Chelsey Engel Voiceover Demo
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Welcome to Solidarity Works, a podcast from the United Steelworkers union. We're here to have conversations and start conversations about the past, present and future of the labor movement, as well as talk about some of the work the union is doing with us W activists leading the way. Make sure to follow the United Steelworkers Union on Twitter at steel workers and subscribe to our podcast on your favorite streaming service like Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple podcasts and more. I'm Chelsea Angle, proud member of the United Steelworkers and welcome again to Solidarity works at this time. 108 years ago, New England was deep in the battle against the bitter dead of winter. And a group of thousands of workers, mostly immigrant women and girls, was deep inside its own war when that was long overdue. It's been referred to as a few different things throughout history. Lawrence Textiles Drink the strike that shook America and, perhaps most notably, the bread and roses strike whatever you call the powerful turn out of the workers of the Lawrence, Massachusetts Textile Mills in 1912 it was a monumental event that could be seen as one of the first major victories for US labor, forever changing the landscape of the nation. Many, if not most, textile mill workers were immigrants, some as young as 11. 65% of them had been in America for less than 10 years and had traveled from places like Italy, Ireland, Syria and Poland countries they left in search of better working and living conditions. They envisioned arriving to the country. We're having a job was an opportunity to thrive. Get those young workers who labored away in the booming mills of New England, including in Lawrence, suffered conditions they couldn't have imagined. Even back home. Women's hair got caught in machines. They breathe it Inara thick with smoke and lint for 13 hours a day while making starvation wages with barely enough money to feed their families. And more than 1/3 of those who worked in the mills died before they were age 25. But in towns like Lawrence, most residents relied on a single employer or industry for work and had little choice and where or how they made a living. The same can still be said today in many places across the U. S. And Canada on all across the globe. Of the roughly 86,000 people living in Lawrence, 1912 60,000 were directly dependent on the textile mills. For their survival, they had to find a way to at least make their working conditions a little bit better. Unions existed in these towns, but mostly for native born skilled workers. At the time, there were anywhere from 30 to 50 nationalities represented in Lawrence, also known as Immigrants City. Most of labor, unfortunately viewed organizing large groups of immigrants as to greater challenge did to cultural and language differences. The workers themselves or prime for unionizing as money came from countries with vigorous socialist principles and had no issue with protesting, are going on strike. This led to an explosion of worker action during the industrial boom in the early 20th century, as these workers injected their passion into the movement. So I suppose it's actually no surprise that a group of fired up immigrant women and girls took matters into their own hands when they shut off their machines on that snowy January 11th and refused to return to work until they're many wrongs were righted. After all, workers were becoming increasingly agitated as more and more workplace tragedies began hitting the papers, including the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist factory Fire in New York City in 1911. As Megan Day wrote for timeline dot com. Quote. American factories were like tinder boxes for labor conflict. One match and they'd go up in flames. This is the story of the Bread and Roses strike of 1912.