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Unions and striking workers have been much in the news lately. As of August 17, there have been 233 labor actions in 352 locations across the United States in 2023, according to the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Labor Action Tracker. Some of the most well know strikes are the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, Unite Here Local 11, representing hotel workers in California, and the United Steelworkers Local 4-200, representing nurses in New Jersey. Additionally, members of the United Auto Workers are voting this week on authorizing their leaders to call strikes against the Detroit automakers, and UPS workers were gearing up for a strike that was avoided when Teamster members voted last week for a new five-year contract negotiated by the union leadership. New unions have also been formed this year. These include dancers at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood, workers at Barnes & Noble locations in the northeast, and employees at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.

These union workers stand on the shoulders of all those who have come before them. The nineteenth century saw unions emerge as a response to the dire working conditions, extended work hours, low wages, and child labor that characterized the early industrial era. As labor unions grew, their collective bargaining power compelled employers to change. Strikes, negotiations, and advocacy helped unions pave the way for major labor reforms, including the establishment of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which introduced the federal minimum wage, overtime pay, and restrictions on child labor.

The growth of labor unions also was closely intertwined with the broader movements for workers' rights and social justice. For example, during the civil rights movement, many labor unions stood beside activists, fighting for desegregation and equal opportunities in the workforce. While often forgotten now, the full name of the 1963 civil rights march was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and union leaders as well as civil rights leaders spoke to the huge crowd.  

In the 1960s unions represented about a third of US workers but that is now down to just over ten percent. Globalization, technology, and a shift to the service sector have been influential in this decline. Ironically, unions’ successes in helping establish extensive worker protections in the law, including health and safety standards, unemployment compensation, and retirement benefits, may also have influenced union decline as government became more active in defending labor. Nonetheless, our current news shows that the role of labor unions remains relevant. As the economy continues to evolve, unions are seeking to ensure that workers' rights are not left behind. The gig economy, remote work, and automation and artificial intelligence present new challenges that require collective representation to safeguard workers' interests.

Next week we will celebrate Labor Day. It was originally established as a federal holiday in 1894 to emphasize “the equality and dignity of labor.” Today much of its focus has shifted to a commemoration of the end of summer and a time for picnics and barbeques. However, Labor Day still can be a time to acknowledge the achievements and contributions of American’s workers throughout our history, as well as the importance of labor unions in helping create safer and healthier working environments for future generations. To learn more about the history of labor and unions in the United states check out these Library resources.

The Mayflower, which brought English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the shores of Cape Cod in 1620 has been called “one of the most important ships in American history.” Yet, another lesser-known ship, the White Lion, arrived on the eastern coast of North American a year earlier and also had a great impact on American history.

The White Lion was one of two English privateers – pirate vessels operating under Dutch government sanction – that attacked a Portuguese slave ship that was on its way to Vera Cruz. The slave ship initially had 350 captives from West Central Africa, but about a third of them had already died on the journey. The privateers then stole about sixty of them.

A few weeks later, in August 1619, the White Lion anchored off the coast of Point Comfort, at the mouth of the James River in desperate need of supplies. Records of the Virginia Company of London record that 20 or so of the captured slaves were then sold for food and other resources:

About the latter end of August, a Dutch man of Warr of the burden of a 160 tunnes arrived at Point-Comfort, the Comandors name Capt Jope, his Pilott for the West Indies one Mr Marmaduke an Englishman. They mett with the Treasurer in the West Indyes, and determined to hold consort shipp hetherward, but in their passage lost one the other. He brought not any thing but 20. and odd Negroes, which the Governor and Cape Marchant bought for victualls (whereof he was in greate need as he pretended) at the best and easyest rates they could.

This event is often regarded as the inception of African slavery in the American colonies. This is not entirely accurate. Enslaved Africans in the Spanish colonies go back at least a century earlier and even in what would become the United States, the Spanish had slaves as early as 1526 in the present-day Carolinas and 1565 in Florida. However, the White Lion slaves were the first brought to the mainland English colonies of North American.

Other factors would also be important in great expansion of the slavery in the South in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, but the White Lion planted the seed for southern slavery which was largely based on the British-style slavery rather than the Spanish. Therefore, the arrival of the White Lion and its cargo signaled the start of a deeply troubling practice that would persist for centuries, inflicting immeasurable suffering upon countless individuals.

To learn more about the White Lion and the history of slavery in the United States check out these resources from the Library.

Every year from mid-July through the end of August, the night sky treats us to a spectacular celestial phenomenon known as the Perseid Meteor Shower. This astronomical event occurs when the Earth goes through the debris – bits of ice and rock – left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet, which last passed Earth in 1992. The peak time to see the meteors is when Earth enters the densest area of debris, this year August 11-12.

During its peak, if conditions are good – that is, no clouds or moonlight – one can see between 150-200 meteors an hour. The meteors, or shooting stars, are fragments of debris from the comet, which burn as they enter Earth's atmosphere. The typical Perseid meteoroid moves at 133,200 mph when it hits the atmosphere, and that is when they become known as meteors. Most are tiny, about the size of a grain of sand, and very few actually hit the ground, but if one does, it is then known as a meteorite.

The point in the sky from where meteors appear to originate is known as the radiant. For Perseids this is the constellation Perseus, from which it gets its name. The best time to look for meteors is the pre-dawn hours. One should go to the darkest possible location and simply lean back and look at the northern sky. Avoid using telescopes or binoculars so that you can see as much sky as possible. It also may take about 30 minutes for the eyes to adjust to the dark. Patience is too is key, as the meteors may appear sporadically.

To learn more about the Perseid Meteor Shower and meteors in general, check out our book display on the Library’s main floor as well as these ebooks.