laborheritage.bsky.social
@laborheritage.bsky.social
Who’s Got the Power? Labor’s post-pandemic upsurge is the focus on Labor History Today. Eric Dirnbach talks with Dave Kamper about grad unions, teachers’ strikes, the UAW & bargaining for the common good. 🎧 Listen now on your favorite podcast platforms.
December 21, 2025 at 9:15 PM
LABOR ART OF THE WEEK 🎨

• Devilishly Greedy Starbucks CEO — Striking union-built visual backdrop from Starbucks Workers United’s rally in Seattle, calling out corporate greed through collective creativity.

Read more: bit.ly/4arJB2q
LABOR ART OF THE WEEK: Devilishly Greedy Starbucks CEO - Labor Heritage Foundation
The backdrop for the stage at Starbucks Workers United’s strike rally Thursday at the company’s headquarters in Seattle was designed by USA Scenic designer Pete Rush and built by PNW Scenic, a Seattle company owned by IATSE Local 15 members Ben and Jessica Radin. Photo by
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December 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK 🎶
• Little Flame — Brand-new from Carsie Blanton, a 2025 GLAE standout, offering exactly the spark and resolve we need heading into the new year.
• A reminder that labor music still fuels hope, courage, and collective action.
Read more:
LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK: Little Flame - Labor Heritage Foundation
Brand-new from 2025 GLAE star Carsie Blanton; just the inspiration we need for the New Year ahead!
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December 20, 2025 at 4:30 PM
PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK
• Don’t Buy Starbucks! — With 4,500 workers still out, allies are urged to skip Starbucks—including gift cards. No Contract, No Coffee.
• Shop Local Instead — Workers call on the public to support small businesses while the strike continues.
Read more:
PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK: Don't Buy Starbucks! - Labor Heritage Foundation
4,500 Starbucks workers are STILL out on - and STILL calling on allies to stop buying Starbucks. That includes Starbucks gift cards! No Contract, No Coffee means NO Starbucks gift cards. Please shop local instead!
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December 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
• Labor Videos OTW: The Grinch Is Back! — Santa puts Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol on the Naughty List as workers stay out
• Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man) — Randy Newman’s timeless plea hits hard right now.

Read more: bit.ly/3KE80Hy
Labor Videos OTW: The Grinch is Back! Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man) - Labor Heritage Foundation
The Grinch is Back! Santa puts Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol on the Naughty List. 4,500 Starbucks workers are STILL out on - and STILL calling on allies to stop buying Starbucks. That includes Starbucks gift cards! No Contract, No Coffee means NO Starbucks gift cards. Please shop local instead!Be
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December 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
📚 What We’re Reading

• Art Is a Commons — aja monet on organizing from love, Maroon legacies, and why art matters now. (In These Times)
• Staging a Strike — how Yiddish theater helped build early U.S. labor and socialist movements. (LAWCHA LaborOnline)

Read more:
WHAT WE’RE READING: aja monet, Hebrew Actors’ Union - Labor Heritage Foundation
Art Is A Commons: A conversation with aja monet on organizing from a place of love, the legacy of the Maroons and the urgency of art in these times. In These Times; Read more. photo by Daniel N. Johnson.Yiddish Actors Give a Whole New Meaning to the Phrase, “Staging a Strike”: On
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December 20, 2025 at 3:00 PM
🎭🎮📺✨ Labor Arts News Briefs

Union momentum across culture and media:
• Quake & Doom developers at id Software vote to join CWA
• Theorist Media workers launch joint campaign with MPEG & WGAW
• Adler Planetarium staff unionize with AFSCME
• Casa Bonita front-of-house workers join IATSE

More:
LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS: Game Developers, Media Staff, and Cultural Workers Move to Unionize - Labor Heritage Foundation
Adler Planetarium Staff Vote to Join AFSCMEWorkers at the Adler Planetarium voted on Dec. 11 to join AFSCME Council 31, marking the latest victory for cultural workers in Chicago fighting for a fair voice on the job. “Throughout Chicago's cultural sector, a movement has been
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December 19, 2025 at 10:00 PM
This Week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour 🎙️
The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s A Red Carol reclaims Dickens as a sharp call for collective action and economic justice.
Listen here:
THIS WEEK’S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: 'A Red Carol' - Labor Heritage Foundation
Today on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: The SF Mime Troupe's 'A Red Carol' turns Dickens' classic into a call for collective action. Listen here 👉
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December 19, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Weekend Labor Arts Calendar 🎭
Ongoing: The Hidden Shift (PA); Baristas vs. Billionaires (film); Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County (IL).
Details:
WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR: Dec 19-21, 2026 - Labor Heritage Foundation
The Hidden Shift (PA); Click here for more information.Baristas vs. Billionaires (Film); Click here to find showtimes and locations.Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County(IL)
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December 19, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Thank you, Hetty! ❤️ Celebrating Hetty Scofield’s retirement after years of service to the Labor Heritage Foundation and the labor movement. Her work connecting labor arts, history & culture with unions and communities nationwide leaves a lasting legacy. Solidarity always. bit.ly/4p0cQN9
December 19, 2025 at 9:05 PM
BREAKING: Whose Kennedy Center? Not Trump’s.
Join Hands Off the Arts Sat, 10am–12pm at the Kennedy Center to say hands—and name—off our arts.
📍 2700 F St NW
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Whose Kennedy Center? Not Trump's! - Labor Heritage Foundation
“Join Hands Off the Arts and others tomorrow to tell Trump to get his hands--and his name--off the Kennedy Center,” reports former Working America director Karen Nussbaum. “Tell your friends and get the word out to the many fabulous DC area organizations fighting against autocracy.”Satu
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December 19, 2025 at 8:48 PM
🎮✊ Quake & Doom Developers Unionize
Workers at id Software have voted to join CWA Local 6215—part of a growing wave of video game workers organizing at Microsoft.
bit.ly/3Y4ETA5
December 19, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Today on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: The SF Mime Troupe's 'A Red Carol' turns Dickens' classic into a call for collective action.

Listen here 👉 bit.ly/4pHBWl3
Labor Heritage Power Hour
Politics Podcast · Updated Semiweekly · A weekly radio show celebrating the cultural heritage of the American worker. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant and produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation; broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
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December 18, 2025 at 9:22 PM
LIVE NOW: @SFTroupers “A Red Carol”; a working-class take on the Dickens holiday classic, on @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod
December 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM
"People always think this story is about you,” Bob Crachit tells Scrooge; “It ain’t about you, it’s about us.” Tune in at 1p today on @wpfwdc for @SFTroupers “A Red Carol”; a working-class take on the Dickens holiday classic! @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod
December 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Tune in at 1p today on @wpfwdc for @SFTroupers “A Red Carol”; a working-class take on the Dickens holiday classic! @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod
December 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
🔭✊ Adler Planetarium Staff Unionize

Workers at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium have voted to join AFSCME Council 31, a win for cultural workers organizing for staffing, transparency, and a real voice on the job.

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Adler Planetarium Staff Vote to Join AFSCME - Labor Heritage Foundation
Workers at the Adler Planetarium voted on Thursday to join AFSCME Council 31, marking the latest victory for cultural workers in Chicago fighting for a fair voice on the job.Members of Adler Planetarium Workers United began organizing in October to bargain a contract that address
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December 17, 2025 at 10:35 PM
🌹✊ Bread and Roses was never just a slogan. Born in the 1912 Lawrence strike, it reminds us workers deserve not only fair wages—but dignity, art, beauty, and time to live.

That’s the heart of the Labor Heritage Foundation. If you can, help keep the roses alive.

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“Bread and Roses” was never just a slogan - Labor Heritage Foundation
“Bread and Roses” was never just a slogan. Born out of the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, inspired by suffragist Helen Todd and carried into history by James Oppenheim’s poem, it named a simple, radical truth: workers need bread—but we fight for roses too. Fair wages, yes. But also dignity, beauty, a
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December 16, 2025 at 10:04 PM
🎬✊ Theorist Media Workers Organize

Workers at Theorist Media—who write, edit, design, and produce popular YouTube shows—are organizing with support from IATSE Local 700 and WGA West, demanding union standards as YouTube becomes the most-watched TV platform.

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Theorist Media Workers Announce Joint Organizing Campaign - Labor Heritage Foundation
The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG)—Local 700 of the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)—and Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) are teaming up to support Theorist Media workers secure fair representation and a powerful union contract.Workers at the digital media production c
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December 16, 2025 at 9:08 PM
🎨✊ Labor Art of the Week

Ticket-Taker at Griffith Stadium by James Amos Porter highlights the racialized division of labor in public space — A powerful reflection of work, race, and visibility in its era.

Now on view at The Phillips
🔗 bit.ly/3MwoRwx
LABOR ART OF THE WEEK: Ticket-Taker at Griffith Stadium - Labor Heritage Foundation
Ticket-Taker at Griffith StadiumJames Amos Porter, c. 1944. Currently on view at The Phillips Collection. “Note the clear division of labor and space within the composition. The black ticket-taker, dressed in white, stands prominently in the foreground, a literal gatekeeper. The white patrons st
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December 16, 2025 at 12:01 AM
🗿✊ Labor Quote of the Week

“Each landmark… reveals hidden messages… reminders, marked or not, to working Americans… Accept discovery’s joy; decode our heritage etched in marble and bronze.”

— Archie Green, folklorist of laborlore and American folk music
(Shared by Saul Schniderman)

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LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Archie Green - Labor Heritage Foundation
“Each landmark, whether in stone, metal, or ‘new’ material, reveals hidden messages and suggests a particular web of meaning.  I suggest a visit to an existing site, anywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  Go by foot, car, bus, or rail; at each stop, you will find reminders, ma
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December 15, 2025 at 11:45 PM
🎨✊ Labor Art Worth Sharing
Syracuse Cultural Workers has three full pages of labor-themed posters, shirts, prints, stickers, books, and more—art that celebrates workers, unions, and solidarity. As co-founder Jan Phillips says: “It is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides.”

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Labor Art Worth Sharing - Labor Heritage Foundation
Syracuse Cultural Workers offers a rich collection of labor-themed posters, T-shirts, magnets, stickers, postcards, prints, notecards, and books—three full pages of art and messages celebrating workers, unions, and solidarity. As SCW co-founder Jan Phillips put it, “No matter how brilliant our attem
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December 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
🧸✊ Build-A-Bear workers organize
Staff at a Build-A-Bear Workshop in St. Louis—where the company is headquartered—have unanimously signed union authorization cards to join UFCW Local 655.

Solidarity is stitched together.
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Build-A-Bear Workshop Staff File to Join UFCW - Labor Heritage Foundation
Staff at a Build-A-Bear location in St. Louis—where the interactive toy store is headquartered—have unanimously signed union authorization cards to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 655. The bargaining unit would cover assistant workshop managers, sa
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December 15, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted
SAG-AFTRA today honors the legacy of filmmaker, actor and SAG-AFTRA member Rob Reiner, who died today at the age of 78. Rob Reiner was a member of our union for nearly 60 years. We send love and warmth to Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner’s families, friends and colleagues.
December 15, 2025 at 6:29 AM
🎥 Labor Video of the Week ✊
ATU Local 689’s Cinder Bed Road anthem resonates again as Battle’s Transportation/RHG Group workers—among the region’s lowest-paid transit employees—strike for fair wages and dignity. Company intimidation echoes the 1989 struggle that inspired this song.

Watch here 👉
LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK: ATU Local 689 Cinder Bed Road striking workers anthem - Labor Heritage Foundation
Battle’s Transportation/RHG Group workers, among the region’s lowest-paid transit employees, struck on Dec. 4. Just as in the 1989 strike by Cinder Bed Road workers – also Local 689 members – that inspired this video, fair wages are a major issue, along with company intimidation and harassment.
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December 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM