Spurred by the stock market crash in 1929, the Great Depression began the same year and persisted for a decade. When the Depression slipped to its lowest point, roughly 15 million Americans were unemployed and watched as half of the country’s banks failed in what...
During most of the nineteenth century, child labor was extensively utilized. With the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution, use of children in factories exploded. Children were able to operate machinery that did not require strength or skills. They were used to do...
For a movement that considers common interests above the desires of the few, one would struggle to find a single individual that has accomplished more than Samuel Gompers, founder and longest-serving president of one of the largest unions in American history: the...
In all of our country’s history, no single labor strike has engulfed more lives than the Battle of Blair Mountain: the largest labor skirmish ever in the US and one of the bloodiest battles fought on American soil since the Civil War. It began in 1921, as tensions...
Founded by Oliver Kelly in 1867, the Grange began as a fraternal farming organization. Kelly, a Minnesota farmer working in US Bureau of Agriculture, was directed by president Andrew Johnson to survey Southern farmlands devastated by the Civil War. The goal was to...
Working hard to enjoy a better life is a quintessential American value, and it helps to explain why men and women have stood up throughout the nation’s history to demand better wages, safer working conditions, and fair treatment and respect from their employers....
Stephen Koppekin is the founder and CEO of Koppekin Consulting, Inc. An experienced former executive who spent decades overseeing industrial relations and workplace safety for major businesses in the entertainment industry, Stephen started his own independent consulting business shortly after retiring. He uses 43 years of experience in labor and employment, during which time he worked at two major entertainment corporations and in government agency National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to support a diverse client set.
