by Joan Cavanagh, Archivist/ Director, Greater New Haven Labor History Association

“Peter McGuire is often called the father of May Day. Congress had passed an 8-hour law in 1868, but President Chester A. Arthur refused to enforce it, and employers largely ignored it. McGuire concluded that there was only one way for workers to get an effective 8-hour law: [McGuire]: “…an enactment by the workingmen themselves that on a given day eight hours shall constitute a day’s work. And they ought to enforce it themselves.”
— Excerpt from “Voices of Working People’s History,”
by Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

The Greater New Haven Labor History Association will present a dramatic reading of “Voices of Working People’s History,” a 30-minute script about the origins of International Workers’ Day developed by Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 1st on the New Haven Green. The reading will help to kick off the annual celebration of May Day and begin Labor History Month.

The narrators are Tony Rosso and Frank Panzarella, with remaining speaking parts filled by other members of the Association. The “Greater New Haven Labor History Players” will reprise the reading at the Association’s annual membership meeting on Sunday, May 16th from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 267 Chapel Street.

Joe Dimow and Mary Altieri are this year’s recipients of the Augusta Lewis Pass It On Award, given at the annual meeting to individuals or organizations who have contributed to local labor history and/or its preservation. Irm Wessel will present the award to Dimow, a veteran community activist who was a union steward in the United Auto Workers Union in the late 1930s. Anthony Riccio will give the award to Altieri, who was fired from Siegman Tie Company in the early 1930s for refusing to cross a picket line.

Finally, throughout the months of May and June, the Labor History Association’s exhibit, “New Haven’s Garment Workers: An Elm City Story” returns to New Haven from a successful tour around the state. It will be shown at Wachovia Bank, located at the corner of Church and Elm Streets, during the bank’s regular hours of 8:30 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For more information, e-mail info@laborhistory.org, visit www.laborhistory.org, or call (203) 777-2756, Ext. 2.

By Dorothy Johnson, GNH Labor History Association

I can’t count the number of people I have met who lived in the Newhallville area or worked at the former Winchester plant. My father was living in Birmingham, Alabama when plant managers headed to the South in hopes of recruiting potential workers to locate to New Haven, CT. Great numbers of people headed north for a better future for themselves and their families. Some of the workers who migrated to the North stayed at the former YMCA which was then located on Howe Street in walking distance to the plant.

Winchester has such a rich history. I remember when my family lived on Bassett Street and I would walk down to the plant, which at that time had factories on both sides of Winchester Avenue. This historic facility was a city inside a larger city. At noon you could hear the whistle blowing all over New Haven. Those were the good days.

Many positive changes did occur throughout the decades. The Greater New Haven Labor History Association is launching an oral history project for former Winchester workers to share their experiences while employed there. Victory Lodge 609 members stood up and fought back against the company numerous times. It certainly was an active journey the workers experienced. Now is the time you can share your untold story with others. The Winchester Plant may be gone, but the history is alive!

Interviews will kick off in the middle of March 2010. The committee has already contacted some former workers who are eager to tell the story. Please join us in this history event.

For more information about this project, please contact Dorothy Johnson or Lula White, (203) 281-0665, Mary Johnson (203) 387-7858, or e-mail laborhistory@gmail.com.