A simple definition of labor found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the services performed by workers for wages”. However, in practice labor is anything but simple. Issues in labor relations and rights are inherently intersectional. Whether it be with civil rights as seen through the work of Minnesotan Nellie Stone Johnson, with issues surrounding migrant workers from the Southern U.S. and from Central America, with feminism and women’s rights as seen in stories such as those of Eva McDonald there is no questioning that the issues surrounding labor in Minnesota flux in tandem with many other issues of identity, class, and ideology.
April 24, 1980 - MPR’s Dan Olson interviews Bonnie Watkins, staff member of the Minnesota Council on the Economic Status of Women; and Carol Flynn, an organizer for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Watkins and Flynn discuss problems faced by office workers and efforts to organize the predominately female clerical workers. Topics include pay inequality, sexual discrimination, and vague job descriptions. Both also answer listener questions.
September 3, 1983 - MPR’s Dan Olson interviews Dave Roe, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations). Roe discusses recent developments in organized labor and answers listener questions. Program begins with commentary from Roe on shooting down of commercial South Korean airliner by Soviet Union days earlier.
September 24, 1984 - All Things Considered’s Gary Eichten interviews historian Hy Berman about the idea of labor museum in Minnesota. Berman explains that the state is a excellent representation of the varied evolution of labor movement in the Unites States.
September 2, 1985 - MPR’s Mark Heistad presents "The Strike is On!," an oral history of the early labor movement in Minnesota, with emphasis on the struggle to organize Iron Range workers, Austin’s Hormel strike, the Minneapolis truckers strike of 1934, and more.
September 24, 1985 - MPR Journal host Gary Eichten presents a collection of reports and news items for Tuesday, September 24th, 1985.
January 20, 1986 - MPR Journal’s Gary Eichten gets multiple reports on the status of Hormel strike situation in Austin. Striking meatpackers have amassed at gates of Hormel plant in order to disrupt. The company and city have requested the National Guard.
April 11, 1986 - MPR Journal’s Gary Eichten catches up with MPR reporter Mike Mulcahy on the status at Austin Hormel plant after a day of brief violence between strikers and police. A demonstration blocking the road to plant devolved into a conflict between strikers, workers, and local police.
June 2, 1986 - On this cover story of MPR Journal, a look at possible end of the nine month Hormel strike in Austin, Minnesota. MPR reporter Mike Mulcahy provides details of Federal District Court Judge Edward Devitt’s injunction on United Food and Commercial Workers Union local P-9, effectively ending strike. Even with court decision, some strikers are determined to continue fight against Hormel officials.
August 1, 1986 - Ed Wahlberg, a striking steelworker leader at U.S. Steel taconite plant in the Mesabi Iron Range, talks about the misleading public perception regarding wages at plant.
August 30, 1986 - On this Weekend program, Bernie Brommer, of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, discusses the current status and prospects for organized labor in the state and country. Program begins with Brommer sharing his views on potential end of Hormel strike in Austin, Minnesota. Other topics include labor-management relationships, loss of U.S. industrial base, international trade, and organizing service industry. Brommer also answers listener questions.