First, Labor On the World Wide
Web
Sites to checkout and bookmark. Thanks to Suzanne Cohen and
Deborah Joseph, librarians at the Martin P. Catherwood Library,
Cornell University, for most of the following website annotations.
AFL-CIO
This official site
includes policy statements, boycott lists, The Working Women's
Department, ergonomics, government directories, latest campaigns and
"Work-In-Progress" newsletter, and links to member unions.
Executive PayWatch
Find out
the compensation and benefits for CEOs at S&P 500 companies, as
well as instructions for finding information about companies that
are not included.
Illinois Labor History
Society
Labor history site focused on Chicago and the
Midwest, but with labor history articles, a labor history curriculum
and links to related sites.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
This page includes links to some of the latest IWW Online
features, the Preamble to our Constitution, and some answers to
Frequently Asked Questions about the IWW. Has both Australian and
North American sites, current strikes and job action information,
links to international "anarchosyndicalist unions", links to sites
concerning political prisoners, environmental issues, etc.
LaborNet's Labor
Resources Page
LaborNet supports human rights and economic
justice for workers by providing internet services, labor news and
information, internet training and website design for labor
organizations. Offers action alerts, headlines, highlights and other
features.
Reference Sources in U.S. Labor
Studies
This is an annotated guide to reference sources on labor in the United States, prepared by Andrew Lee, Librarian of
the Tamiment Institute Library at New York University. It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide and thus
excludes industrial relations. The site features Bibliographies and Filmographies, Handbooks, Guides
& Encyclopedias, Periodical Indexes, and Primary Sources with proceedings and publications of AFL-CIO affiliated
unions and an extremely important guide to labor archives. Related Web Pages are also available.
Labor
Unions and the Internet
An online version of this manual on
the Catherwood Library's web site. Divided into labor-related
subject categories. This site is updated quarterly, so you may check
here for updates to the manual.
LabourStart
UK site with
Up-to-date information on current labor news from around the world.
Labour Links, Net Guide, Web Site of the Week, Labour related Radio
and TV.
Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
View or download safety and health
online publications valuable to employees and employers. Ergonomics,
Statistics & Data, Useful FAQ page. Agency info and links to
other safety and health sites.
Putting Your
Union on the Web
A How-To manual from the American Federation
of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. Provides an
excellent introduction to everything from web page design to how to
actually get your web page onto the internet.
The Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire site
Presented by the Kheel Center
for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in cooperation with
the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
(UNITE!). Includes political cartoons, photographs, oral histories,
bibliographies and more.
Union
Songs Index
Words and music to lots of union songs, some with
"real" audio.
Workindex
Website from
Cornell University and Human Resources Executive magazine.
Searchable by subject and keyword, it is designed as a gateway to
the best workplace oriented websites on the internet.
Yahoo's
index to Labor Union information
Index to labor-related
Internet resources divided by subject area. Most sites have been
suggested by Yahoo! users and web site owners. Allows keyword
searching of these sites.
And Now the Books and
other materials:Reference
Buhle, Mari Jo, Paul Buhle & Dan Georgakas, editors.
Encyclopedia of the American Left, Second Edition. Oxford University
Press, 1998 0-19-512088-4.
Craft, Donna & Terrance W.
Peck, editors. Profiles of American Labor Unions. Gale Research,
1998. ISBN:0-8103-9059-0.
Directory of U.S. Labor
Organizations. Annual. Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), Washington,
DC. ISSN: 0734-6786
Foner, Philip S. First Facts of American
Labor. Holmes & Meier, 1984. ISBN: 0-8419-0742-0.
Filippelli, Ronald. Labor Conflict in the United States: An
Encyclopedia. Garland, 1990. ISBN:0-8240-7968-X. OP, but worth the
trouble of acquiring through OP sources.
Jacobs, Eve.
Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics: Employment Earnings, Prices,
Productivity and Other Labor Data. Bernan Press, 1997. ISBN:
0-89059-062-1, pbk.
Leab, Daniel J. & Philip P. Mason,
editors. Labor History Archives in the United States: A Guide for
Researching and Teaching. Wayne State University Press, 1992.
ISBN:0-8143-2389-8
Murray, R. Emmett. The Lexicon of Labor.
New Press, 1998. ISBN: 1-56584-456-4
Taylor, Paul F. The
ABC-CLIO Companion to the American Labor Movement. ABC-CLIO, 1993.
ISBN:0-87436-687-9
Zaniello, Tom. Working Stiffs, Union
Maids, Reds and Riffraff: An Organized Guide to Films About Labor.
ILR Press, Cornell University, 1996. ISBN: 0-87546-353-3, pbk.
General Labor
History
American Social History Project. Who Built America? Working
People & the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture & Society.
Pantheon, 1992. Vol.1, ISBN: 0-679-72699-3, pbk.; Vol. 2, ISBN:
0-679-73022-2, pbk.
Baxandall, Rosalyn & Linda Gordon,
editors. America's Working Women: A Documentary History, 1600 to the
Present. Revised edition. W.W. Norton, 1995. 0-393-31262-3,
pbk.
Bernhardt, Debra & Rachel Bernstein. Ordinary
People, Extraordinary Lives: A Pictorial History of Working People
in New York City. NYU Press, 2000. ISBN:
0-8147-9866-7.
Boyer, Richard O. & Herbert M. Morais.
Labor's Untold Story. Third Edition, United Electrical, Radio &
Machine Workers of America, 1988. ISBN: 0-916180-01-8, pbk.
Available from the United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers,
Pittsburgh, (412)-471-8919.
Brecher, Jeremy. Strike! Revised
Edition, South End Press, 1997. ISBN: 0-89608-569-4,
pbk.
Brody, David. In Labor's Cause: Main themes on the
History of the American Worker. Oxford University Press, 1993.
ISBN:0-19-506791-6.
Buhle, Paul. Taking Care of Business:
Samuel Gompers, George Meany, Lane Kirkland, and the Tragedy of
American Labor. Monthly Review Press, 1999.
ISBN:1-58367-003-3.
Foner, Philip & Ronald Lewis, editor.
Black Workers: A Documentary History From Colonial Times to the
Present. Temple University Press, 1989. ISBN:
0-87722-554-0.
Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement
in the United States. Ten volume set, recently reissued in paper
from International Publishers, New York City. Inquire directly from
the publisherat 212-366-9816. Email:
service@intpubnyc.com.
Freeman, Joshua B. Working-Class New
York: Life and Labor Since World War II. New Press, 2000. ISBN:
1-56584-575-7.
Goldfield, Michael. The Color of Politics:
Race and the Mainsprings of American Politics. (Examines how racism
impacts US working class history.) New Press, 1997.
ISBN:1-56584-325-8.
Green, James. R. The World of the Worker:
Labor in Twentieth Century America. University of Illinois Press,
1998 (reprint). ISBN:0-25206-734-7.
Gutman, Herbert G. Power
& Culture: Essays on the American Working Class. New Press,
1987. ISBN: 1-56584-010-0, pbk.
Hobsbawm, Eric. Uncommon
People: Resistance, Rebellion, and Jazz. Essays by the eminent
English labor historian. New Press, 1998.
ISBN:1-56584-466-1.
Jones, Jacqueline. Labor of Love, Labor
of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from Slavery to the
Present. Random House, 1986. 0-394-74536-1, pbk.
Jones,
Jacqueline. American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor.
W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. ISBN: 0-393-04561-7.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of
Wage-Earning Women in the United States. Oxford University Press,
1983. ISBN: 0-19503-353-1, pbk.
Leab, Daniel J., editor. The
Labor History Reader. Articles from the Labor History journal by
distinguished labor historians. University of Illinois Press, 1985.
ISBN:0-252-01198-8.
Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House
of Labor. Cambridge University Press, 1987. ISBN: 0-521-37982-2,
pbk.
O'Farrell, Brigid & Joyce L. Kornbluh. Rocking the
Boat: Union Women's Voices, 1915-1975. Rutgers University Press,
1996. ISBN: 0-8135-2269-2, pbk.
Tax, Meredith. The Rising of
the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880-1917.
Monthly Review, 1982. ISBN: 085345549X.
Terkel, Studs.
Working. New Press, 1997 reprint. ISBN: 1-56584-342-8
Zieger,
Robert H. American Workers, American Unions. 1920-1985. John Hopkins
University Press, 1994. ISBN: 0-8018-494-46.
Zieger, Robert
H. The CIO: 1935-1955. University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
ISBN:0-8078-4630-9 pbk.
Current Labor Issues &
Controversies
Abelda, Randy & Chris Tilly. Glass Ceilings and Bottomless
Pits: Women's Work, Women's Poverty. Verso, 1986. ISBN: 0896085651,
pbk.
Aronowitz, Stanley. From the Ashes of the Old: American
Labor and America's Future. Houghton-Mifflin, 1998. ISBN:
0-395-88132-3.
Bronfenbrenner, Kate et al., editors.
Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies. ILR Press,
1998. ISBN: 0-80148-446-4.
Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Women and
Unions: Forging a Partnership. ILR Press, 1993. ISBN: 0-875-46301-0,
pbk.
Denenberg, Richard V. and Mark Braverman. The Violence
Prone Workplace: A New Approach to Dealing with Hostile,
threatening, and Uncivil Behavior. ILR Press, 1999. ISBN:
0-8014-3396-7.
Eisenberg, Susan. We'll Call You If We Need
You: Experiences of Women Working Construction. ILR Press, 1998.
ISBN: 0-8014-3360-6.
Fraser, Steven and Joshua B. Freeman.
Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social
Reconstruction of America. Houghton-Mifflin, 1997. ISBN:
0-395-86682-0, pbk.
Glickman, Lawrence B. A Living Wage:
American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society. Cornell
University Press, 1997. ISBN: 0-8014-3357-6.
Kwong, Peter.
Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor.
New Press, 1997. ISNB: 1-56584-355-X.
Levitt, Martin Jay.
Confessions of a Union Buster. Crown Publishers, 1993. ISBN:
0-517-58330-5.
Mantsios, Greg, editor. A New Labor Movement
for the New Century. Monthly Review Press, 1998. ISBN:
0-853-45937-1.
Martinez, Elizabeth. De Colores Means All of
Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century. South End Press, 1998.
0-89608-583-X
Mort, Jo-Ann. Not Your Father's Union: Inside
the AFL-CIO. Verso, 1998. ISBN: 1-859-84286-0.
Nelson, Cary.
Manifesto of a Tenured Radical. NYU Pr, 1999. ISBN: 0-8147-5797-9.
Peddie, Sandra. The Repetitive Strain Injury Sourcebook.
Lowell House, 1998. ISBN: 0737300221.
Prieto, Norma Iglesias.
Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora: Life Histories of Women
Workers in Tijuana. University of Texas, 1997. ISBN:0-292-73868-4.
Ross, Andrew, editor. No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade, and the
Rights of Garment Workers. Verso, 1997. ISBN: 1-85994-172-4,
pbk.
Sweeney, John J. America Needs a Raise: Fighting for
Economic Security and Social Justice. Houghton Mifflin, 1996. ISBN:
0-395-82300-5
Yates, Michael. Why Unions Matter. Monthly
Review Press, 1998. ISBN: 0-853-45929-0, pbk.
Economics and
General History for Trade Unionists
Folbre, Nancy. The New
Field Guide to the U.S. Economy: A Compact and Irreverent Guide to
Economic Life in America. New Press, 1995. ISBN:
1565841530.
Geisst, Charles R. Monopolies in America: Empire
Builders and Their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates. Oxford,
2000. ISBN: 0-19-512301-8
Kapstein, Ethan B. Sharing the
Wealth: Workers and the World Economy. W.W.Norton, 1999. ISBN:
0-393-04754-7.
Korten, David. When Corporations Rule the
World. Berrett-Koehler, 1995. ISBN: 1887208003.
McChesny,
Robert. Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communications Politics in
dubious Times. Univ of Illinois, 1999. ISBN:
0252024486.
Mokhiber, Russell. Corporate Predators: The Hunt
for Megaprofits and the Attack on Democracy. Common Courage, 1999.
ISBN:1567511589. pbk>
Perlo, Victor. Economics of Racism
II: The Roots of Inequality, USA. International Publishers, 1996.
ISBN: 0-7178-0698-7.
Wallach, Lori & Michelle Sforza.
Whose Trade Organization? Public Citizen Inc, 1999. ISBN:
1582310017. Preface by Ralph Nader.
Zinn, Howard. A People's
History of the United States: 1492-Present. (20th Anniversary
Edition) Harpercollins, 1999. ISBN: 0060194480
Union Histories
Bahr, Morton. From the Telegraph to the Internet. National Press
Books, 1998. ISBN: 1-56649-949-6. (The story of the CWA -
Communication Workers of America - by its
president.)
Ferriss, Susan. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar
Chavez and the Farmworkers' Movement. Harcourt Brace, 1997. ISBN:
0-15100-239-8
Fink, Leon. Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: A
History of Hospital Workers' Union 1199. University of Illinois
Press, 1989. ISBN:0-252-06047-4.
Getman, Julius. The Betrayal
of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics & Permanent Replacements.
ILR Press, 1998. ISBN:0-8014-3476-9.
Halpern, Rick and Roger
Horowitz. Meatpackers: An Oral History of Black Packinghouse Workers
and Their Struggle for Racial and Economic Equality. Twayne
Publishers, 1996. ISBN: 0-8057-9120-5.
Hoerr, John P. We
Can't Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard. Temple
University Press, 1997. ISBN: 1-56639-535-6.
Kingsolver,
Barbara. Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of
1983. ILR Press, 1989. ISBN: 0-87546-156-5.
Santino, Jack.
Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: Stories of Black Pullman
Porters. University of Illinois Press, 1989. ISBN:
0-252-01591-6.
Stepan-Norris, Judith and Maruice Zeitlin.
Talking Union. (Local 600-UAW-CIO) University of Illinois, 1996.
ISBN:0-252-06489-5
For Activists and Stewards
Bureau
of National Affairs. Grievance Guide: Understand and Anticipate
Arbitrators' Rulings.
La Botz, Dan. A Troublemaker's
Handbook: How to Fight Back Where You Work - and
Win
Markowitz, Linda. Worker Activism After Successful Union
Organization. M.E. Sharpe, 1999. How organizing methods affect
workers' subsequent attitudes towards their union. ISBN:
0-7656-0492-2.
Outten, Wayne N. et al. The Basic ACLU Guide
to the Rights of Employees and Union Members. Southern Illinois Univ
Pr, 1994. ISBN: 0809319144.
Parker, Mike and Martha Gruelle.
Democracy is Power: Rebuilding Unions from the Bottom
Up.
Prosten, David. The Union Steward's Complete Guide: A
Survival Manual from the Publishers of Steward Update Newsletter.
Union Communication Service Inc, 1997. ISBN:
0965948609.
Salzman, Jason & Jack. Making the News: A
Guide for Non Profits and Activists. Westview Pr, 1998. ISBN:
0813368987
Schwartz, Robert M. The FMLA Handbook: A Practical
Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act for Union Members and
Stewards. Work Rights Pr, 1996. ISBN: 0945902034.
Schwartz,
Robert M. The Legal Rights of Union Stewards. Work Rights Pr, 1999.
ISBN: 0945902085.
Humor - You Gotta Have
it!
Hamper, Ben. Rivethead: Tales From the Assembly Line. Warner
Books, 1992. ISBN: 0446394009" Based on his Rivethead column in
Mother Jones, this is Hamper's description of his wretched career as
a General Motors worker in the factories of Flint, Michigan. Warner
Books. 1992. ISBN: 0446394009 pbk.
Huck, Gary & Mike
Konopacki. Bye! American. Charles H Kerr Pub Co, 1987. ISBN:
0882861565. Cartoons from the Reagan Era but many are as timely as
ever.
Huck Gary & Mike Konopacki. Working Class Hero.
Labor cartoon collection from 1994-1998.
Charles H. Kerr Pub,
1999.
Moore, Michael. Downsize This! Harper, 1997. ISBN:
0060977337. Michael Moore's encounters with corporate greed, a la
Roger & Me.
Biographies
Anderson, Jervis. A Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait.
University of California Press, 1987 (reprint)
ISBN:0-52005-505-5.
Anderson, Carlotta. All-American
Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement. Wayne State U
Pr., 1998. ISBN: 0-8143-2707-9.
Buss, Fran Leeper, ed. Forged
Under the Sun: The Life of Maria Elena Lucas. University of
Michigan, 1993. ISBN: 0-472-09432-7.
Cook. Alice H. A
Lifetime of Labor: The Autobiography of Alice. H. Cook. Feminist
Press, 1998. ISBN:155861189-4.
Dubofsky, Melvyn. John L.
Lewis: A Biography. University of Illinois Press, 1977. ISBN:
0-252-01287-9.
Dubofsky, Melvyn. Labor Leaders in America.
University of Illinos Press, 1987. ISBN:
0-252-01343-3.
Flynn, Elizabeth G. Rebel Girl: An
Autobiography, My First Life. International Publishers, 1973. ISBN:
0717-80368-6. Available direct from Illinois Labor History Society,
Chicago.
Lee, Janet. Comrades and Partners: The Shared Lives
of Grace Hutchins and Anna Rochester. Rowman & Littlefield,
2000. ISBN 0-8476-9620-0.
Larrowe, Charles. Harry Bridges:
The Rise and Fall of Radical Labor in the U.S. Lawrence Hill &
Co., 1972. ISBN:0-88208-000-8. OP but worth acquiring, particularly
on the West Coast.
Lichtenstein, Nelson. The Most Dangerous
Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor. Basic
Books, 1995. ISBN: 0-46509-080-X.
McGilligan, Patrick &
Paul Buhle. Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild speak. St. Martin's, 1998.
ISBN:0-312-17046-7.
Mother Jones. The Autobiography of
Mother Jones. Charles. H. Kerr Publications, Chicago, 1990. ISBN:
0882861662.
Painter, Nell Irwin. The Narrative of Hosea
Hudson: The Life and Times of a Black Radical. Reissue edition. WW
Norton, 1993. ISBN: 0393310159, pbk.
Revkin, Andrew. The
Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the
Amazon Rain Forest. Plume, 1994.
ISBN:0-452-27405-2.
Salvatore, Nick. Eugene Debs: Citizen and
Socialist. University of Illinois Press, 1984. ISBN:0-252-01148-1,
pbk.
Labor Fiction - Some New, Some
Reissues, Some Classics -- Some Pop Novels for Pure Fun
Baker, Kevin. Dreamland. Set in Coney Island and the Lower East
Side, circa 1910, gangster Kid Twist meets Esther Abramowitz,
seamstress and labor agitator, they falls in love, and then comes
the Triangle fire. Lots of subplots, twists and turns , but the
labor theme is a strong one. Harpercollins, 1999. ISBN:
0060193093
Bonosky, Phillip. Burning Valley. Ethnicity, race,
religion and workers' struggles in the steels mills of western
Pennsylvania. University of Illinois Press, 1997. ISBN:
0-252-06684-7.
Brown, Lloyd. Iron City. The story of Lonnie
James, a Black youth falsely convicted of murder and the fight to
save his life at a state penitentiary in a steel mill town.
Northeastern University Press, 1994
DiDonati, Pietro. Christ
in Concrete. Powerful portrait of Italian-American bricklayers who
lived in the tenements of NYC in the early 1900s. Signet, 1993
(reprint) ISBN:0-451-52575-2.
Gilden, K.B. Between the Hills
and the Sea. Set in the 1940s and 50s, this novel reveals the cost
for working people of the Cold War, McCarthyism and political
repression in a fictional factory town. ILR Press, 1989 reissue.
ISBN:0-87546-154-9.
Jackson, Jon. Go By Go. The murder of an
IWW organizer becomes the subject of a 1950s congressional
subcommittee, where a former Pinkerton detective (based on the
character of Dashiell Hammett) relives his involvement (or not) in
the assassination. Dennis McMillan Publications, 1998.
ISBN:0-93976-731-7.
Kelly, Thomas. Payback. Do you like your
thrillers with a labor slant? This one takes place in the NYC
construction boom of the 1980's, called by a reviewer "the working
class flip side of "Bonfires of the Vanities." Fawcett, 1998. ISBN:
0449002233.
LeSueur, Meridel. Ripening: Selected Work,
1927-1880. Feminist Pr.,1990. ISBN:0-93531-241-2. Fiction and
reportage spanning most of her career as a writer and
activist.
Lewis, Sinclair. The Job. Published in 1917, this
novel began the trilogy dealing with women's emancipation that would
include Main Street and Ann Vickers. The heroine is an office worker
in NYC. University of Nebraska Press, 1994 (reprint)
ISBN:0-80327-948-5.
Malkiel, Theresa Serber. The Diary of a
Shirtwaist Striker. Fictionalized account of the great 1909 strike.
ILR Press, 1990. ISBN:0-87546-168-9.
Mattison, Alice. The
Book Borrower. The borrowed book is Trolley Girl, a fictional memoir
of a woman whose sister was killed in a 1921 trolley strike. (A
third sister, an anarchist rabble-rouser named Jessie, may or may
not have been responsible for the death.) But this book - lost,
found and weaving in and out -- is only the hinge for a beautiful
story of friendship and loss. William Morrow, 1999. ISBN:
0688168248.
McCann, Collom. This Side of Brightness.
Multi-ethnic story of four generations of tunnel-builders and
tunnel-dwellers in NYC. Metropolitan Books, 1998.
ISBN:0-805-05452-9.
McKenney, Ruth. Industrial Valley. First
published in 1939, this fact-based novel was reissued as part of ILR
Press' Literature of Labor series. It is based on a strike of Akron,
Ohio rubber workers in the 1930s. ILR Press, 1992. ISBN:
0-87546-183-2. For others in the series, see Malkiel and Gilden on
this list.
McMillan, Rosalyn. Blue Collar Blues. Do you like
your romances with a labor slant? This steamy novel is set among the
mostly African American workers inside the "Champion Motors" company
of Detroit. Warner, 1998. ISBN: 0-446-52243-0.
Mendez,
Miguel. Pilgrims in Aztlan. Considered a classic novel of Chicano
life, translated by David Foster. Bilingual Press, 1992.
ISBN:0-927535-22-3, 0-927534-23-1, pbk.
Olsen, Tillie.
Yonnondio From the Thirties. Regarded by many as a masterpiece,
Yonnondio tells the story of a family's migration from coal mining
town, to farm to industrial city during the Great Depression. Delta,
1979. ISBN:038-52917-95.
Porter, Connie. All-Bright Court.
The lives of African American Steel workers in Lackawanna fall apart
as the steel industry falters. OP, but watch for reissue. Houghton
Mifflin, 1991.
Poyer, David. Thunder on the Mountain. An
accident at Thunder Oil Company in 1936 brings workers, the CIO,
Pinkertons and Eleanor Roosevelt to the oil fields of Pennsylvania.
Forge, 1999. ISBN:0-312-86494-9.
Rosen, Dorothy. Death and
Blintzes. Belle Appleman, garment worker, union member and sleuth,
helps Boston police track down the murderer or a fellow worker in
1936 in West Boston. Perhaps Belle is the only union amateur
detective in the mystery genre? Academy Chicago Pub., 1996.
ISBN:0-89733-450-7.
Sinclair, Upton. The Flivver-King: A
Story of Ford-America. Everyone knows and owns The Jungle, the
classic about the meat-packing industry. The Flivver-King is a
social and economic picture of the making of the auto-industrial age
in the first decades of the 20th Century. Charles H. Kerr
Publishing, 1987. ISBN:0-88286-054-2 pbk.
Smedley, Agnes.
Daughter of Earth. The transformation of a desperately poor,
workingclass woman into a feminist and social activist. Feminist
Press, 1987. ISBN:0-935312-68-4.
Stegner, Wallace. Joe Hill:
A Biographical Novel. Joe Hill as complex, flawed hero, maybe a
murderer & IWW martyr. Penguin, 1990.
ISBN:014-01394-19.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Need
more be written? In Dubious Battle is considered a thematic
precursor, telling the story of a strike of migrant fruit pickers in
the 1930s.
There are several issues of both in
print.
Westlake, Donald E. The Ax. Burke has been downsized
after 25 years of service - and he doesn't take too kindly to it.
Warner, 1998. ISBN: 0446606081 (pbk)
Zola, Emile. Germinal.
Zola's 1885 masterpiece deals with the bleak conditions of miners
and their families in 1860's France. There are several paperback
editions.
Especially for Young
People
Atkin, S. Beth. Voices From the Fields: Children of Migrant
Farmers Tell Their Stories. Joy Street Books, 1993. ISBN:
0-31605-633-2. (all ages)
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.
Growing Up in Coal Country. Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
ISBN:0-395-77847-6. (all ages)
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.
Kids On Strike. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. ISBN: 0-395-88892-1 (all
ages)
Bader, Bonnie. East Side Story. 1909 strike in the
Triangle sweatshop. Silver Moon, 1993. ISBN:1-881889-22-X. (Stories
of the States series, elementary)
Colman, Penny. Mother Jones
and the March of the Mill Children. Millbrook, 1994. ISBN:
1-56294-402-9. (elementary)
Colman, Penny. Rosie the Riveter:
Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. Crown Publishers,
1995. 0-517-59791-8. (all ages)
Colman, Penny. Strike! The
Bitter Struggle of American Workers From Colonial Times to the
Present. Millbrook Press, 1996. ISBN: 1-56294-459-2. (all
ages)
Currie, Stephen. We Have Marched Together: The Working
Children's Crusade. Lerner Publications, 1997. ISBN: 0-8225-1733-7.
(all ages)
Dash, Joan. We Shall Not Be Moved: The Women's
Factory Strike of 1909. Scholastic, 1996. ISBN: 0-590-48409-. (all
ages)
Gay, Kathlyn. Child Labor: A Global Crisis. Millbrook,
1998. ISBN: 0-7613-0368-5. (YA)
Goldin, Barbara Diamond.
Fire! The Beginnings of the Labor Movement. (Once Upon America
Series) Penguin, 1992. ISBN:0-670-84475-6.
(elementary)
Hanley, Sally. A. Philip Randolph: Labor Leader.
Chelsea House, 1988. ISBN: 1555466079, lib. bdg. (YA)
Huerta,
Dolores & Frank Perez. Dolores Huerta. Raintree Steck-Vaughn,
1996. ISBN:0-81149-789-5. Contemporary Hispanic Americans
series.
Jones, J. Sidney. Frankie. Set in the 1913 Colorado
miners strike, where the Luke family takes in the enigmatic orphan,
Frankie. Lodestar, 1997. ISBN: 0525675744.
(elementary)
Josephson, Judith Pinkerton. Mother Jones:
Fierce Fighter for Workers' Rights. Lerner, 1997. ISBN:
0-8225-4924-7. (All ages)
Kuklin, Susan. Iqbal Masih and the
Crusaders Against Child Slavery. Henry Holt, 1998.
ISBN:0-8050-5459-6. (YA)
Mazer, Anne, ed. Working Days:
Stories About Teenagers and Work. Persea, 1997. ISBN:089-25522-39,
Lib Bdg., 089-25522-47 pbk.
McKissack, Patricia and Fredrick.
A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter. Walker &
Co., 1990. 0-8027-6885-7. (all ages)
Meltzer, Milton. Bread
and Roses: The Struggle of American Labor 1865-1915. Facts on File,
1990. ISBN: 0-8160-2371-9. (YA)
Meltzer, Milton. Cheap Raw
Material: How Our Youngest Workers are Exploited and Abused. Viking,
1994. ISBN: 0-670-83128-X. (YA)
Parker, David L. et al.
Stolen Dreams: Portraits of Working Children. Lerner, 1998. ISBN:
0-8225-2960-2.
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. A coming of age
story of a Vermont farm girl who goes to work in a Lowell textile
factory in the 1840s. Puffin, 1994. ISBN:014-03498-12.
(YA)
Sherrow, Victoria. The Triangle Factory Fire. Millbrook
Press, 1995. ISBN: 1-56294-572-6.
(elementary)
Silvey,
Anita, ed. Help Wanted: Short Stories About Young People Working.
Little, Brown, 1997. (YA) ISBN:031-6791482.
Simonds,
Patricia. The Founding of the AFL and the Rise of Organized Labor.
Silver Burdett, 1991. 0-382-24123-1,. (elementary)
Stanley,
Jerry. Big Annie of Calumet. Annie Clemenc and the 1913 miners'
strike in Calumet, Michigan. Crown Pub., 1996. ISBN:0-517-70097-2.
(YA)
Streissguth, Thomas. Legendary Labor Leaders. Oliver
Press, 1998. ISBN: 1-881508-44-7. (elementary &
YA)
Williams, Sherley Anne. Working Cotton. A childhood spent
in the cotton fields. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
ISBN:0-15-299624-9. Picture book, illustrated by Carole Byard.
On
Video
These videos can generally be purchased from
your usual supplier, except where noted.
American Dream - Academy-award winning documentary about the
Local P9 UFCW strike against Hormel Meats in 1985. Director Barbara
Kopple looks at it from all three sides: local union, international
union, and management.
Bruder - This is a historical silent
film made by the workers in the 1896 Hamberg transport workers
general strike. It was banned and burned by the Nazis and
rediscovered after 50 years.
At the River I Stand -
Documentary about the 1300 sanitation workers who went on strike for
union recognition and higher pay in Memphis in 1968. The
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a tragic part of
that strike. Available through California Newsreel.
The Big
One - Michael Moore's continuing adventures with corporate America
as he promotes his book "Downsize This!"
For Jobs and
Freedom: A. Philip Randolph - The life and work of one of the great
labor and civil rights leaders of the 20th Century. Pricey but worth
it, order directly from PBS.
The Grapes of Wrath - The
depression classic based on Steinbeck's novel of migrant life.
Harlan County - Another Academy award-winner by Kopple, this
film documents a United Mine Workers strike at the Brookside Mine in
Kentucky. It celebrates the spirit and courage of the miners.
The Killing Floor - Hard-hitting, realistic feature about
race relations and union organizing in the Chicago meatpacking
industry in 1919.
Matewan - John Sayles popular film is
based on a real incident of union organizing in the mines of West
Virginia.
Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: the Untold
Story of the Black Pullman Porter - Documentary focusing on the
original union drive and interviews with former porters.
Newsies - Militant newsboys organize, a la Disney, and a
good choice for kids!
Norma Rae - A woman mill worker becomes
an organizer in the cotton mills of North Carolina.
On the
Waterfront - Labor all mobbed up in this academy award-winner of the
1950s.
The Organizer - (Italian w/ English subtitles) -
Professor Sinigaglia (Marcello Mastroianni) comes to help Turin
textile workers fight for better conditions at the end of the 19th
Century.
Out of Darkness: The Mineworkers' Story - Another
Barbara Kopple documentary, available directly from the
UMW.
Proud Valley - Paul Robeson joins the Welsh miners for
song and struggle. Robeson's favorite of his own films.
River
Ran Red - Documents the 1892 Homestead. PA strike. Acquire through U
of Pittsburgh Press.
Roger and Me - Humorous and serious
investigation of General Motors by filmmaker Michael
Moore.
Salt of the Earth - The Lady's Auxiliary of Local 890
of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers gave
new life to the extended strike in 1951 when they replaced their
husbands on the picket line. Most of the actors are the actual
workers in the strike.
Silkwood - Karen Silkwood, an activist
in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers was mysteriously killed on
her way to provide a reporter with evidence of potentially lethal
falsification at the nuclear plant where she worked. A feature film
based on true events.
Struggles in Steel - Documenting the
long fight-back by African American workers against discrimination
in the industry and the unions. Available through California
Newsreel.
They Were Not Silent: The Jewish Labor Movement and
the Holocaust -- This documentary tells the story of Anti-Nazi and
rescue activities of the American Jewish labor movement through
archival footage and interviews with labor veterans, Holocaust
Survivors and scholars.
Periodicals
America at Work. Magazine of the AFL-CIO, monthly,
$10/yr.
Dollars and Sense. A progressive economics magazine
for popular audiences. $42/year insitutional subscription. Website:
http://www.igc.apc.org/dollars/
Labor Educator. An
independent, pro-labor monthly. $40/yr (212-979-8320) Website:
http://www.laboreducator.org
Labor History. Scholarly journal
published by NYU Tamiment Institute. $60/year
(212)737-2715.
Labor Notes. Independent labor monthly,
Detroit, MI. $10 year. Website:
http://www.labornotes.org
Labor's Heritage. George Meany
Memorial Archives, quarterly, $19.95 yr.
Working, USA. M.E.
Sharpe, bi-monthly, $84.00 yr
Labor Music: A Rich Recorded
History
The New York City Labor Chorus has three recordings available on
both CD and Cassette.
NYC Labor Chorus "Live", "In Solidarity"
and "On the March." Info and order forms from:
New York city
Labor Chorus, 2109 Broadway, Suite 206, New York, NY
10023.
Ani DiFranco and Utah Phillips have two collaborations
of workingclass songs and history.,
The latest is "Fellow
Workers" (Righteous Babe, 1999).
Philips also teams up with
Rosalie Sorrels in "Long Memory" (Red House Records,
1996)
"Don't Mourn - Organize! Songs Of Labor Songwriter Joe
Hill" are performed by various artists, including Billy Bragg, Paul
Robeson, Pete Seeger, Cisco Houston, Hazel Dickens and
more!
(Smithsonian Folkways, 1990)
All these and more
cassettes and CDs can be found through the comprehensive catalog of
the Labor Heritage Foundation: http://www.laborheritage.org.
Compiled by Ann C. Sparanese
Member, AFL/CIO-ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor
Groups
Head of Adult & Young Adult Services, Member RWDSU
Local 29
Englewood Public Library, 31 Engle St.,Englewood, New
Jersey 07631
© 1999. List may be reproduced with credit. Your comments welcome
to: sparanese@bccls.org.
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