The North American Labor History Conference (NALHC) has been on hiatus since the 2020 pandemic, but we are coming back this year amid a presidential election campaign to consider questions about the relationship between work and democracy. The year 2024 comes at a crucial juncture for workers and labor organizations in the United States and throughout the world. We have been celebrating anniversaries of democratic movements globally; these movements fight for empowerment and political rights, causes that are embraced by many working-class radicals and labor organizers, both men and women. The rise of nationalist and other authoritarian movements threatens political and economic rights in the United States and internationally.

The working classes, people of color, ethnic minorities, women, and LGBTQ+ people are organizing against voting restrictions while struggling against apathy and fear. As labor scholars, historians, activists, archivists, and union members, we meet to consider the relationship and role of workers, labor unions, and worker organizations in democratic societies, and we discuss the importance of democratic governance in local, institutional, national, and global contexts. Your participation in this conference is an important contribution to that discussion.

Panels at this year’s NALHC will be held in either the historic Reuther Library or the Student Center. A historical exhibit down Reuther Mall on campus will show the way between buildings. Registration is free for all Wayne State students. Students who register for one day are automatically registered for each day of the conference.

CONFERENCE EVENTS, DAY TWO:

THIRD PANEL SESSIONS: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
PANEL 3A: Teacher Unionism, Education, and Labor Politics in the United States
PANEL 3B: The Southwest Detroit Automotive Heritage Guide
PANEL 3C: Transnational Anarchists and the Mexican Revolution

FOURTH PANEL SESSIONS: 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
PANEL 4A: What is “Labor Democracy?”: Perspectives from Party Politics to Unionizing the Shop Floor
PANEL 4B: Farmworkers, Labor Politics, History, and Stewardship
PANEL 4C: Globalization, Deindustrialization, and Labor Politics

LUNCH BREAK AND SECOND PLENARY SESSION: 12:15 PM – 2:15 PM
Panel Discussion: Work, Democracy, and the 2024 Election
Student Center, Hilberry D
Moderator: Mark Gaffney, Board of Governors, Wayne State University
Panelists: Jeannette Bradshaw, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO; Derek Dobies, Michigan AFL-CIO; Andy Levin, Center for American Progress; Nia Winston, UNITE-HERE

FIFTH PANEL SESSIONS: 2:15 PM – 3:45 PM
PANEL 5A: Intersections of Power: Histories of Labor, Energy, and Democracy in Electric Utilities
PANEL 5B: Politics and Labor in Historical Memory
PANEL 5C: Labor in Socialist and Non-Aligned States between Dissent and Participation

SIXTH PANEL SESSIONS: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
PANEL 6A: Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education: A Labor History
PANEL 6B: UAW Organizing in the Shadow of Deindustrialization and the Long 1970s
PANEL 6C: Labor Struggle across Continents: Italy, Australia, and Nicaragua

RECEPTION: 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Reuther Archives, Atrium

BERNIE FIRESTONE LABOR ARTS TRIBUTE: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Reuther Archives, Rare Book Room
Organizer: M. L. Liebler
Guest Artists: Lolita Hernandez, Rev. Robert B. Jones, Jeanne Bryner