It’s Labor Day Weekend! Here are this week’s Recommended Reads

Every week in Union Update, we’ll be posting news and feature articles, books, podcasts, and more, submitted by your fellow workers, focused on issues that affect ALL of us. We hope you find the following content informative and insightful

Labor Day has been a federal holiday since 1894, but the core issues we face as middle-class workers are remarkably the same: wages and working conditions. Unions are enjoying the kind of support they haven’t seen in 50 years. The Hill.com reports that two-thirds of Americans support unions.

Cool book: From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: An Illustrated History of Labor in the United States by Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty, illustrated by Joe Sacco

In this fully updated new edition of the book that set the standard for viewing American history through the prism of working people, Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty have added a wealth of fresh analysis of labor’s role in American life. With two completely new chapters, From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend remains a “comprehensive history of American labor” (The Washington Post). 

Another cool book: Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel

Perhaps Studs Terkel’s best-known book, Working is a compelling, fascinating look at jobs and the people who do them. Consisting of over one hundred interviews conducted with everyone from gravediggers to studio heads, this book provides a timeless snapshot of people’s feelings about their working lives, as well as a relevant and lasting look at how work fits into American life.

And if you have something you’d like to recommend, please send it to us at communications@seiu1000.org