lesson
Labor Matters
Draw on your students' prior knowledge to help them understand the importance of the labor movement.
Filter by
lesson
Looking at Labor
In this lesson, students will examine the many kinds of work that people do, and discuss why certain jobs are better paid and often more respected than others. The class will then discuss and decide if such assessments are valid.
lesson
Understanding Past and Present Labor Injustice through Music
Period songs give students an understanding of early 19th century labor conditions
text
Informational
Declaration of Dependence
As a means to reduce and regulate child labor in the United States, the National Child Labor Committee composed a declaration, citing the current state of child labor and three resolutions to the situation.
text
Informational
Commonwealth Club Address
Cesar Chavez delivered this speech on November 9, 1984. Chavez was a high-profile leader of the United Farm Workers and remains an inspiring figure in the larger labor movement.
text
Visual
Flint Sit-Down Strike
Between December 1936 and February 1937, auto industry laborers in Flint, Mich., stopped working and occupied the GM factories that employed them until their right to unionize was recognized.
text
Visual
Forced to Work
These images show enslaved people laboring in fields in Georgia and South Carolina.
lesson
Gender and Jobs—Women in the Workforce
This lesson helps students identify the industries in which women work, their rate of pay and how that pay compares to men’s pay using data from the Department of Labor. Students question whether stereotypical ideas about women contribute to women’s work choices and why women still earn less than men in virtually every industry.
lesson
Farmworkers and the Union: A Lesson from Viva La Causa
Students will understand the organizational and agenda issues common among labor unions.
lesson
The Economics of Risk
In these activities, students will imagine themselves in the role of these women and weigh the risks and potential benefits of their actions. In the process, they will develop an understanding of undocumented workers that goes far deeper than the caricatures that are often part of the debate over policy.