Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections

06/11/2026

This we're revisiting the 2017 Seattle Pride Parade with photos of union members marching in the parade! These photos feature union healthcare workers, caregivers, educators, and other workers at Pride, highlighting LGBTQ+ workers in the labor movement.

Photos: 43rd Annual Seattle Pride Parade Photograph Collection. PH Coll 1483
Order Numbers: MAR0681, MAR0679, MAR0672, MAR0620

06/11/2026

📣 – We're thrilled to announce a THIRD segment on the Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections featured on the Labor Heritage Foundation's Labor Heritage Power Hour!
In this episode, Harold Phillips interviews Conor Casey, head of the Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections (LAW), about the intersectional history of the Pablo O'Higgins mural "The Struggle Against Racial Discrimination." This fascinating story ties together the labor movement, civil rights movement, and Chicano student movements — spanning from Utah to Mexico to the Pacific Northwest.
The conversation also covers the founding and operation of the Labor Archives of Washington: a unique, community-founded and community-funded archive located in the heart of the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
📜 A quick history: In 2008, the ILWU Coast Longshore Division, Washington State Labor Council, MLK Labor, Pierce County Central Labor Council, Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, and University of Washington Libraries came together to create LAW — with a mission to collect, preserve, and share the stories of working people, their unions, and the broader labor movement in the Pacific Northwest.
🎧 Listen or stream live:
https://bit.ly/3P0fK8w
📻 On air: WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, D.C.
🗓 Thursday, June 11th at 1:00 PM Eastern / 10:00 AM Pacific
🎧 Podcast (after airing):
https://yourrightsatwork.podbean.com/
📚 Explore the archives:
https://www.laborarchives.org
💚 Support the Labor Archives of Washington:
📖 tinyurl.com/LAW-WA-FUND

In 30 minutes on the Labor Heritage Power Hour:

= Sean Astin at the Convention
- A Labor mural in
- Building worker power in the south

And more!

Listen live at https://bit.ly/3P0fK8w or WPFW 89.3 FM in

SAG-AFTRA

06/04/2026

This , we remember Bill Olwell. In 1969, Olwell was president of both Retail Clerks Local 1001 (Seattle, now part of UFCW 3000) and the King County Labor Council (now MLK Labor) His progressive stands—racial integration in construction & opposition to the Vietnam War—drew attacks. Opponents smeared him by outing his homosexuality.
But his members had his back because of his record:
• Secure contracts after strikes
• Fighting gender-based pay discrimination (women were 75% of the local!)
• Organizing insurance & bank workers
He was reelected, later became a UFCW Vice President, and today the UFCW LGBTQ group OUtreach “Champion of Equality Award” is named in his honor.
Solidarity wins. 🏳️‍🌈💪
📸 Photo credit: Bill Olwell Photo from Quinnell, AFL-CIO website via United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
📖 Sources: Frank, 2014 (“Out in the Union”) & Quinnell, 2019 (“Pride Month Profiles”)
Special Collections, University of Washington LibrariesUniversity of Washington Libraries 🎉

06/04/2026

– we’re glad to announce the second segment on the Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections on the Labor Heritage Foundation Labor Heritage Power Hour! (We are honored to be included in a podcast that honors the late, great Kent Wong -- rest in power!) 🎙️
Harold Phillips (Power Hour) interviewed
Conor Casey– head of the Labor Archives of Washington (LAW) – and that conversation is on this week’s episode!
The topic: The founding and operation of the Labor Archives of Washington – a unique, community‑founded and community‑funded archive in the heart of the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. In 2008, the ILWU Coast Longshore Division, Washington State Labor Council, MLK Labor, Pierce County Central Labor Council, Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries founded the LAW to collect, preserve, and make accessible the stories of working people, their unions, and the broader labor movement in the Pacific Northwest.
📻 Listen or stream live at https://bit.ly/3P0fK8w or on WPFW 89.3 FM in
🎧 Podcast link: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-7vndy-1ade30b
📚 Explore the collection:
Laborarchives.org

Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries University of Washington Libraries · Washington State Labor Council ·
MLK Labor · Thurston Lewis Mason Central Labor Council - TLM CLC · Pierce County Central Labor Council · Spokane Regional Labor Council · Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies Pacific Northwest Labor History Association

Next up on The Labor Heritage Power Hour: part two of our visit to the Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections with archivist Conor Casey.

Listen live at https://bit.ly/3P0fK8w or WPFW 89.3 FM in

05/28/2026

– we’re glad to announce a segment on the Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections on the Labor Heritage Power Hour! 🎙️

Harold Phillips (Power Hour) interviewed Conor Casey– head of the Labor Archives of Washington (LAW) – and that conversation is on this week’s episode of the Labor Heritage Foundation's Labor Heritage Power Hour!

The topic: The founding and operation of the Labor Archives of Washington – a unique, community‑founded and community‑funded archive in the heart of the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. In 2008, the ILWU Coast Longshore Division, Washington State Labor Council, MLK Labor, Pierce County Central Labor Council Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and University of Washington Libraries founded the LAW to collect, preserve, and make accessible the stories of working people, their unions, and the broader labor movement in the Pacific Northwest.

📻 Listen or stream live at https://bit.ly/3P0fK8w or on WPFW 89.3 FM in

🎧 Podcast link: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-3xvzk-1ad54f6

📚 Explore the collection:
Laborarchives.org



Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries University of Washington Libraries · Washington State Labor Council · MLK Labor · Thurston Lewis Mason Central Labor Council - TLM CLC · Pierce County Central Labor Council · Spokane Regional Labor Council · Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies · Northwest Labor History Association

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: As America approaches its 250th anniversary, whose stories get remembered? This week: Jay Youngdahl talks with labor artist Fred Lonidier, we visit the Labor Archives of Washington, plus a People's 250 story from Mary Louise Patterson, “The Mother of All S...

05/27/2026

This , we’re celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by spotlighting Karl Yoneda – a Japanese American Kibei longshore worker, labor activist, and communist. 🌊✊

Karl organized Japanese American support for the 1934 waterfront strike in SF, and led longshore workers to boycott military cargo to Japan in protest of the invasion of China.

During WWII, Karl was incarcerated at Manzanar with his wife, fellow activist Elaine Black Yoneda. After the war, they continued fighting for labor, civil rights, anti-war movements, and Japanese American reparations.

📢 Their full interviews with Howard Kimeldorf are now part of the newly released Reds or Rackets Oral History Project. The site is fully ADA accessible – with transcriptions, indexed segments, and more.

🎧 Check it out (link in bio)!

👇 Tag a labor history nerd who needs to see this.
AAPIHeritageMonth WorkingWednesday Manzanar OralHistory

📷 Portrait of Karl Yoneda at Manzanar by Dorothea Lange, 3 July 1942.

05/20/2026

This , we’re celebrating the launch of two new oral histories with Rosalinda Guillén and Julio Romero on the Washington State Farmworker Struggles online exhibit 🌾🎙️

Guillén and Romero are farmworker activist leaders who helped lead the campaign to unionize workers at Chateau Ste. Michelle wineries.

All interviews are now live on the new website — fully ADA accessible, with bilingual transcriptions, indexed segments, and more.

Check it out via the link in our bio! 🔗

05/04/2026

📢 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! 📢

🚨 We're thrilled to introduce the Labor History Wiki — a brand-new community knowledge platform dedicated entirely to labor history.

Why? Because persistent biases on Wikipedia mean too many labor stories get overlooked or distorted. We're building a better, more accurate resource — together.

🔍 Want to learn more and get involved?
Join us for the inaugural Labor History Wiki Edit-a-Thon
📅 May 14 at 3:30 PM
📍 Location provided upon RSVP
🍕 Food will be served.

Please RSVP by May 8 so we can have enough food and provide disability accommodations.

Let’s write labor history back into the record. ✊

05/01/2026

Happy May Day! ✊🌹

Today is International Workers’ Day – a time to honor the struggles & victories of working people, past and present.

The first May Day took place in Chicago in 1886, when thousands of workers went on strike demanding an 8-hour workday. Their fight echoes still.

In remembrance, we're sharing three powerful moments from our collections:

📸 1) Group photograph at an IWW Labor Day Picnic in Oakland, California, 1939 (uncertain whether this is for May Day or Labor Day that September).
Industrial Workers of the World photograph collection, PH Coll 922

📸 2) Speaker at an outdoor May Day celebration at Hing Hay Park in the International District, Seattle, ca. 1980.
Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 photographs, PH Coll 1044

📸 3) 18th Annual May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights: Sign reading "Empathy and compassion are not dirty words", Madison St. at 7th Ave., Seattle, Washington, May 1, 2017.
18th Annual May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights Collection, PH Coll 1487

Swipe to see history in action 👉

🔗 Learn more: University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries Labor Archives of Washington, UW Special Collections
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