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PODCAST

Labor History in 2:00

The Rick Smith Show

A daily, pocket-sized history of America"s working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.

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All Episodes

1:59

December 5 - The AFL & CIO Merge

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/12/05

On this day in Labor History the year was 1955. That was the day the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to become the AFL-CIO. The American Federation of Labor was a confederation of unions can that trace its history all the way back to just after the Civil War, in 1866.

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1:59

December 4 - Solidarity in the Fields

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/12/04

Would you go to jail for justice for working people? Over the years many in the labor movement have had to make that decision. Such was the case for Cesar Chavez. On this day in labor history the year was 1970. Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers, was jailed for twenty days for refusing to end a lettuce boycott.

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1:59

December 3 - Dissenters Jailed

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/12/03

On this day in Labor History the year was 1916. That was the day that seven Australian members of the Industrial Workers of the World were sentenced to fifteen years in prison for their antiwar efforts during World War I. Other IWW members were sentenced to as many as five and ten years each.

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1:59

December 2 - Caught, This Time

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/12/02

On this day in Labor History the year was 2009. That was the day that Wal-Mart agreed to pay $40 million to over 87,000 current and former employees in Massachusetts. This was the largest class action settlement in the state’s history

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1:59

December 1 - Sitting to Start a Movement

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/12/01

On this day in Labor History the year was 1955. That was the day that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. With that action she helped to launch the Civil Rights Movement.

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1:59

November 30 - A Budget for the People

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/30

On this day in Labor History the year was 1909. That was day the British House of Lords rejected the “People’s Budget.” The proposed budget plan was a product of the Liberal government headed by Prime Minister H.H. Asquith. This budget was championed by Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George and the President of the Board of Trade, a young Winston Churchill.

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1:59

November 29 - Louisa May Alcott is Born

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/29

On this day in Labor History the year was 1832, American author, Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Alcott is most well known for her classic book Little Women and its two sequels. She also wrote a novel called Work: A Story of Experience.

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1:59

November 28 - The IBEW is Born

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/28

On this day in Labor History the year was 1891. That was the day that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union began in St. Louis Missouri. At the time of the union’s founding the field of electrical work was very new. Linemen often risked their lives for the job.

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1:59

November 27 - Workers Take Broadway by Storm

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/27

On this day in Labor History the year was 1937. That was the day the curtain first went up on the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union pro-labor production on Broadway. The show was called Pins and Needles. The revue played on Broadway until 1940 and was revived in 1978.

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1:59

November 26 - Revolutionizing the Rails

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/26

On this day in Labor History the year was 1867. That was the day that J.B. Sutherland of Detroit patented the first specialized refrigerated railroad car. Southerland’s design included ice tanks at both ends of the car and ventilation flaps on the floor, which used gravity to send a draft of cold air flowing throughout the car.

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1:59

November 25 - Striking for Better Schools

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/25

On this day in Labor History the year was 1946. That was the day that teachers in St. Paul, Minnesota went on strike. It was the first ever organized walkout of teachers in the United States. The strike was organized by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28.

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1:59

November 24 - Cigar Workers Organize

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/24

On this day in Labor History the year was 1875. That was the day that Samuel Gompers founded the Cigar Makers’ International Union Local 144 in New York City. The very first Cigar Marker’s Union local had been established in Baltimore in 1851 by craftsmen who opposed importation of lower-paid laborers from Germany.

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1:59

November 23 - Strike Like an Egyptian

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/23

On this day in labor history, we are going way, way, way back. The year was 1170 B.C. So the exact date is a bit of an estimate. Egyptian workers initiated what just might be the first recorded strike in world history. The workers were toiling on public works projects, including building tombs of the pharaohs, in the Valley of the Kings.

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1:59

November 22 - Clara Lemlich

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/22

On this day in Labor History the year was 1909. That was the day that a young garment worker by the name of Clara Lemlich made a speech that would have a resounding impact on the labor movement in New York City. Lemlich was at a union meeting, where she sat listening to men discuss whether garment workers should call a general strike. Finally she asked to speak.

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1:59

November 21 - The Canuts

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/21

On this day in Labor History the year was 1831. That was the day that silk workers went on strike in Lyon, France. It was one of several strikes, known as the Canutrevolts. Canut was a term used to describe Lyonnais silk workers.

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1:59

November 20 - The Scab

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/20

On this day in Labor History the year was 1816. That was the day the Albany Typographical Society used the term “scab” to describe a strikebreaker. The word scab had been used in England for nearly three centuries as a slang meaning a rascal or scoundrel. By the late 1700s, laborers began to use the insult to refer to workmen who wouldn't join a union or a strike.

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1:59

November 19 - Joe Hill’s Final Words

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/19

On this day in Labor History the year was 1915. On that sad day, Industrial Workers of the World organizer and songwriter, Swedish-born Joe Hill, was executed in Utah. In 1914, Hill was framed for the murder of a grocer and his son in Salt Lake City. The evidence was circumstantial at best.

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1:59

November 18 - Atlanta Auto Workers Lead the GM Sit...

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/18

On this day in Labor History the year was 1936. That was the day workers at the General Motors plant in Atlanta, Georgia participated in a sit-down strike. This was part of a wave of labor organizing during the 1930s. Other GM plants in Kansas City, Mo. and Cleveland, Ohio went on strike.

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1:59

November 17 - The Anti-Communist Witch-hunt Escalates

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/18

On this day in Labor History the year was 1947. That was the day that the Screen Actors Guild voted to make all SAG members take an anti-Communist loyalty oath. The late 1940s were the dawn of the US Cold War with the Soviet Union. Anti-Communist hysteria swept the country.

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1:59

November 16 - Using the Law to Crush Organizing

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2025/11/16

On this day in Labor History the year was 1798. On that day Kentucky became the first state to nullify an act of the United States Congress. The federal government had passed the Alien and Sedition Acts during the presidency of John Adams.

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