Nation's oldest popular labor history society, devoted to Illinois worker history. The Illinois Labor History Society (ILHS) was formed on August 5, 1969 in the office of the late Joseph M.
Jacobs, attorney for the Chicago Teachers Union, Meatcutters, and other labor organizations.
Jacobs, attorney for the Chicago Teachers Union, Meatcutters, and other labor organizations.
Operating as usual
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler
Liz Shuler’s ascension to AFL-CIO chief comes at a critical time for the nation’s largest labor group, which is grappling with declining union membership, union-busting corporate giants and a Democratic Congress that is struggling to pass pro-worker priorities.
Victory to UAW/Deere!
UAW John Deere members struck at midnight October 14, after the company failed to present an agreement that met our members’ demands and needs.
“Our members at John Deere strike for the ability to earn a decent living, retire with dignity and establish fair work rules,” said Chuck Browning, Vice President and director of the UAW’s Agricultural Implement Department. “We stay committed to bargaining until our members’ goals are achieved.”
UAW John Deere members struck at midnight October 14, after the company failed to present an agreement that met our members’ demands and needs. “Our members at John Deere strike for the ability to earn a decent living, retire with dignity and establish fair work rules,” said Chuck Browning, Vi...
Quitting Amazon is healthier economically for us all...
I’m never going back.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1976. That was the day more than a million Canadian workers walked off the job in a Day of Protest. The Canadian Labour Congress called the general strike.
Workers downed their tools against a three-year wage controls plan implemented by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau had actually campaigned against wage controls during the 1974 elections. A year later, the Liberal government introduced the C-73 Anti-Inflation Bill. It was considered the worst attack on labor since the 1930s, when bargaining rights were first legalized.
Trudeau’s wage controls suspended collective bargaining rights for all workers and amounted to deep wage cuts. Public sector workers were hit hardest as many hospital, school and municipal workers teetered on the edge of desperation from already low wages made worse.
But for a day at least, many industries across Canada came to a screeching halt. Forestry, mining and auto production all completely shut down. Many towns and cities were one hundred percent on strike, even among the non-union workforce.
Saint John in New Brunswick, Sudbury, Ontario, Sept Iles, Quebec and Thompson in Manitoba were all cities where the strike was most successful. But elsewhere, the strike was uneven. Many public sector workers stayed on the job, while in cities like Vancouver, pickets successfully shut down bus service and newspaper deliveries.
Most heralded the Day of Protest as a fierce show of power against a years’ worth of wage controls. But others argued that a one-day action was not enough. To combat the attacks on labor, any general strike would have to keep the country shut down until the program of wage controls was finally defeated.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1976. That was the day more than a million Canadian workers walked off the job in a Day of Protest. The Canadian Labour Congress called the general strike. Workers downed their tools against a three-year wage c...
Worker rights are civil rights...
For Americans without college degrees, the labor movement, the civil rights movement and the women’s liberation movement boiled down to jobs.
Rebuilding Chicago and the fire's impact
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 — terrible, costly, deadly — changed the city in myriad ways. And it had a big hand in making Chicago an architectural capital.
From the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District - Historical Photo of the Day: Workers pause for a photo along 16th Street in Lockport, Illinois, during canal extension construction between 1905 and 1907.
From the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District - Historical Photo of the Day: Workers pause for a photo along 16th Street in Lockport, Illinois, during canal extension construction between 1905 and 1907.
On this day in labor history, the year was 2010. That was the day thirty-three Chilean miners were finally pulled to safety after being trapped for sixty-nine days.
Workers had been mining copper and gold twenty three hundred feet down, at the San Jose mine near the northern city of Copiapo, when the mine caved in, in early August. The Compania Minera San Esteban Primera waited several hours to notify authorities and rescue efforts only began two days later.
Trapped miners initially tried to escape through ventilation shafts but found required ladders missing. Each route they attempted was blocked by fallen rock or threatened additional collapse. A state owned mining company took over rescue efforts and soon they began, as Geologist Sorena Sorensen noted, prospecting for people.
Initial exploratory boreholes failed to locate miners because mineshaft maps had never been updated. Rescuers had no idea whether miners were even still alive.
Finally, seventeen days later, the eighth borehole reached them. The miners tapped on the drill and taped notes to it, alerting rescuers above they were indeed alive and well. Food, medicine and other supplies were lowered down to them as rescue efforts intensified.
Mini cameras were also lowered down and the miners videotaped messages of their continued ordeal. They told how they continued to search for possible escape routes and agreed to ration their limited food supplies so they could all survive.
The first of three drilling plans to free the miners began. It was an international effort. The Chilean Navy consulted with NASA to design and construct the rescue pods. Throughout the entire process, rescuers worked to prevent additional cave-ins and rock falls.
Finally the extraction process began and in less than 48 hours all emerged as heroes.
On this day in labor history, the year was 2010. That was the day thirty-three Chilean miners were finally pulled to safety after being trapped for sixty-nine days. Workers had been mining copper and gold twenty three hundred feet down, at the San Jose mi...
John L Lewis Illinois State Historical Society marker dedication, Panama, IL, Nov 5, 1:00 p.m. -- all are welcome.
John L Lewis Illinois State Historical Society marker dedication, Panama, IL, Nov 5, 1:00 p.m. -- all are welcome.
John L Lewis historic marker unveiling, 1 p.m., Panama, Illinois, November 5.
John L Lewis historic marker unveiling, 1 p.m., Panama, Illinois, November 5.
Remembering Virden!
John Alexander, historian and bookstore owner, tells the tale of the locked out UMWA members gun battle with Chicago-Virden Coal Co. guards on October 12, 18...
On this day in labor history, the year was 1899. That was the day union miners in Mt. Olive, Illinois began commemorating Miners Day.
Every year thousands came into town for a parade, music and speeches. Mt. Olive was the site of the only union-owned cemetery in the United States, established by UMWA local 728, in the aftermath of the Virden massacre.
A year before to the day, striking miners had been killed in a shoot out with company guards attempting to herd scabs into the mines in Virden, Illinois. But, as Mother Jones’ biographer, Eliot Gorn notes, the “train never unloaded its cargo and the company was forced to settle.”
The union hoped to erect a gravesite monument commemorating those miners who had been killed at Virden. But they were refused by those who considered the fallen miners to be murderers, not martyrs. That’s when the UMW established the Union Miners Cemetery.
On this day, nearly 10,000 turned out for the union’s memorial ceremony. The UMW unveiled a monument dedicated to fallen Virden miners, E.W. Smith, Joe Gitterle, Ernst Kaemmerer and E.F. Long. The day was filled with parades, music, laying of wreaths and speeches.
Haymarket widow and radical activist, Lucy Parsons was among the speakers. In his book Death and Dying in the Working Class, Michael Rosenow notes that her presence drew a direct connection between the fallen miners and the Haymarket martyrs, cut down while advancing the cause of labor.
Thousands traveled to Mt. Olive every year for celebrations, including Eugene Debs, miners’ leader John Mitchell and Mother Jones. In 1923, Mother Jones asked to be buried among Illinois miners, noting “they are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America.”
On this day in labor history, the year was 1899. That was the day union miners in Mt. Olive, Illinois began commemorating Miners Day. Every year thousands came into town for a parade, music and speeches. Mt. Olive was the site of the only union-owned ceme...
Pleased to speak to Illinois State University future primary school social studies teachers on social justice and labor issues today, at the McLean County Museum of History, with Librarian Bill Kemp.
Pleased to speak to Illinois State University future primary school social studies teachers on social justice and labor issues today, at the McLean County Museum of History, with Librarian Bill Kemp.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Historical Photo of the Day: The 8 Track Rail Bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on January 23, 1909, showing a crew at work between tracks on the northern approach of bridge.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Historical Photo of the Day: The 8 Track Rail Bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on January 23, 1909, showing a crew at work between tracks on the northern approach of bridge.
The battle of Virden...
John Alexander recounts the circumstances leading up to the gun battle between mine guards for the Chicago-Virden Coal Company and coal miners – members of the United Mine Workers of America -- who were locked out of their jobs. And, on Labor History in 2:00, the year was 1933; that was the day th...
On this day in labor history, the year was 1965. That was the day acclaimed photojournalist Dorothea Lange died.
She is celebrated for her work documenting the Great Depression for the Farm Security Bureau. Lange’s photos captured images of migrant workers, sharecroppers and the rural poor.
Her iconic photo, Migrant Mother, is probably her most well known image. It depicts a despondent, Dust Bowl mother surrounded by her hungry children.
Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1895. She suffered the effects of polio as a child, which left her with a permanent limp. She studied photography at Columbia University in New York, and eventually settled in the Bay Area.
When the Great Depression hit, she began photographing labor strikes, breadlines and soup kitchens, the homeless and unemployed. The Resettlement Administration hired her soon after.
Nowadays, we can access images from around the world at a moment’s notice that broaden our understanding of current events. But until the 1930s, few Americans could access media that adequately depicted the desperate social conditions engulfing the nation. Federal programs that funded projects like Lange’s brought Depression-era images into the public eye. Americans soon realized their suffering wasn’t caused by personal failure; that millions across the country were experiencing destitution brought on by broader economic forces.
During World War II, Lange worked for the War Relocation Authority, where she documented forced evacuation and internment of Japanese-Americans. Her images, especially of Manzanar, were withheld from the public until after the war and were accessible to the public through the National Archives.
After the war, she taught at San Francisco’s Art Institute and cofounded the magazine Aperture. She has been heralded as an innovator and has influenced generations of documentary photography.
From 2017:
https://laborhistoryin2.podbean.com/e/october-11-the-woman-behind-the-lens-passes-on/
On this day in labor history, the year was 1965. That was the day acclaimed photojournalist Dorothea Lange died. She is celebrated for her work documenting the Great Depression for the Farm Security Bureau. Lange’s photos captured images of migrant worke...
On this day in labor history, the year was 1912. That was the day mill workers began to walk off the job at the Phoenix and Gilbert Knitting Mills in Little Falls, New York.
The strike was sandwiched between the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts and the 1913 Paterson textile strike. American, Hungarian, Polish and Italian workers, over 70% of them women, struck against wage reductions. Their hours had just been cut from 60 hours a week to 54, and their wages adjusted accordingly.
A recent factory inspection commission investigation revealed deplorable working and living conditions, among the worst in the state. As a result, state legislators passed protective legislation restricting women’s work hours.
Many social reformers pushed for laws like these in the hopes of improving women’s quality of life by minimizing their exploitation on the job. But reduction in hours spelled disaster for these mill women, who then faced a loss of income that ranged from 75 cents to $2 a week.
Socialists in nearby Schenectady, including the socialist mayor George Lunn, arrived in town and were promptly arrested for giving open-air speeches in support of the strikers. IWW organizers soon followed to help organize picketing, daily strike parades and strike committees at each of the factories. They quickly established IWW Local 801, National Industrial Union of Textile Workers.
By the end of the month, mounted police closed in on the women strikers and began clubbing them, many into unconsciousness. The police raided strike headquarters and arrested IWW strike committee leaders. But the women strikers stood strong and were celebrating victory by the beginning of the year. They won full reinstatement and 54 hours work for 60 hours pay.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1912. That was the day mill workers began to walk off the job at the Phoenix and Gilbert Knitting Mills in Little Falls, New York. The strike was sandwiched between the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massach...
On this day in labor history, the year was 1823. That was the day abolitionist and women’s suffragist, Mary Ann Shadd Cary was born.
Her parents were free blacks of color in the slave state of Delaware. They were involved with many prominent abolitionists and active in the Underground Railroad. The family moved to Pennsylvania, where Mary and her siblings were educated in Quaker schools.
As a young woman, Mary became a teacher and returned to Wilmington, Delaware where she opened a school for black children. Once the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850, Mary and many other free blacks fled to Canada to continue their abolitionist work safely.
She opened a school for fugitive slaves in Windsor, Ontario just across the river from Detroit. Mary soon came under fire in the local press for insisting the school be racially integrated. She responded by starting her own newspaper, The Provincial Freeman.
She and her husband, Thomas often traveled to the United States to continue their anti-slavery work. They were present at John Brown’s 1858 Constitutional Convention. Mary worked with Osborne Perry Anderson to publish his 1861 memoir, A Voice from Harper’s Ferry. Anderson had participated in Brown’s raid and was the lone African-American survivor.
After her husband’s death, Mary returned to the United States with her children to help recruit black soldiers to the Union Army. Once the Civil War was over, Mary moved to Washington D.C to teach. She enrolled in Howard University where she earned a law degree.
There she joined the National Woman Suffrage Association and worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. She continued to advocate for civil rights and women’s equality until her death in 1893.
On this day in labor history, the year was 1823. That was the day abolitionist and women’s suffragist, Mary Ann Shadd Cary was born. Her parents were free blacks of color in the slave state of Delaware. They were involved with many prominent abolitionists...
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Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge Commemoration
Today we spent the afternoon at Forest Home Cemetery. ILHS President Larry Spivack gave a tour of notable labor leaders buried there, including the Haymarket Martyrs of course, in honor and memory of Mark Rogovin. We were also there to unveil the Nina Van Zandt Spies grave marker. Mark was instrumental in locating Haymarket Martyr, August Spies’ widow, Nina and we finally have a stone for her. With additional commentary from ILHS members Bleue Benton and Julia Berkowitz.
2019 Union Hall of Honor Friday, December 6, 2019 5:00 to 6:00 pm Cocktail Hour 6:00 pm Dinner Teamsters 705 Union Hall 1645 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60612 Inducting CHARLIE HAYES, UNITED PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, IRENE GOINS, WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE, RON POWELL, UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS UNION, BOB SIMPSON, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS Guest Speaker AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride
Labor Day Kick Off with President Larry Spivack
Honoring the Martyrs’
Bucky Halker singing Union Maid with the Historical Society of Forest Park
Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge
Keynote speech by UMWA President Cecil Roberts. With Mother Jones Lives
Speech by ILHS trustee Judy Simpson. With Mother Jones Lives
The Casa del Obrero Mundial (English: House of the World Worker) from Mexico being told the story of the Haymarket Massacre by President Larry Spivack.
Just a preview of our UHH Keynote speaker this year!
UAW Region 4 UAW International Union UAW UAW Ford Department
UAW Region 4
President Larry Spivack along with Bucky Halker and Alma “Lucy Parsons” Washington put on a presentation yesterday for the Synapse School talking about Haymarket. They are on a school trip from California.
President Larry Spivack along with Bucky Halker and Alma “Lucy Parsons” Washington put on a presentation yesterday for the Synapse School talking about Haymarket. They are on a school trip from California.
President Larry Spivack along with Bucky Halker and Alma “Lucy Parsons” Washington put on a presentation yesterday for the Synapse School talking about Haymarket. They are on a school trip from California.
President Larry Spivack along with Bucky Halker and Alma “Lucy Parsons” Washington put on a presentation yesterday for the Synapse School talking about Haymarket. They are on a school trip from California.
The presentation of awards
Listen to Mother! With Mother Jones Lives
#ILHLives #MayDay2018 via ripl.com
Historical Society of Forest Park
Bucky Halker singing Solidarity Forever
Bucky Halker singing Storm the Fort, Ye Knights of Labor
Bucky Halker singing The Eight Hour Song
President Larry Spivack honoring the Martyrs Monday for the international delegation attending the Labor Notes Conference.
SAIC Writing Program: MFA and BFA in Writing
SAIC Lakeview Building 116 S Michigan Ave 8th Floor SuitesSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
37 S Wabash Ave, Suite 1220Continuing Studies @ The School of the Art In
36 S Wabash AveJapan America Society of Chicago (JASC)
Suite 2475, 1 North LaSalle Street, Loop Chicago 60602