Gallery:

From laborarts.org  Western Federation of Miners Membership Book, 1912. Click here to take a closer look.

The Western Federation of Miners was one of the founding bodies of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This membership book was issued by Butte Miners Union No.1. Its hard red covers are gold-stamped front and back with a facsimile signature of IWW leader Charles Moyer and the slogan, "Labor produces all wealth. Wealth belongs to the producer thereof."

laborarts.org  September 1928 Cover from the monthly publication of the International Labor Defense.
Collection: American Social History and Social Movements

Photo from laborarts.org. Sit-down strikers at Woolworth's in New York City's Union Square, with sign demanding a forty-hour week.

After Akron rubberworkers and Flint autoworkers successfully used the tactic in 1937, the sit-down strike became widely used until it was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in 1939.

Employees at H.L. Green stores and Woolworth's in New York sat down for ten days in March 1937, demanding a forty-hour week, a twenty-dollar minimum wage, and union recognition. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia intervened, forcing a settlement providing union recognition, an eight-hour day, a six-day week, and a minimum wage of 32.5 cents per hour.

Some other stores followed this settlement, though Abraham and Straus in Brooklyn proved unorganizable, and the sales employees at Macy's had to be painstakingly won, department by department, throughout most of the war.

From the New York World-Telegram and Sun collection.

From laborarts.org. Solidarity Day, September 19, 1981, drew union members from around the country to Washington, D.C., to protest President Ronald Reagan's policies.

Image above from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Districte Council 37, photograph by George Cohen.