Women Who Led the Fight

This week on Labor History Today, we explore moments when workers didn’t just demand change—they forced it.
Detroit, 1937: sit-down strikers face a violent police raid—and resist, floor by floor, in a pivotal moment in the fight for union recognition.
Seattle, 1919: Conor Casey takes us inside the Labor Temple, as workers coordinate a general strike that briefly turns organized labor into the city’s governing force. See photos on LHF’s Labor Landmarks Map.
New York City, 1970: postal workers launch an illegal strike that spreads nationwide, defies federal troops, and wins real gains.
From America’s Workforce, historian Jesse Wilkerson takes us to the 1929 Elizabethton Rayon Strike, where young women led thousands in a bold challenge to low wages, toxic conditions, and repression.
In Michigan, from Madison Labor Radio, we hear the story of “Big Annie” Clements, who led copper miners in 1913—and the effort today to honor her legacy with a long-overdue monument.
And in Labor History in Two: Alice Henry, journalist and organizer, who helped amplify the voices of working women in the early labor movement.

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Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

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