COM 400: Communication and Labor: Videos of Interest

Since the 1970s, organized labor in the United States has seen a steep decline in its membership and political influence due to capital flight, "right to work" and anti-union legislation, automation and technological innovation. Recently, however, millions of US workers have rallied behind organized labor campaigns demanding fairer working conditions and higher wages. Radical Labor profiles a local chapter of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 105, to understand how the labor movement is collaborating with allied community activists and working to build a multi-racial coalition of working people for social justice.

The International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) strike in the early 1900s was inspired by poor working conditions and low wages. In 1984, Congress bailed out the Chrysler Auto company after Chairman Lee Iaccoca and Douglas Fraser, chief of the United Auto Workers, came to an agreement. Why does Walmart choose low prices over high wages, and how do they get away with it? These stories show how labor unions and corporate managers battle to affect the supply of labor, wages, and prices.

Using interviews, personal accounts, and archival footage, this program investigates the major events in the history of American trade unions. Eight short sections, 39 minutes total.

In telling the story of the organizing of the first black trade union—The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters—this program provides an account of African-American working life between the Civil War and World War II. 25 short segments, 58 minutes total.

In the 1960s, labor leader and civil rights activist, Dolores Huerta organized in the fields, spearheading a national boycott of grapes and lettuce and making decent pay and working conditions a reality for thousands of farm workers. Seven minutes.

This episode focuses on: Migrant Farm Workers & United Farm Workers Union

In this program, Bill Moyers and United Steelworkers International's Leo Gerard address topics ranging from economic justice for workers, to the future of American manufacturing, to Gerard's hopes for how unions will fare under the Obama administration.