Working History

David Stein sits down with historians Will Jones (Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) and Peter Rachleff (Retired Professor at Macalester College and Co-Executive Director of the East Side Freedom Library) to discuss ICE’s Operation Metro Surge in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region this past winter.  They explore how resistance on the part of activists, scholars, and the labor movement fits within the longer history of working-class mobilization in Minnesota.   Works Cited: William P. Jones and Greg Nammacher, “Operation Metro Surge Wasn’t the End,” Dissent, September 19, 2026.  https://dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/trump-2026-midterm-elections-democracy-twin-cities/   Emily Witt “What Happened in Minneapolis,” New Yorker, August 31, 2026 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/07/what-happened-in-minneapolis     Working History is a joint project of: The Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), https://southernlaborstudies.org/; The Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), https://lawcha.org/; LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, https://www.dukeupress.edu/labor; and International Labor and Working-Class History, (ILWCH) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history; Follow the links to join and subscribe today

Dolly Parton: renowned country star, successful businesswoman, celebrated philanthropist... leftist? Not so fast. In this week’s episode Yami Rodriguez and Justin Randolph sit down with historian Amanda Marie Martínez (UNC, Chapel Hill), to discuss Parton’s legacy in the wake of her recent death and to challenge some of the myths and misconceptions that have been built up around the Queen of Country.   Works Cited: Jessica Wilkerson, “Living with Dolly Parton,” Longreads, Oct 16, 2018, https://longreads.com/2018/10/16/living-with-dolly-parton/ Tressie McMillan Cottom “The Dolly Moment,” Substack, Feb 24, 2021, https://tressie.substack.com/p/the-dolly-moment. Tressie McMillan Cottom, “Loving Dolly Was Easy. Understanding Her Was Hard,” New York Times, Aug 27, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/opinion/dolly-parton-appalachia-legacy.html   Working History is a joint project of: The Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), https://southernlaborstudies.org/; The Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), https://lawcha.org/; LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, https://www.dukeupress.edu/labor; and International Labor and Working-Class History, (ILWCH) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history; Follow the links for more information on how you can join and subscribe today.

When we think about the history of railroad labor, we often think of engineers, sleeping car porters, or the workers who constructed the railroads themselves. But what about the cooks, nurses, and laundresses who kept the railroads running? In this episode, Abosede George sits down with Kate Reed, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, to discuss her research on women workers on Mexico’s railroads and her recent article, “Rights to Her Labor: Women Workers on Mexico’s Southeastern Railroads,” published in International Labor and Working-Class History: https://cup.org/47Gquib   Working History is a joint project between: The Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), https://southernlaborstudies.org/; The Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), https://lawcha.org/; LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, https://www.dukeupress.edu/labor; and International Labor and Working-Class History, (ILWCH) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history Follow the links to join and subscribe today!

School may have returned for the fall, but what are the challenges facing teachers unions and their members as we approach the midway point of Trump 2.0?   In this week's episode of Working History, Joan Flores-Villalobos met with UTLA member Jake Roth, labor organizer Katie Miles from UC Berkeley, and historian Nick Juravich from UMass Boston to discuss how unions are confronting budgetary shortfalls, ICE raids, and how effective reform can only take place when community and labor work together.

It's official, "Working History" is back!  In our first episode back, Beth English—the founder, host, and producer of "Working History" vol 1—interviews Sarah McNamara, president of the Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), Eileen Boris, president of the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), Julie Greene, editor of LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, and Mae Ngai, senior editor of International Labor and Working-Class History (ILWCH). Together they discuss their vision for the podcast, developments in labor history, global authoritarianism, and labor issues past and present. 

After several long years off the air, the beloved labor history podcast is back! Now brought to you by the Southern Labor Studies Association, the Labor and Working-Class History Association, LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, and International Labor and Working-Class History. New episodes will drop weekly, starting Thursday, September 24, 2026. Follow along and stay tuned for more Working History!

Step Up Louisiana co-founder and co-director Maria Harmon joins the podcast to talk about the group’s Freedom Summer-inspired voter turnout campaigns and grassroots mobilization efforts in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Parish, New Orleans’ proposed Workers Bill of Rights, and the future of economic and education justice organizing in Louisiana.

Dr. Paul Ortiz, a professor of labor history at Cornell’s ILR School, joins co-host Olivia Paschal to discuss the history of higher education labor organizing in Florida, the resurgence of right-wing and austerity politics in public universities, and Dr. Ortiz’s work in higher education labor organizing. Until last year, Dr. Ortiz was a professor of history and director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida, where he spent fifteen years. Dr. Ortiz is also the past president of United Faculty of Florida-UF and has organized with the United Farm Workers, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and other labor organizing groups. His books include An African American and Latinx History of the United States and Emancipation Betrayed. Correction: In the episode, Olivia says that public-sector workers in Virginia can't collectively bargain. While that is true for state-level public sector workers (like university employees), collective bargaining is possible on the local level thanks to a 2020 law that gives local governments and school boards the authority to allow collective bargaining. Collective bargaining for all!

Earlier this year, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to join the UAW in a landslide. The Southern Labor Studies Association held our biannual meeting at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last week, just as UAW Local 42 began negotiating its first contract. This panel, recorded live at the conference, is moderated by labor journalist Sarah Jaffe and features Zach Costello of UAW Local 42’s organizing committee; Chris Brooks, chief strategist at the UAW; Michael Gilliland, the organizing director of CALEB in Chattanooga; and labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein.

Welcome to a new season of Working History! Series co-host Dave Anderson talks with Aimee Loiselle about her book Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class