AFT Labor Union Education Resources
Category: Featured Resources
National History Day Project
2017 National History Day Gold Medal Prize ($1000)
Click HERE to read about and view the web site of the 2015 Gold Medal winning entry, The Leadership and Legacy of Mother Jones and her Fight for Workers’ Rights, by Megan Murphy of Merrimack, NH.
Click HERE to view 2014 winner, Menifee, Kentucky’s Emma Roach-Barrette’s, documentary about the 1973 Harlan Coal Strike and HERE to read her moving thank you letter.
Featured Resources
May Labor History Month Proclamation
Category: Featured Resources
How today’s unions help working people
Category: Featured Resources
How today’s unions help working people
By the Economic Policy Institute.
Wisconsin Labor History video series
Category: Featured Resources
The Decline of the Middle Class: How and Why it Happened and What to do About It by Paul F. Cole
Category: Featured Resources
This paper addresses the issue of income and wealth inequality in the
United States and an exploration of its causes, effects and solutions with
a particular emphasis on working families.
California Federation of Teachers – Labor in the Schools Program
Category: Featured Resources
Learn about the best and most comprehensive state federation program for teaching about labor. Continue reading
Labor Heritage Foundation
Category: Featured Resources
A rich resource for books, DVDs, posters, buttons and other items about labor.
Labor Songs
Category: Featured Resources
Using Songs to Teach Labor History
The American labor movement has a long and rich heritage of song. Like hymns and patriotic songs, union songs are songs with a message. Thousands have been written by union members and others over the years. These men and women, black and white, native American and foreign born, created their own literature reflecting every aspect of life in the mines, mills, factories, shops and farms where they were forced to labor… Continue reading
The American Labor Studies Center (ALSC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create, collect and disseminate labor history and labor studies curriculum materials and resources to K-12 teachers nationwide through this web site and via conferences, workshops, seminars and exhibits and to restore the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, New York where it is located. Paul F. Cole is the Executive Director.
Labor Spotlight
American Labor and U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s Story is Distorted in High School History Textbooks
“Imagine opening a high school U.S. history textbook and finding no mention of —or at most a passing sentence about—Valley Forge, the Missouri Compromise, or the League of Nations…” Continue reading
Class Time Limited?
Resources for teachers who have a limited amount of time to incorporate labor history into their classrooms.
- A Short History of American Labor
- The Lesson Plan
- The Films
- The Truth About "Right-to-Work" by Paul F.Cole
- The Bread & Roses Strike
Traces the history of the labor movement from its beginnings to the late 20th century.
A lesson guide for teachers to accompany "A Short History of American Labor"
A description and order information for two excellent labor history films to supplement "A Short History of American Labor" - If You Don't Come in on Sunday, Don't Come in on Monday and The Inheritance
Kate Mullany National Historic Site
Home of the American Labor Studies Center
- The 9/11 Attacks: A Teachers Toolkit
A standards-based curriculum for teachers for grades 5-12 by the 9/11 Tribute Center at the World Trade Center.
A History of Union Banners
