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This is your source of information on the activities of the New York Labor History Association, dedicated to making the history of workers, their organizations, and their struggles in New York State a vital and ever-present part of our culture.

Check this site regularly for labor history news, announcements of events, and sources for researching New York State's labor history.

May is labor history month. Click here to consult the 2012 Labor History Month Calendar. It contains exhibitions and events that will be held during May 2012. The Calendar is issued annually, and over 5,000 hard copies are distributed. Since it is often posted or reprinted in union publications, it reaches many more readers.
The New York Labor History Association mourns the loss of our former President, Professor Bernard Bellush, who died on December 30, 2011, at the age of 94. The NYLHA has established a Bernard Bellush Prize to be awarded for a student for a research paper in the fields of labor and work history. The rules for the prize will be established by the Prizes Committee of the NYLHA.

Bernie Bellush was a scholar of labor history, particularly for the book, Union Power and New York: Victor Gotbaum and District Council 37, written with his wife, Professor Jewel Bellush. Bernie was also an activist his entire life. He took a leading role in many organizations, including as first Chairman of the Faculty Senate at City College, CUNY, and with the Americans for Democratic Action. He was a stirring force in the classroom, and his dynamism and concern for students left a lasting impression on those he taught. Bernie was a man who sought leadership, and once in such a position knew how to work with people of all opinions to make things happen. He had strong views, but also had the ability to find a common ground on many issues. He was a unique person, and those of us fortunate enough to have worked with him over the years will always remember his accomplishments and personality. The Bernard Bellush Prize will help memorialize him well into the future.

To learn more about the life and work of Bernie Bellush and his wife, Jewel, See the Guide to the Bellush Papers at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU. For an obituary, see www.dc37.net, Public Employee Press, March 2012, p. 26.
PBS and AOL have launched a video concerning the successful, but very difficult, efforts of Brenda Berkman to integrate into the New York City Fire Department by gender. The video offers a look at the struggle to make highly coveted civil service jobs available to women. It also makes amply clear the costs for pioneers such as Berkman. Access is at http://www.makers.com/brenda-berkman-0..
The Twenty-Fifth Annual John Commerford Labor Education Award Reception took place on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters in New York.

The honorees were Larry Cary, a leading labor lawyer, and Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers. Cary is responsible for leading the start-up of the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University and the naming of May as Labor History Month in New York by then Governor Mario Cuomo. Mulgrew, the fifth president of the UFT has tirelessly worked to secure and enhance the role of labor history and labor studies in academia, in the schools, and in New York City.
The New York Labor History Association sponsored a forum on The Labor Movement and American Wars in the 20th Century in November at the Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education in New York City.

Speakers included NYLHA President and labor historian Irwin Yellowitz on World War I, diplomatic historian Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg on Vietnam, and labor and community activist Reverend David Dyson on Central America. The event was cosponsored by The Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives of New York University, The Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education, and Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society. For more coverage of the forum from the Public Employee Press, DC 37, AFSCME, click here.
The 2011 Barbara Wertheimer Prize for the best paper by an undergraduate student on a topic in labor or work history has been awarded to Neal Joseph Meyer of Harvard University for his essay, "'Yours for the Revolution,' : Left Wing Organizers and the Committee for Industrial Organizations, 1920 - 1927." The Prize carries a cash award of $250.00. An abstract of his paper can be found here.
Joe Doyle and Rachel Bernstein have prepared a virtual exhibit on the Labor Arts website about the conditions for seamen, and the events of 1936, including a key strike, that were critical to the formation of the National Maritime Union (CIO). The images and text show the deplorable conditions in the industry, and how the leaders of the embryonic National Maritime Union challenged the existing unions in the industry, sought to organize seamen, and aimed to make dramatic changes in their lives, including breaking down existing racial barriers. To view the virtual exhibit, go to www.laborarts.org/exhibits/thefallstrike.
Longtime New York Labor History Association Board Member Connie Kopelov and her partner, Phyllis Siegel, had the distinction of being the first couple to be married under the new Marriage Equality Law on July 24th. The ceremony at City Hall brought much publicity their way (see the enclosed article from the Public Employee Press, DC 37, AFSCME).
Kopelov spent her working life as a labor educator, working for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers. She was a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and held several positions in that organization. Her outstanding contributions to the NYLHA including overseeing production of the annual May Labor History Calendar and her walking tours of working women's history in New York City. Connie is now retired and living in New York City. Congratulatory messages can be sent to her c/o the NYLHA, attn: Gail Malmgreen, Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, 70 Washington Square South, 10th Fl., New York, NY 10012.