MATC Libraries

Labor History Collection, L-Z

Part 1: Alphabetical by authors lastname, A-K
Part 2: Alphabetical by authors lastname, L-Z
An Annotated Bibliography
Updated December 1999
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La Botz, Dan.
A Troublemaker's Handbook: How to Fight Back Where You Work -and Win!
Detroit, Labor Notes, 1991.
331.87 L1
La Botz describes the great diversity of methods being used to shake up the old institutions. He was a truck driver during the 1970s and a founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union. He has since worked as an organizer for AFSME, for the American Federation of Teachers Local 1990, and the Los Angeles Jobs With Peace.

Lamphere, Louise.
From Working Daughters to Working Mothers: Immigrant Women in a New England Industrial Community. Ithaca,
N. Y., Cornell University Press, 1987.
301.409745 L23
The title illustrates a major change in women's paid labor during the past seventy years. In 1915 most employed women were young and unmarried; they lived at home and their wages helped to support working-class families. Since World War II, more and more mothers work outside the home, a fact that represents a important social transformation during the past forty years.

LeBlanc, Paul.
A Short History of the U. S. Working Class: From Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century.
Amherst, N. Y., Humanity Books, 1999.
305.5620973 L441
The author blends economic, social, intellectual, cultural, and political history into a narrative that includes the views of key figures of U. S. history.

Lembcke, Jerry and William M. Tattam.
One Union in Wood: A Political History of the International Woodworkers of America.
New York, Harbour Publishing Co., Ltd. and International Publishers, 1984.
331.88194 L54
The authors trace the development of the International Woodworker of America from its "Wobbly" beginnings to its present status as a moderate force on the western labor scene.

Levitt, Martin Jay.
Confessions of a Union Buster.
Martin Levitt was a union buster who planned and executed union-busting campaigns for more than 250 businesses across America. Today his audiences are union workers, who hear him describes the tactics used against them.

Letwin, Daniel.
The Challenge of Interracial Unionism: Alabama Coal Miners, 1878-1921.
Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
331.88122334 L651
Letwin focuses on the forces that prompted black and white miners to collaborate in the labor movement even as racial segregation divided them in nearly every other aspect of their lives.

Lichtenstein, Nelson.
Labor's War at Home: The CIO in World War II.
Cambridge, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1982.
331.8833 L69
The author examines a critical period in labor history, beginning with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 through the wave of industrial strikes that followed the war and the reconversion to a peacetime economy.

Lichtenstein, Nelson.
The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor.
New York, Basic Books, 1995.
331.881292092 R447L
The purpose of a union was eternal vigilance and militant resistance. Had he lived to see the world of the 1970's and 80's, the labor movement would fought a better battle.

Lipsitz, George.
Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1994.
305.50973 L76
From a picture of Hank Williams, Marilyn Monroe, and Chester Himes as wartime workers to his analysis of the social roots of rock ' n roll, this is rich and fascinating study of lost possibilities, of choices not made at the dawn of the cold war.

Lukas, J. Anthony.
Big Trouble: A Murder in A Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America.
New York, Simon and Schuster, 1997.
979.6031 L95
An ex-governor of Idaho is murdered, the Pinkertons are called to investigate, and labor leaders, including Big Bill Haywood are charged.

Macdonald, Cameron Lynne and Carmen Sirianni, editors.
Working in the Service Society.
Philadelphia, Temple University Press. 1996.
331.973 W927
The problems of organizing and new models of unionism are analyzed in the context of women's work culture, multiracial workplaces, contingent and part-time work.

Magat, Richard.
Unlikely Partners: Philanthropic Foundations and the Labor Movement.
Ithaca, N. Y., ILR Press, 1999.
361.76 M189
The author's history of the long and uneasy relationship between American philanthropic foundations and the labor movement reminds us that the two very different kinds of institutions have often shared fundamental interests.

Mann, Eric.
Taking on General Motors: A Case Study of the UAW Campaign to Keep GM Van Nuys Open.
Los Angeles, University of California, Institute of Industrial Relations,
Center for Labor Research and Education, 1987.
331.881292 M28
In telling the story of a predominantly Chicano UAW local, Mann explodes the myth that the participation of Mexicans in the labor movement has been marginal. However, despite the laborers best efforts, GM closed the Van Nuys plant in August of 1992.

Martens, Margaret Hosmer and Swasti Mitter, editors.
Women in the Trade Unions: Organizing the Unorganized.
Geneva, International Labour Office, 1994.
331.4 W872
In newly industrializing countries, women are often employed in export processing zones, which are usually not subject to labor regulation. Women engaged in these types of work tend to be found in the most vulnerable forms of employment.

McCartin, Joseph A.
Labor's Great War, the Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of
Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-1921.
Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
331.01 M123
A comprehensive look at labor issues during the decade of the World War I, this book explores the political, economic, and social forces that gave rise to the conflict between
democracy and authority in the workplace.

Mill Hunk Herald editors.
Overtime: Punchin' Out With The Mill Hunk Herald Magazine (1979-1989).
Funded by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Pittsburgh, Piece of the Hunk Publishers and West End Press, 1990.
818.54 Ov96
Poetry, prose and, most importantly, humor, have been solace for the laborer. Some of the best that appeared in the Mill Hunk are in this collection. Cartoons by Mike Konopacki, a Madison cartoonist, are included.

Milkman, Ruth.
Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex During World War II.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1987.
331.40973 M644
The author provides a useful historical context and example for such contemporary issues as occupational sex segregation, the wage gap, and pay equity struggles.

Milkman, Ruth.
Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late Twentieth Century.
Berkeley, University of Los Angeles Press, 1997.
331.76292 M644
David Brody, author of Workers in Industrial America, says "Milkman's book will be required reading for anyone concerned with the transformation of American industry...in the last twenty years and what this transformation has meant for American workers.

Milkman, Ruth, editor.
Women, Work and Protest: A Century of U. S. Women's Labor History.
London, New York, Routledge, 1991, c1985.
331.40973 W865
Fourteen essays show the complex relationship between gender and working-class activism. Some of the essays are case studies of women's participation in individual unions, organizing efforts or strikes; others examine broader themes in women's labor history.

Montgomery, David.
Beyond Equality: Labor and the Radical Republicans, 1862-1872.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1981.
331.0973 M78
This is a study of the politics of labor and capital in the Reconstruction Period. The author analyzes modern party politics by going behind voting statistics and platforms to reveal the rivalries among the groups contesting for power.

Montgomery, David.
Citizen Worker: The Experience of Workers in the United States with Democracy and the Free Market During the Nineteenth Century.
Cambridge, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
305.562 M78
"Citizen Worker is one of those books that reminds us of the questions we have forgotten to ask. The collapse of Communism , the globalization of production, the eclipse of the welfare state and the worldwide surge in unemployment have cleared the decks, so to speak, and returned the 'labor question' to the prominence of a century ago."

Lichtensten, Nelson.
Back to the future.
(1994, April 4)
Nation, p.459.

Montgomery, David.
The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925.
Cambridge, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1991, c1987.
322.20973 M78
Montgomery covers American labor activism from the times when American workers first organized, to the emergence of the working class as an insurrectionary force during the first two decades of the twentieth century, to its defeat in the years following the first world war.

Moody, Kim.
An Injury to All: The Decline of American Unionism.
London, New York, Verso, 1992, c1988.
331.880973 M8
Moody uses case studies to trace the rise of the 'anti-concession' movements in the auto, steel, meatpacking and trucking industries. In other case studies he describes the obstacles to the organization of the unorganized in the service sector.

Moody, Kim.
Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International Economy.
London, Verso, 1997.
331.88 M817
Moody provides an assessment of multinational managements' strategies to downsize, introduce flexible production and compel workers to accept less pay for more work. He emphasizes the need for renewal and international cooperation among national unions.

Moore, Marat.
Women in the Mines: Stories of Life and Work.
New York, Twayne Publishers, 1996.
331.40973 M823
Women miners became a role model for American women pioneering in nontraditional fields and emerged as activists in the United Mine Workers of America and in their nonprofit organization, the Coal Employment Project.

Mort, Jo-Ann, editor.
Not Your Father's Union Movement: Inside the AFL-CIO.
London, Verso, 1998.
331.478 N899
"If you love the labor movement, you'll want to read this book. If you don't, you need to read this book, to see what you're up against." E. J. Dionne.

Murray, R. Emmett.
The Lexicon of Labor.
New York, New Press, 1998.
Reference 331.097303 M983
More than five hundred key terms, biographical sketches, and historical insights concerning labor in America are provided.

Nelson, Bruce C.
Beyond the Martyrs: A Social History of Chicago's Anarchists, 1870-1900.
New Brunswick, N. J., Rutgers University Press, 1988.
335.83 N42
Unlike other studies of the Haymarket affair, Nelson focuses on the rank and file of the anarchist movement rather than its leadership. The anarchists were immigrant, artisan, and socialist families, organized around three institutions: workingmen's clubs, progressive trade unions, and a socialist press.

Nelson, Bruce.
Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1990, c1988.
331.88 N42d
Seamen entered the twentieth century bearing the burden of an archaic, semifeudal tradition of the sea and a code of laws that perpetuated their bondage. Legally, they were wards of the federal government, rather than citizens of any state.

Nelson, Daniel.
Shifting Fortunes: The Rise and Decline of American Labor, From the 1820s to the Present.
Chicago, Ivan R. Dee, 1997.
331.0973 N425
The author describes and documents the experience of American labor, especially the rise and fall of union membership.

Nissen, Bruce, editor.
U.S. Labor Relations, 1945-1989: Accommodation and Conflict.
New York, Garland Publishing, Inc. 1990.
331.0973 Un58
The contributors to this book discuss how and why unions in the United States have suffered dramatic declines between 1945 and 1989. Chapters cover union bargaining power, labor and the political system, labor law, the historical context of postwar industrial relations, the social context of the labor movement, and the international comparative perspective.

Nissen, Bruce.
Unions and Workplace Reorganization.
Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1997.
331.880973 Un58
Several labor educators and activists, based on their extensive hands-on experience in working with labor unions, provide a detailed account of workplace restructuring and discuss the implications for the future of the labor movement.

Norwood, Stephen H.
Labor's Flaming Youth: Telephone Operators and Worker Militancy, 1878-1923.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1990.
331.40973 N88
On October, 1919, President Julia O'Connor opened the first convention of the Telephone Operators, Department of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. She praised union telephone operators across the country for displaying a "courage rare in the annals of labor." The Telephone Operators Department was the first national trade union organized and controlled by women.

O'Farrell, Brigid and Joyce L. Kornbluh.
Rocking the Boat: Union Women's Voices, 1915-1975.
New Brunswick, N. J., Rutgers University Press, 1996.
331.478 R683
The book gives long overdue recognition to eleven women, who, like many of their sisters in the labor movement, have given so much to their communities and their unions.

Olds, Marshall.
Analysis of the Interchurch World Movement Report on the Steel Strike.
New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.
331.8929 OL43
The Interchurch report (see the entry under Interchurch World Movement) "was given wide publicity, both because of the wide difference between the actual findings and popular belief concerning conditions in steel, and because of the influence and reputation of the Interchurch World Movement." (Yellen, 1936. p.289) Olds' analysis, written in 1922, reflects the contemporary controversy over the report.

Ouellet, Lawrence J.
Pedal to the Metal: The Work Lives of Truckers.
Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1994.
388.324 Ou93
A vivid description of trucking culture, this book documents truckers' lives and work ethic, exploring the range of identities truckers create for themselves - cowboy, company man, or lone king of the road.

Palladino, Grace.
Another Civil War: Labor, Capital, and the State in the Anthracite Regions of Pennsylvania, 1840-68.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1990.
331,7 P16
Local civil disobedience in the North during the Civil War took many forms. The use of Federal troops to enforce the draft and concurrently suppress labor unrest marked a turning point in federal involvement in local disputes.

Papanikolas, Zeese.
Buried Unsung: Louis Tiklas and the Ludlow Massacre.
Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
331.89092 P2
Louis Tiklas was a union organizer killed in the battle between striking coal miners and state militia in Ludlow, Colorado, in 1914. He exemplifies a whole generation of immigrant workers who found themselves caught between the realities of industrial America and their aspirations for a better life.

Parker, Mike.
Inside the Circle: A Union Guide to QWL.
Boston, South End Press, 1985.
331.25 P37
A central theme of Quality of Work Life is that workers have heads and brains as well as hands. The main sources of information and ideas for this book were other workers who shared their experiences.

Paulsen, George E.
A Living Wage for the Forgotten Man: The Quest for Fair Labor Standards 1933-1941.
Selinsgrove : Susquehanna University Press ; London : Associated University Presses,1996.
331.20973 P332
The living wage concept as a remedy for sweatshop labor standards and poverty became popular in America in the early twentieth century. But it originated in the Middle Ages, when church fathers admonished masters to pay their workers a ‘just wage.'

Pizzigati, Sam and Fred J. Solowey, editors.
The New Labor Press: Journalism for a Changing Union Movement.
Ithaca, N. Y., ILR Press, 1992.
070.4 N532
A provocative view of where labor journalism ought to be going, it includes a chapter by Mike Konopacki and Gary Huck about labor cartoons.

Prosten, David.
The Union Steward's Complete Guide: A Survival Manual From the Publishers of Steward Update Newsletter. Washington, D. C., Union Communication Services, Inc., 1997.
331.08733 Un58
This book is designed to help those who help the union stewards who serve their co-workers and their unions by taking on the burdens of workplace leadership.

Puette, William J.
Through Jaundiced Eyes: How the Media View Organized Labor.
Ithaca, N. Y., ILR Press, 1992.
331.880973 P978
The extensive section on cartoons discusses their history from Thomas Nast to Doonesbury. He demonstrate the media's anti-union bias but does not explain why unions have opted out of struggling against this bias.

Rachleff, Peter.
Black Labor in Richmond, 1865-1890.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1989, c1984.
331.25 P24
The author presents a story of social, economic, and political intrigue in a post Civil War city where class was pitted against class and race against race. A working-class reform movement of black and white workers successfully challenged the status quo.

Rachleff, Peter.
Hard-Pressed in the Heartland: The Hormel Strike and the Future of the Labor Movement.
Boston, South End Press, 1993.
331.8928 R119
This is a heartbreaking but empowering story of local union trying to resist management's drive for concessions and at the same time fending off a conservative national union leadership unwilling to support its local members.

Robinson, Archie.
George Meany and His Times: A Biography.
New York, Simon and Schuster, 1981.
331.8833092 M483r
Meany's career of labor leadership, starting in the old AFL, spanned six decades.

Roediger, David R. and Philip S. Foner.
Our Own Time: A History of American Labor and the Working Day.
London, New York, Verso, 1989.
331.2570973 R7
The authors argue that the length of the working day has been the central issue for the American labor movement during its most vigorous periods of activity, uniting workers along lines of craft, gender, and ethnicity. They hold that the workweek is likely again to take on increased significance as long-term unemployment increases.

Rosenblum, Jonathan D.
Copper Crucible: How the Arizona Miners' Strike of 1983 Labor Recast -Management Relations in America.
Ithaca, N. Y., ILR Press, 1995.
331.8928 R8
"Jonathan Rosenblum's history of this one strike reveals to us ... the barbaric use of power by the corporate big boys. It is a stunning metaphor for labor's trouble today."
- Studs Terkel.

Rosenzweig, Roy.
Eight Hours For What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920.
Cambridge, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
306.48 R8
In the first study of American working-class recreation, Rosenzweig takes the reader to Worcester, Massachusetts saloons, amusement parks, and movie houses where industrial workers spent their leisure hours.

Ross, Andrew, editor.
No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade, and the Rights of Garment Workers.
New York, London, Verso, 1997.
331.7687 N739
The contributors to this book demonstrate how you can join the growing global campaign of consumer groups, human rights activists, and international labor organizations to close down sweatshops and guarantee basic rights for those who cut and sew our clothes.

Ruiz, Vicki L.
Cannery Women: Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950.
Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1992, c1987.
331.88 R93
Ruiz describes the women who formed the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America. Their labor activism predated the Chicano movement and the United Farm Workers.

Salmond, John A.
Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike.
Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
331.89 Sa172
The rising tension in the mill led to a walk-out, the death of the police chief allegedly at the hands of some of the strikers, and the unsolved shooting of the popular strike leader Ella Mae Wiggins.

Santino, Jack.
Miles of Smiles: Years of Struggle: Stories of Black Pullman Porters.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1991, c1989.
331.88 Sa23
An oral history well illustrated with photographs, this book describes the history of the Pullman porters and their long struggle to attain economic independence and social dignity.

Schatz, Ronald W.
The Electrical Workers: A History of General Electric and Westinghouse, 1923-60.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1983.
331.88 Sch3
The author maintains that events in the history of labor at GE and Westinghouse, restraining government policies, social divisions among the workers and fratricidal warfare about communism help explain the condition of American labor today.

Schneirov, Richard.
Pride and Solidarity: A History of the Plumbers and Pipefitters of Columbus, Ohio, 1889-1989.
Ithaca, N. Y., ILR Press, 1993.
331.88196 Sch359
The unionized plumbers and pipe-fitters are journeyman mechanics in a skilled craft, yet at the same time they are union brothers and sisters, part of a labor movement based on a class identity

Serrin, William.
Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town.
New York, Vintage Books, 1993.
974.8 Se58
When Homestead, Pennsylvania, the town Andrew Carnegie built to make steel, died in 1986, it was because steel could be made more cheaply elsewhere - and because the logic of the time decreed that a town and the people who lived in it were as disposable as any other kind of industrial waste.

Sexton, Patricia Cayo.
The War on Labor and the Left: Understanding America's Unique Conservatism.
Boulder, Colo., Westview Press, 1991.
322.20973 Se5
Sexton surveys the American labor-left, showing how it has met with fierce repressive measures from government and business, but nonetheless has won sizeable victories for American workers and others.

Shaiken, Harley.
Work Transformed: Automation and Labor in the Computer Age.
Lexington, Mass., Lexington Books, 1986.
331.25 Sh52
This book is about choices, both technical and social. While changes in the workplace may be justified in the name of increasing productivity, the author argues that the issues of power and control in the use of these changes are central to our working lives.

Shostak, Arthur B.
CyberUnion: Empowering Labor Through Computer Technology.
Armonk, N. Y., M. S. Sharpe, 1999.
331.880285 Sh559
What are the implications for America's 16 million unionized workers of the likely arrival soon of the virtual workplace? What opportunity does this pose for workers?

Stephenson, Charles and Robert Asher.
Life and Labor: Dimensions of American Working-Class History.
Albany, State University of New York Press, 1986.
305.5620973 L72
The essays in this collection explore the impact of industrialization and technology on the lives of working people. The contributors cover production technology, occupational mobility, industrial violence, working women, resistance to exploitation, and leisure activities.

Strom, Sharon Hartman.
Beyond the Typewriter: Gender, Class, and the Origins of Modern American Office Work, 1900-1930.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1992.
331.4816513 St885
The author recovers the labor and social history of thousands of working and middle-class women. She shows how class, age, and marital status divided women in the office.

Stromquist, Shelton.
A Generation of Boomers: The Pattern of Railroad Labor Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1987.
331.89 St92
The author presents a systematic analysis of the unprecedented railroad strikes between 1877 and 1894. He shows how changing class relations in railroad towns and diminishing worker mobility fueled this upheaval in American labor.

Sweeney, John.
America Needs a Raise: Fighting for Economic Security and Social Justice.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
331.880973 Sw97
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declares that "once again, labor speaks to all those who work for wages in an economy in which everything seems to grow save the earnings of working people."

Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald.
Gender and Racial Inequality at Work: The Sources and Consequences of Job Segregation.
Ithaca, N. Y., ILR Press, 1993.
331.133 T65
His study is about what can be termed 'glass ceiling research' -- that is an inquiry into job segregation and subsequent barriers to upward mobility for groups of workers (as opposed to individuals) in the workplace.

Trotter, Joe William.
Black Milwaukee: The Making of An Industrial Proletariat, 1915-45.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1988, c1985.
331.63 T85
This study discusses the socioeconomic and political experiences of blacks in pre-World War I Milwaukee, the migration of southern blacks into the city, and the full emergence of the tiny black business and professional elite that gradually expanded by World War I.

Tyler, Gus.
Look for the Union Label: A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Armonk, N. Y., M. E. Sharpe, 1995.
331.4 T98
This history is even more poignant today because of the trend to child labor and sweatshops in foreign countries and in our own country. We should always "look for the Union label."

Ulman, Lloyd.
The Rise of the National Trade Union: The Development and Significance of Its Structure, Governing Institutions, and Economic Policies.
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1968, c1955.
331.88 Ul43
Professor Ulman explains what went on inside various unions during their formative period. The historical data comes from the Bricklayers', Printers', Molders', and Bottle Blowers'.

Wayman, Tom, editor.
Going for Coffee: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Working Poems.
Madeira Park, British Columbia, Harbour Publishing, 1981.
811.54 G6
These are poems by people speaking for themselves about their work experiences blue-collar and white-collar, paid and unpaid labor.

Wayman, Tom.
Inside Job: Essays on the New Work Writing.
Madeira Park, British Columbia, Harbour Publishing, 1983.
810.9354 W35
"Yet the job is the center of our civilization and of our personal lives. So I am convinced work will one day become and be considered a major subject in our literature... If the new industrial literature is ever entirely successful, I feel, daily work will be recognized as the central concern in our literature, as in life." p.32

Weber, Devra.
Dark Sweat, White Gold: California Farm Workers, Cotton, and the New Deal.
Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994.
331.6 W373
Weber vividly describes the insufferable conditions under which Mexican cotton pickers worked and lived.

Weir, Robert E.
Beyond Labor's Veil: The Culture of the Knights of Labor.
University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.
331.8833097 W425
At its height in 1886, the Knights claimed the allegiance of perhaps a million workers. It was the only nineteenth-century labor organization to organize African Americans, women, and unskilled workers on a equal basis with white craftsmen.

Wright, David McCord, editor.
The Impact of the Union: Eight Economic Theorists Evaluate the Labor Union Movement.
Freeport, N. Y., Books for Libraries Press, 1951.
331.8801 Im3
The contributors are: John Maurice Clark, Gottfried Haberler, Frank H. Knight, Kenneth E. Boulding, Edward H. Chamberlin, Milton Friedman, David McCord Wright, and Paul A. Samuelson.

Yellen, Samuel.
American Labor Struggles, 1877-1934.
New York, Pathfinder Book, 1988, c1936.
331.892973 Y43
In this classic of labor history, Yellen tells the story of ten historic confrontations between working men and women and the owners of America's mines, mills, and railroads.

Videocassettes

America and Lewis Hine.
Daedalus Productions, New York Cinema Guild, 1985.
VT910276
Lewis Hines used his photography to show the mines, mills and factories of America in the first half of the twentieth century.

The Big One.
Burbank, CA., Miramax Home Video, 1998.
331.137 BIGON 1997 Video
Michael Moore searches America for an executive who will answer the question, ‘if Fortune 500 companies are posting record-setting profits, why do they continue laying off thousands of workers?'

The Burning Season.
Burbank, CA., Warner Home Video, 1995.
BUR -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Dramatization of the life of Chico Mendes, activist and conservationist, who was murdered while trying to protect the Brazilian rain forest from obliteration.

Daughters of Free Men.
Wyckoff, N. J., American Social History Project Film Library, 1987.
331.8929 DAUGH 1987 Video
Presents working conditions during the 1830's of young women at the Merrimack Textile Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. It also depicts a strike by the women because of poor working conditions and wages.

Eight Men Out.
New York, N. Y., Orion Home Video, 1989.
EIG -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Directed by John Sayles, the film describes the conditions in professional baseball that led to the corruption of the Chicago White Sox.

Germinal.
Burbank, CA., Columbia Tristar Home Video, 1994.
791.43 GERMI 1994 Video
Zola's novel about the living and working conditions of striking coal miners in a poor rural district of France was instrumental in winning justice for the workers.

The Grapes of Wrath.
Beverly Hills, CA., Fox Video, 1996.
GRA -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Based on the John Steinbeck novel and starring Henry Fonda, this is the story of the Joad family and their migration to California from their dust-bowl farm in Oklahoma during the Depression.

Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl.
Wyckoff, N. J., American Social History Project Film Library, 1987.
331.8929 HEAVE 1993 Video
The director uses period still and motion pictures along with words derived from interviews, memoirs, newspapers, and other sources to show the life of immigrant shirtwaist makers in New York City during the first decade of the 20th century.

The Killing Floor.
New York, Kino on Video, 1997.
KIL -- Shelved in Quick Picks
The true story of Frank Custer, a young black man from rural Mississippi who gets a job in a Chicago meat packing plant and the reluctance of many blacks, torn between a desire to succeed and white racism, to join the union. This reluctance contributed to the race riots of 1919.

Long Road Home.
Calif., New Horizons Home Video, 1991.
LON -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Based on the novel by Ronald Taylor, this is a depression era tale of migrant farm workers' struggle with land baron's mob.

Madison Labor.
Madison, Wis., Environmental Images, 1990.
331.8809775 MADIS 1990 Video
Chronicles the history of the labor movement in Madison from its roots in 1837 to 1990.

Matewan.
Los Angeles, Evergreen Entertainment, 1996.
MAT -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Another film directed by John Sayles, it describes the battles which took place in the coal fields of West Virginia in the 1920's between the miners and the companies.

The Molly Maguires.
Hollywood, CA., Paramount, 1990.
MOL -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Based on actual events, this is a sympathetic account of the Irish-American miners' struggle.

Norma Rae.
Farmington Hills, Minn., CBS/Fox, 1985.
NOR -- Shelved in Quick Picks
A poor, uneducated textile worker joins forces with a New York labor organizer to unionize the reluctant workers at a Southern mill.

North Dallas Forty.
Hollywood, Calif., Paramount Pictures, 1979.
NOR -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Based on the novel by former Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent, the film focuses on the labor abuses in pro-football.

Organizing America: A History of Trade Unions.
Charleston, W. V., Cambridge Educational, 1995.
331.88 ORGAN 1994 Video
The producers incorporate personal accounts and archival footage to tell the compelling story about the struggles and triumphs of American workers.

Roger and Me.
Burbank, Calif., Warner Home Video, 1990.
ROG -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Details Moore's protracted efforts to meet GM president Roger Smith and confront him with the poverty and despair afflicting Flint, Michigan after General Motors closed its plants there.

Salt of the Earth.
Oak Forest, Il., MPI Home Video Release, 1987.
SAL -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Finally available in this country after being suppressed for thirty years, the story deals with the anti-Hispanic racial strife that occurs in a New Mexico zinc mine when the union workers organize a strike.

Silkwood.
SIL -- Shelved in Quick Picks
Based on the true story of Karen Silkwood, who spoke out against the safety hazards in the town's plutonium plant.

Strike.
By Sergei Eisenstein. New York, Kino International, 1925.
791.43 STRIK 1991 Video
In Pre-Revolutionary Russia, a factory worker is unjustly accused of theft and hangs himself when management threatens to withhold his pay; the other workers go on strike in protest. The police viciously break up the demonstration of the workers' mutual loyalty.

Sweating for a T-shirt.
San Francisco, Calif., Global Exchange, 1999.
331.7687 SWEAT 1990 Video
This documentary film examines work conditions in some sweatshops in Honduras, and includes interviews with some of the workers. It promotes activism in consumer countries such as the United States to solve the problem.

Thought Control in a Democratic Society: Activating Dissent.
Necessary Illusions, 1994.
410.92 MANUF 1994 Video Part 1
Explores the political life and ideas of author, linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky.

Part 1: Alphabetical by authors lastname, A-K

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