When the people lead, the leaders will follow.
That's true for both politicians and labor union heads.

Memorial Day in Chicago in 1937 was hot and sunny. On the prairie outside the Republic Steel's Chicago plant the strikers and their families began to gather for picnics. Women were dressed in their holiday best. Children could be seen riding on their father's shoulders.

Of the precious few baseball players who's impact stretched beyond the boxscore, Jackie Robinson is the most remembered.
However, the one baseball player who's impact nearly changed the sport itself has been almost totally forgotten.

On August 3, 1986, Florence Reece passed away at the age of 86. She was one of the greatest poets, songwriters, and social activists to ever come out of the Kentucky hills. Her signature song was "Which Side Are You On?"

Most people who know something about union history are familiar with the Ludlow Massacre in 1914, where the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency and the Colorado National Guard killed 18 people, mostly women and children.
What most people aren't familiar with is that the Ludlow Massacre was just one event in more than 30 years of bloody labor struggle in the mountains of Colorado.

On November 22, 1909, thousands of New York shirtwaist textile workers met at the Cooper Union building to meet with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union’s Local 25 leaders to discuss working conditions and wages. Like most organizations in those days, the ILGWU was led by men.

Around 8 o'clock in the morning on July 5, 1934, shop owners in the mission district of San Francisco were opening for business. Bankers and stock brokers were already at work in the financial district. Construction workers were busy building the new Oakland Bay Bridge.