Los Yarderos: Mexican Yard Workers in Transborder Chicago

Sergio Lemus

Perceptive and humane, Los Yarderos reveals how a group of Mexican immigrants navigates the crossings of the borders that divide class, color hierarchies, gender, and belonging.

A Blueprint for Worker Solidarity: Class Politics and Community in Wisconsin

Naomi R Williams

Charting Racine’s transition, Williams breaks down how worker solidarity persevered and presents lessons that can provide valuable guidance for today’s generation of activists.

Journal of Illinois State Historical Society

“‘Oil Can Eddie’ and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union” by Roger Biles and Mark Rose 

 In this essay, the authors discuss the story of Edward E. “Eddie” Sadlowski Jr. and the challenges he posed to the entrenched leadership of the United Steelworkers of American in the 1970s. Eddie became North America’s foremost spokesman for progressive unionism and a leading figure in the nation’s liberal politics, but his attempt to capture the presidency of the international union fell short. Sadlowski’s loss to the establishment candidate in 1977, covered extensively by national media, marked an important road not taken by the USWA and a decisive turn away from social democracy by organized labor in the United States.

We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers’ Union, 1912-1953

Shaun Richman

An inspiring story of action and perseverance, We Always Had a Union profiles a foundational American labor union and offers lessons for today’s workers and organizers.

The Pandemic and the Working Class: How US Labor Navigated COVID-19

Edited by Nick Juravich and Steve Striffler

Juravich and Striffler edit a collection that examines the effects of the pandemic on workers. Sections of the book focus on specific impacts and government efforts to restructure the economy; the dramatic effect of the pandemic on the hospitality industry; educators’ response on behalf of themselves and their students; frontline healthcare workers; and the innovative forms of labor organizing that emerged during and after COVID.

Journal of American Ethnic History

“‘Our Dark Hands and Sore Backs’: The Comité Cívico Popular Mixteco and the New Grassroots Activism by Indigenous Mexican Migrants” by Jorge Ramirez-Lopez 

In the 1980s, Indigenous people from southern Mexico, including many Mixteco people from Oaxaca, migrated in considerable numbers to the United States and worked mainly as farmworkers on labor-intensive crops in San Diego and throughout California. Because they were incorporated at the bottom of a racialized labor hierarchy distinct from previous Mexican cohorts and in a period of increased border violence and anti-immigrant sentiments, these new migrants formed the Comité Cívico Popular Mixteco with the goals of addressing their needs as workers and claiming their dignity as Indigenous people.

Public Education and Social Reform: A History of the Illinois Education Association

Thomas J. Suhrbur

Multifaceted and up to date, Public Education and Social Reform tells the story of the organization and figures dedicated to sustaining and advancing Illinois public education.

Listening to Workers: Oral Histories of Metro Detroit Autoworkers in the 1950s

Daniel J. Clark

Compelling and surprising, Listening to Workers foregoes the union-focused strain of labor history to provide ground-level snapshots of a blue-collar world.

Journal of Appalachian Studies 

“‘Woven into the fabric’: The Legacy and Labor That Built a University” by Liz Harper and Adam Thomas

This article examines the crucial roles Black people played in the development of Western Carolina University (WCU) in the mountains of Southern Appalachia, and the university’s failure to fully acknowledge the contributions those people have made. The authors first describe the Indigenous dispossession by which the white Rogers family acquired the land in Cullowhee, North Carolina. They then turn to Harriet, an African American woman enslaved by David Rogers, Sr., considering how her and her children’s labor shaped the property he eventually transferred to the university. The article subsequently traces the lives of several of Harriet’s descendants, and their contributions to the university’s growth.

History’s Erratics: Irish Catholic Dissidents and the Transformation of American Capitalism, 1870-1930

David M. Emmons

A vibrant and original tour de force, History’s Erratics explores the ancestral roots of Irish nonconformity and defiance in America.

The Green New Deal from Below: How Ordinary People Are Building a Just and Climate-Safe Economy

Jeremy Brecher

A call for hope and a better tomorrow, The Green New Deal from Below offers a blueprint for reconstructing society on new principles to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Journal of Film and Video 

“Pitch Decks, Project Development, and Creative Labor for Contemporary Hollywood TV Series” by Kimberly A. Owczarski

Among the core issues of the 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike was the changing nature of project development for TV series. Specifically, the WGA was seeking provisions regarding mini-rooms in which a handful of writers begin the writing of a series before it receives a formal greenlight for production, minimum guarantees for length of employment and compensation on series in development or production, and a more formalized set of rules governing the size of writers’ rooms. Since the pitch deck was a core issue in the strike, they provide an ideal site to discuss the ramifications of new business models on how TV series are currently developed and on creatives working in the industry.