Spring is a poignant time in labor history. March 25, 1911 remembers 146 workers, mostly women, lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. April 16 mourns Ireland's Easter Rising of slain Feinians. April 28 marks Workers' Memorial Day, on which the organized labor movement pays tribute to the fallen in workplace accidents or in organized labor struggles. May 1 is May Day, honoring International Workers' Day. May 4 commemorates casualties at Chicago's Haymarket riot at a 1886 labor rally. May 19, 1920 is a day when the organized labor movement grieves the Matewan and Mingo County massacre of coal miners. On May 26, 1937 those who would from unions were assaulted at Ford's River Rouge plant "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.
Organized
labor history is taught as part of American history, but there is no American
(or world) history without labor history. Unions, collective bargaining--the
fight for workers' rights impact every industry, occupation and person.
Teachers and homeschoolers, you can educate students about unions with these
free printable May Day and labor history lesson plans. These links include
websites, activities, worksheets, movies and books on the organized labor
movement.
The
American Labor Studies Center offers a gamut of free printable organized labor movement lesson
plans. It covers history,
events, strikes, lockouts, workplace injuries, child labor, working conditions,
collective bargaining, 8-hour workday, sweatshops, slavery, organizing,
indentured servitude, socialism and labor, women's rights, African American
labor issues, minority discrimination concerns, ULP (unfair labor practices).
Lessons cover the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire (the worst workplace accident in history), West
Virginia labor, Pullman Strike (1894), Lawrence Textile Strike (1913), Lowell
Strike, Paterson Silk Strike, agriculture strikes and other events. Get free printable
union labor worksheets, fill-ins, puzzles and study guides. There are links to
films
Explore
famous labor leaders: Noam Chomsky, Joe Hill, "Big Bill" Haywood,
Pete Seeger, Jimmy Hoffa, Caesar Chavez, the Wisconsin 14 and others from
the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), AFL-CIO, Teamsters and more. This site has
biographies of women labor leaders including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Mary
Harris "Mother"
Jones and more. To use
in lessons, print the list of names on one side and short bios on the other
side (mixed up). Students match person with details. Print photos and pin to a
map at places they are associated with. Or make a time line along the wall.
Plot images in history.
The
National Endowment for the Humanities offers two companion lessons in its
series The Industrial Age in America. "Sweatshops, Steel Mills
and Factories" and "Robber Barons and
Captains of Industry"
define the problems faced by workers in labor history and the reasons for the
organized labor movement. Use the worksheets and activities with middle school
and high school students.
The
Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University
in Detroit maintains the largest organized labor history archive in the U.S. It
has an impressive collection of images in physical exhibits and digital
archives on The Labor Movement and Organizations. Walther Reuther who was one of several injured
at Ford's Rouge factory "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.
The United Farm Workers is the union begun by Cesar Chavez that tends to itinerant
and agricultural labor issues. Along with labor movement, the UFW educates
people about food safety, immigration, deportation, earth and green
initiatives, pesticides and more. An important piece is the youth activism
page. UFW seeks to take union and agricultural awareness beyond the classroom
walls and into real life.
In
honor of May Day, here's a quote from the Albert Shanker Institute. "Imagine opening a high school U.S.
history textbook and finding no mention of-or at most a passing sentence
about-Valley Forge, the Missouri Compromise...Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and
Clark. Imagine if these key events and people just disappeared as if they'd
never existed...That is what has happened in history textbooks when it comes to
labor's part in the American story." Use these lesson plans to keep the
May Day stories and message alive.
