(right) Members of the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 61, voted nearly unanimously to empower their union leadership to call a strike if San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) administrators don’t settle a fair contract. This is the first of two votes needed to approve a work stoppage across the city’s public schools.

(left) Striking Starbucks workers were joined by members of other unions in front of the Empire State Building in Manhattan on December 4. Read more. Photo: Jenny Brown

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The Country Song That Powered a General Strike
This week on Labor History Today, we revisit the 1946 Oakland General Strike through the eyes of labor educator and activist Stan Weir — and uncover the surprising role a chart-topping “country” hit played on the picket line. After we hear the day’s events from Labor History in 2:00, host Chris Garlock digs into Weir’s vivid account of the strike’s carnival-like atmosphere, where bars rolled jukeboxes into the streets and “Pistol Packin’ Mama” — the first country song ever to top the Billboard pop chart — echoed off downtown buildings for 54 hours. We trace how an American Federation of Musicians strike helped turn the tune into a national sensation, and why its defiant energy resonated with the mostly women department-store strikers who ignited the Oakland uprising.
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Inside The Doublewide
This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour, novelist Ann Goethals joins us to read from The Doublewide and talk about caregiving, community, and unseen labor. We’ve also got labor arts news updates, and, in Labor History in 2:00, we look at the fall of the Knights of Labor and the rise of the AFL. Plus a preview of next week’s special: the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s A Red Carol.

"The Art and Soul of the American Labor Movement"

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