News
This Week in Labor History, vol. 6: James Connolly
by Sean Lundergan, Fr. Boyle Fellow James Connolly, the Irish socialist, nationalist and labor leader, was executed 104 years ago, on May 12, 1916. His death helped transform a failed, week-long rebellion into a rallying cry for Irish independence from the...
This Week in Labor History, vol. 5: May Day and the Haymarket Affair
By Sean Lundergan, Fr. Boyle Fellow In a 1929 issue, Time magazine felt the need to clarify to its readers: “To old-fashioned people, May Day means flowers, grass, picnics, children, clean frocks. To up-and-doing Socialists and Communists it means speechmaking,...
This Week in Labor History, vol. 4: The Secessions of the Plebs
by Sean Lundergan, Fr. Boyle Fellow Working class agitation has a long history. Over two centuries in Ancient Rome, a series of struggles known as the Conflict of the Orders took place between the elites, the patricians, and the commoners, the plebeians. From the...
This Week in Labor History, vol. 3: Martin Luther King, Jr., the Mountaintop speech, and the Memphis Sanitation Strike
by Sean Lundergan, Fr. Boyle Fellow This week in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was fatally shot in Memphis, Tennessee. The night before he was killed, King delivered his famous “Mountaintop” speech, in support of the sanitation workers’ strike that had begun two...
A message from the Guild’s President and Executive Director, Dave Kowalski
“Those who do not heed the lessons of history are destined to repeat it.” In this case, it is the history of our fellow man and the recycling of our basic instincts. The entire world is experiencing a situation we hoped would never happen, especially in the era of...
This Week in Labor History, vol. 2: Susquehanna Depot
by Sean Lundergan, Fr. Boyle Fellow This week in 1874, workers at the Susquehanna Depot in Pennsylvania seized their employer’s equipment and facilities when their wages weren’t paid. The incident was a part of the escalation in labor disputes along America’s...
This Week in Labor History, vol. 1: The Great Postal Strike
This Week in Labor History, vol. 1 by Sean Lundergan, Fr. Boyle Fellow The Great Postal Strike, 1970 On March 18, 1970, New York City postal workers began a wildcat strike, and over the next week postal workers in over 200 cities and towns across the country joined,...
Youth Caucus Wraps Up Workshops
by Sean Lundergan, Boyle Fellow The Labor Guild Youth Caucus’s Young Worker Workshops concluded this past week. The four-week series hosted members of Teamsters 25, Carmens 589, Inspectors Union Local 600, Carpenters 339, Massachusetts Nurses Association, Pipefitters...
Youth Caucus Third Annual Workshop Series
The Labor Guild Youth Caucus has announced the topics and speakers for its third annual Young Worker Workshop series at the Teamsters 25 hall in Charlestown. We are extremely grateful to President Sean O'Brien and everyone at Local 25 for their continued support of...
Our 2019 Cushing-Gavin Awardees
by Sean Lundergan, Boyle Fellow The Labor Guild honored the recipients of the Cushing-Gavin Awards at the 53rd annual CGA dinner on Friday, December 6. Below are the bios of the five recipients that appeared in the event's program book. Rich Rogers Rich Rogers is the...