Tom Morello is known by many as the guitarist for the band Rage Against the Machine. However, in recent years, Morello has also become known by his alter ego, the Nightwatchman, a modern day, labor-inspired Johnny Cash. His songs have become the soundtrack to the labor movement, from the grocery strike of 2003 to the […]

Short of the right to organize and join a union, there are few rights more sacred to the labor movement then the right to have union representation during an interrogation. Known as Weingarten Rights, these rights have protected millions of workers in the U.S. from harsh interrogations, coerced confessions or written statements and even legally […]

On the night of June 27th, 1894, the American Railway Union sent out a telegram calling for a boycott of all Pullman sleeping cars. Early the next morning, a switchman at the La Grande Station in Los Angeles refused to attach two Pullman sleeping cars to a train departing for San Francisco. Similar incidents transpired […]

Shortly before noon on Saturday, February 10, 1979, Rufino Contreras and a half-dozen other United Farm Workers walked onto a lettuce field owned by Mario Saikhon. They were into the 22nd day of a bitter strike against Saikhon and had hoped to convince the scab workers to honor their line. But as they approached the […]

For every labor union that exists, there is an individual who symbolizes the essence of the organization and the Labor Movement. These individuals, through their actions or personalities, have acted as lighthouses, giving members direction while illuminating the great cause of Labor. The Teamsters have Jimmy Hoffa, the Longshoremen Harry Bridges, and the UFCW Addie […]