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NEWSLETTER | March 23, 2023


THIS WEEK Union activism is surging, as it did in the 1930s. Plus guideposts to Waco's violent history, analysis of Beethoven's hair and other surprises from history.
NEW VIDEO

A CALL TO ORGANIZE Spurred by the pandemic, new groups of workers are pushing to form unions in activism not seen since the 1930s.

Labor Union Activism Is on the Rise, Recalling the Great Depression 

This week, Starbucks workers around the United States took part in in a strike as part of their push to unionize.  They're among new groups of American workers pushing to form labor unions at restaurants, stores and warehouses as the economic pain of the pandemic sets in.

In 2021 and ‘22, filings for new unions in the U.S. rose by 53 percent. Experts told us that this recent wave is the biggest surge of union activism in decades. "The only other time in American history when we saw such clamor to unionize was in the 1930s during the Great Depression," said Steven Greenhouse, a former labor reporter at The New York Times. 

At the height of the Depression, with as many as 13 million Americans out of work, President Franklin Roosevelt pushed New Deal reforms through Congress, including the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which guaranteed private sector workers the right to form unions. After a landmark strike at General Motors in 1936, union membership soared. Within two years, nearly two million Americans staged strikes over working conditions at textile and steel factories.

Today, pro-union activism is increasing among workers at restaurants, retail stores and warehouses. We spoke to Brandi Alduk, who has worked at a Starbucks store in Queens, N.Y., for three years. As the pandemic restrictions lifted, she and other workers at her store decided to file for a union election in an effort to improve working conditions.

"As we started opening back up, there were a lot of altercations with customers about wearing masks," Alduk told Retro Report. "I’ve had people destroy bathrooms. I’ve had people shoot up in the bathroom. So it is usually the people who are getting paid the least amount of money handling those types of situations."

Unions have historically had less success organizing workers in the healthcare, tech and service industries that now dominate the U.S. economy. Today, as in the 1930s, companies are pushing back against efforts to form unions. 

"The customer experience will be significantly challenged and less than, if a third party is integrated into our business," Harold Schultz, the former chairman and CEO of Starbucks, said in an interview.

Overcoming these obstacles is challenging but not impossible, said Samir Sonti, an assistant professor of urban studies at the City University of New York. "Something historically is happening by workers shifting the center of gravity, the way that workers in the 1930s shifted the center of gravity," he told us.

Teachers: Find free classroom resources that accompany this video here. For updates on new lesson plans and more free classroom resources from Retro Report, subscribe to our educator newsletter here.

CURATED
FEB. 28, 1993 Federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. In all, 75 people were killed. Some, including David Koresh, the group's leader, were shot by fellow sect members. 

Retro Report Recommends . . . 


The Retro Report team suggests articles, podcasts and videos that interest, impress and inspire us. Do you have a pick you'd like to share? Let us know: news@retroreport.com

. . . Beethoven under a microscope
Nearly 200 years after Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, researchers have been able to analyze his DNA using strands of the composer's hair. Scientists weren't able to fully diagnose the causes of his health problems and hearing loss, but they did find evidence of a genetic risk for liver disease and a possible hepatitis B infection. These factors, along with Beethoven's chronic drinking, may have caused the liver failure that is widely thought to have killed him, according to a study published this week in the journal Current Biology. [Science News]

. . . Remembering a violent confrontation
Former President Donald Trump was expected to hold a rally in Waco, Texas, on Saturday. His presidential campaign team told Time magazine that the city was chosen because of its central location and Texas’ role in the primary election. But Waco also has a violent history: it was the site of a deadly standoff between an anti-government cult and federal law enforcement officials 30 years ago, a topic we explored in a Retro Report video, above. In 1993, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco and generated a legacy that continues to shape antigovernment groups today. 

. . . A podcast on a pioneer in addiction treatment
In 1965, a team of doctors at Rockefeller University announced that they’d found a successful treatment for heroin addiction. A small group of men who’d been using heroin for several years and had tried to and failed to quit were suddenly able to return to their lives. One started painting. Another finished high school and got a scholarship to go to college. The key to these transformations was a drug called methadone. But the treatment was controversial, and one of the doctors on the team, Marie Nyswander, already had a bit of a reputation as a bold, and possibly even reckless, defier of convention. [Lost Women of Science]

. . . Staying under the speed limit
President Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested in Washington for speeding in a horse-drawn carriage. The story of his arrest was recounted in an article in the Sept. 27, 1908, issue of The Washington Evening Star under the headline: “Only Policeman Who Ever Arrested a President.” The former president "loved nothing better than to sit behind a pair of spirited animals,” the article said. “He was a good driver, and sometimes ‘let them out’ to try their mettle.” That's when the law stepped in. [The Washington Post]

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LAST WORD

"And I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; & that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."


–Thomas Jefferson
Letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816

For more on this quotation and spurious variations, see Monticello.org
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