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Products Videos: Out of this Furnace: A Walking Tour of Thomas Bell's Novel. This 19 minute video by Steffi Domike and Dave Demarest provides a graphic and poignant introduction to Thomas Bell's Famous novel of Slovak immigrants in Braddock, Pennsylvania from the 1890's to the 1930's. A moving evocation of steelworker life in an industrial mill town over three generations. Cost $15.00 (plus $3.00 shipping). All proceeds will be donated to the Braddock Public Library. Building Pittsburgh. This 43 minute video tells the story of the Pittsburgh building trades unions. Focusing on the carpenters, ironworkers, electricians, operating engineers and plumbers unions the video uses historic photos, artwork, interviews with old-timers to illustrate the history and structure of the skilled craft unions. The second half of the video deals with the opening up of the trades to minorities and women and concludes with extensive footage from the construction of Pittsburgh's Midfield Terminal. Produced by Charles McCollester, Randy Strothman and Steffi Domike. Cost $15.00 The
Struggle for an American Way of Life:
This two part documentary focuses on how a progressive mine worker coalition
struggled with operators and conservative unionists over problems facing the
industry in the post WWI era. Conflict between The video mixes various approaches to documentary making. It includes oral interviews with rank and file miners and their wives, overview narration of events and themes, and contextualization by academics such as Melvyn Dubofsky, Professor of History, SUNY-Binghamton and co-author of John L. Lewis: A Biography; Gary Gerstle, Associate Professor of History, Catholic University, author of Working Class Americanism; and Alan Singer, Assistant Professor of Education, Hofstra University. Mr. Singer wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on mine workers who lived and worked in Nanty Glo, Cambria County, Pennsylvania during the 1920s. The Struggle for an American Way of Life raises questions about how interpretations of Americanism affect prospects for human rights, democracy, and fairness. Cost $25.00. A
Program Guide For The Documentary (program
guide): Free Upon Request With Video. Books: Fighter With A Heart: Writings of Charles Owen Rice, Pittsburgh Labor Priest
Confidant of Phil Murray, John L. Lewis, Mike Quill, Joe Curran, Walter Reuther, and many others, Rice knew the labor movement as few others did. A marcher with Martin Luther King, Jr., a demonstrator with H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael, a defender of prisoners, a provider of food and clothing to the poor, and a tireless critic of America's Vietnam involvement, Rice consistently articulated a Catholic vision of social justice and responsibility. Ferociously anticommunist long before Joe McCarthy, this "most influential labor priest of the cold war era" marked the American labor movement as profoundly as any other single person in this century. In addition, he wrote copiously about his own life and work over the course of sixty years, mostly in the Pittsburgh Catholic. Available from the University of Pittsburgh Press or directly from the Labor Center. Cost: $10 paperback.
William Sylvis: Pioneer of American Labor by Jonathan P. Grossman This book is an excellent source for the study of the labor movement during the era of the Civil War. Sylvis was born in Armagh, Indiana County, Pennsylvania in 1828. He was the founder of the National Union of Iron Molders in 1859 and the National Labor Union in 1868. Sylvis strove for unity among working men and women regardless of race or nationality. Cost: $5.00 paperback.
To order any of the above labor center products: Order Form
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Correspondence regarding this site should be sent to its maintainer, Cynthia Spielman. Please see IUP's statement regarding pages that do not officially represent the university.
these forces erupted in three nation-wide work stoppages in the bituminous
fields, the 1919, 1922, and 1927 strikes. Although the 1919 strike stalled the
industry and resulted in the intervention of the federal government, its
outcome did not resolve labor/management tensions. The issues of 1919 smoldered
and eventually culminated in the 1922 strike. The outcome of 1922 provided a
framework for the remainder of the decade with the operator led right wing
triumphing by breaking all contracts with the UMWA by the middle of the decade.
The documentary also identifies and follows the progressive trends that
ultimately helped influence and shape the dramatic come back of the UMWA in the
early 1930s.