unusual tension is likely to pervade the session. For the first time in at least 30 years, union leaders will be confronting a genuine rebel in their midst. Jerry Tucker, a burly, bearded...
Black Past: Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM)
The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) was a radical organization of black autoworkers in Detroit, Michigan who were dissatisfied with working conditions at Chrysler and with the response of their union, the United Autoworkers (UAW). DRUM grew out of the Black...
Fight Back Shop Newsletter
Fighting Times Shop Newsletter Cartoons
Briggs Worker Shop Newsletter
“Running the Plant Backwards” in UAW Region 5
