Person

Erik Loomis

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Freight-Halting Strikes Are Rare, and This Would be the First in 3 Decades

Some rail unions are resisting government pressure to accept a new employment contract, but history suggests the authorities will keep the trains running.

by Erik Loomis via The Conversation on November 22, 2022
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Jack Welch Was a Bitter Foe of American Workers

The GE exec was known for his big personality. He should be known for the role he played in creating America's toxic corporate culture on a base of inequality.

by Erik Loomis via HNN on March 6, 2020
This Day in Labor History: December 1, 1868

On folk hero John Henry.

by Erik Loomis via Twitter on December 1, 2019
Why Strikes Matter

On the history (and future) of class struggle in America.

by Erik Loomis via Literary Hub on October 3, 2018
The Growing Rift Between Workers and Environmentalists

Members of the working class were once among the environmental movement's best allies. That support has largely disappeared.

by Erik Loomis via Modern American History on July 27, 2018

A History of America in Ten Strikes

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One Parallel for the Coronavirus Crisis? The Great Depression

“The idea that the federal government would be providing emergency relief and emergency work was extraordinary,” one sociologist said. “And people liked it.”

by Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on May 20, 2020

A broken key with a fist

The Road Not Taken

The shuttering of the GM works in Lordstown will also bury a lost chapter in the fight for workers’ control.

by Sarah Jaffe via The New Republic on June 24, 2019

United Mine Workers on a picket line.

The Past and Future of the American Strike

A new book tells the history of America through its workplace struggles.

by Richard Yeselson via The Nation on March 21, 2019

Covers of Lepore's "These Truths" and Loomis's "History of America in Ten Strikes."

The Limits of Liberal History

You can’t tell the story of America without the story of labor.

by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on October 28, 2018

America’s Missing Labor Party

The history of labor strikes shows that, in order to achieve lasting success, workers need to capture political power.

by David Sessions via The New Republic on October 2, 2018

The Pinkertons Still Never Sleep

The notorious union-busting agency has resurfaced in a telecommunications labor dispute, showing how it's adapted to the 21st century.

by Sarah Jones via The New Republic on March 23, 2018

Scrapbook style image of Bruce Springsteen, washed in red tones, playing guitar in front of a black-and-white background of an empty landscape

Forty Years of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’

Decades after its release, the haunted highways and haunted characters of the Boss’s largely acoustic masterpiece still haunt the American psyche.

by Elizabeth Nelson via The Ringer on December 14, 2022

Starbucks Workers United partners celebrate after a store in Mesa, Arizona, became the third Starbucks location in the country to unionize in February 2022.

Labor Rising

Is the working class experiencing a new CIO moment?

by Sarah Jaffe via The Progressive on October 10, 2022

The Five-Day Workweek is Dead

It’s time for something better.

by Anna North via Vox on July 13, 2021

Scabby the Rat

The History of Scabby the Rat

The most visible symbol of a labor movement that isn't dead yet, that is willing to fight, not just make backroom deals.

by Sarah Jaffe, Molly Crabapple via Vice on March 7, 2013

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