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The Illinois Labor History Society Seeks to encourage the preservation and study of labor history materials of the Illinois Region, and to arouse public interest in the profound significance of the past to the present. Learn more>>
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Please sign now to show your support for preserving the mural here:
ILHS has arranged a tour... one of the last… for members and friends who want to see the murals in their original space and context.
JOIN US Saturday, FEB. 10TH at 12 noon for a FREE one-hour tour led by Carl Rosen, U.E. President and expert on the murals and their meaning.
A union forged in steel - Illinois Labor History Society Union Hall of Honor December 8
The United Steelworkers (USW) were honored with the annual Union Hall of Honor on December 8 at International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399 Hall in Chicago. With a theme of “Forged in Steel,” this years inductees included AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond, a Chicago native, the late George Becker, former USW President George Becker, a Granite City native, and women union activists Norma Gaines from Granite City and Roberta Wood of Chicago. A flickr file from the event is available at Illinois Labor History Society Union Hall of Honor, Dec 8 2023 | Flickr
“Civil Rights & Labor” — Union Hall of Honor December 3. A memorable event.
Labor and Civil Rights” was the theme for the 2021 virtual Union Hall of Honor. The guest speaker was Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants—Communications Workers of America (AFL-CIO). This year’s honorees included civil and human rights advocates Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., C.T. Vivian, late ILHS board member Mike Siviwe Elliott and United Electrical Workers (UE) President Carl Rosen.
Jesse Jackson Sr. is no stranger to union picket lines and rallies. Jackson is the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, one of America’s foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.
Cordy Tindell (C.T.) Vivian (July 30, 1924 – July 17, 2020) was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. Born in rural Missouri, Vivian grew up in Macomb, Illinois, attending Western Illinois University. Vivian participated in his first sit-in at Peoria’s Barton’s Cafeteria in 1947, helping desegregate the community. He advocated for job opportunities for youth with organized labor.
Mike Siviwe Elliott (October 4, 1952 - May 25, 2021) was an ILHS board member and a United Auto Workers Local 551 member, who retired from the Chicago Torrance Avenue Ford plant. Mike was involved in multiple movements. Besides serving on union committees, Mike was instrumental in the anti-apartheid fight in Chicago, most recently with Black Lives Matter (BLM), and a stalwart with the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (CAARPR). Mike’s most recent cause was establishment of a citizen’s review board over the Chicago Police Department.
Chicago native Carl Rosen in 2019 became the United Electrical Workers’ (UE) President. Growing up with union activist parents, Carl was active in social justice efforts from a young age. During college years he was a Steelworkers member and helped campus organizing against apartheid.
For ten years Carl worked at Kerr Glass on Chicago’s west side, a member of UE Local 190. He served in multiple local union positions before election as UE District 11 Secretary-Treasurer in 1990, when he joined the union’s national executive board. He helped organize the Chicago Area Strike Solidarity Committee, which developed into the local Jobs with Justice chapter.
In 1994 he became District 11 President, covering the Midwest. In 2006 the UE Midwest Region merged into the Western Regions, with Carl elected its first President.
Under Carl’s leadership the UE organized immigrant workers and supported their rights, including the now famous 2008 Republic Windows and Doors sit-in. He was a founding member of U.S. Labor Against the War and supported independent political action efforts.
John L. Lewis marked unveiled in Panama, Illinois Nov 5, 2021
An Illinois State Historical Society marker commemorating United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) President and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) founder John L. Lewis (1880-1969) was dedicated on Friday, November 5, at John L. Lewis Park, Shoal Creek Avenue and Jefferson Street in Panama, Illinois.
Special guests included Illinois State Senator Doris Turner (48th District), Illinois State Representative Marcus C. Evans Jr. (33rd District), Midwest Region Laborers International Union of North America business manager and vice-president John F. Penn, Illinois Director of Labor Michael Klenik, Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea, former UMWA District 12 President and retired Illinois Director of Mines and Minerals Joe Angleton and Union Labor Life Insurance Company CEO Edward M. Smith.
Over the crackling radio, John L. Lewis was a familiar 1930s-40s voice and newsreel presence. At that time the UMWA was the world’s largest industrial union. Lewis broke away from the American Federation of Labor and founded the Congress of Industrial Organizations (1937), launching massive organizing drives that added millions to labor’s ranks, launching unions like the United Auto Workers and the United Steel Workers.
With his bushy eyebrows and stentorian baritone, Lewis’ visage was regularly on magazine covers and newspaper front pages, while his union’s control of coal – the nation’s vital energy source – made the UMWA a powerful force.
Lewis was born in Lucas, Iowa, but came to Panama, Illinois with his parents and his siblings in 1908. Within a year the Lewis family won election to local union office and Illinois Mine Workers District 12 hired Lewis as their Springfield lobbyist after the Cherry Mine Disaster. His trajectory only went upward from there, leading the UMWA from 1920-1960.
The marker was financially supported by the Union Labor Life Insurance Company (ULLICO), with support from the Laborers International Union of North America—Midwest Region, United Mine Workers of America and the Illinois Labor History Society.
Progressive Mine Workers of America State Historical Society marker dedication, May 1, 2021, Gillespie, Illinois
Progressive Miners of America state historic marker dedication, Gillespie, Illinois, May 1, 2021.
JoAnn Condollone and other supporters portray the Progressive Miners of America Auxiliary, May 1, 2021, Gillespie, Illinois.
Virtual Union Hall of Honor was December 10
On December 10, 2020 The ILHS honored Drs. Alice Hamilton, Quentin Young, and Peter Orris. We commemorated the history of labor's involvement in fighting the 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic and the role workers are playing in the struggle for safe working conditions and accessible health care during today's Covid-19 pandemic. This was a successful on-line event, allowing our supporters to aid the Labor History Society and join us in honoring these outstanding health care worker advocates.
2019 Union Hall of Honor
The 2019 Union Hall of Honor honored the late Ron Powell, past President of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881, Teamster Robert Simpson and Irene Goines of the Woman’s Trade Union League.
Welcome to the ILHS Website
We are very pleased to welcome you to the ILHS website. We invite you to explore the site. It contains many of the same features and content that made our former website so popular, but it also has new additions:
Looking for a recommendation for a good labor book or CD? Check out our new reviews section, with reviews of some of the latest labor history books and musical cds, written by ILHS Vice President Mike Matejka.
Hoping to attend an ILHS event? Check our our calendar for upcoming programs.
Needing a daily-dose of labor history? Check out Labor History in 2:00 a two-minute daily history podcast created in partnership with the Rick Smith Radio Show.
Do you have suggestions or comments about our new site? Contact ILHS
WHY Teach Labor History?
Why is it important to teach labor history to the next generation?
According to the renowned labor historian James Green: "Today, with union membership reduced, government standards for worker rights and safety under assault, and job security in jeopardy everywhere, young people entering the labor market are still vulnerable to to abuse in the workplace. And yet, most are alarmingly unaware of the decades of struggle that previous generations engaged in--and that union members are still engaged in today--to extend human and civil rights in the workplace." Read more from James Green's article here.
Jim Green passed away earlier this year, please take a moment to read a tribute to this true champion of labor history written by ILHS Vice President Mike Matejka here.
2018: A Look Back
In Pictures
Quotes
"The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voice you are throttling today." August Spies, 1855-1887
"And I long to see the day when Labor will have the destiny of the nation in her own hands and she will stand as a united force and show the world what the workers can do." Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones, 1830-1930
“What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.." Samuel Gompers, 1850-1924
“Freedom is never given it is won.” A Philip Randolph, 1889-1979