The 1930s were a crucial period in shaping the labor movement that exists today. In this activity, students meet three union activists, all women, and have the benefit of their hindsight in looking back at the 1930s.
In the Academy Award-nominated Union Maids, the women’s own lively stories are combined with rare newsreel footage and music of the time. This is a valuable film for students to feel the vitality of labor organizing in the 1930s.
Through the film and activity, students will see some of the conditions that gave rise to the growth of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s; examine the reasons why some people choose to dedicate their lives to organizing other workers; and question why labor unions were so strenuously opposed by some employers and governmental agencies in the 1930s.
Film
Union Maids was directed and produced by James Klein, Miles Mogulescu, and Julia Reichert.
Features the oral histories of three women labor activists involved in the workers’ movements in the early 1930s: Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia Woods.
Nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for best feature documentary, and winner in 1978 of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics’ “Critics Award” for Best Short.
The Power In Our Hands — Available for Download
This is one of the 16 lessons available from The Power In Our Hands. Other lessons available for individual download are:
Opening
Unit I: Basic Understandings
Unit II: Changes in the Workplace/”Scientific Management”
- Paper Airplane Simulation
- Free to Think, Talk, Listen, or Sing
- Modern Times
- “Taylorizing” Burgers: A Fantasy
Unit III: Defeats, Victories, Challenges
Unit IV: Our Own Recent Past
- It’s a Mystery—White Workers Against Black Workers
- Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union: Black and White Unite?
- 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
- Union Maids
Unit V: Continuing Struggle
Order the book online from Monthly Review.
Classroom Story
I’ve been using resources from the Zinn Education Project for years, but pairing the Black Panther Party mixer (What We Don’t Learn About the Black Panther Party — but Should) with the Union Maids activity has transformed how my students understand grassroots solidarity. In Chicago, our history is deeply tied to both of these movements, so bringing them into the classroom is essential.
When we do the Black Panther mixer, my high schoolers are always blown away when they realize the Party wasn’t just about armed self-defense; they see the deep community care, the Free Breakfast Program, and the medical clinics. Then, we connect that to Union Maids, diving into the oral histories of radical women organizing right here in Chicago during the 1930s. The writing activity from the perspective of the union activists helps them see the sheer joy and collective power in the struggle.
Our school recently became a Sustainable Community School, and these two lessons together serve as the ultimate blueprint for my students. They bridge the gap between historical theory and actual community praxis, showing our kids that real change has always been driven by ordinary people looking out for one another.
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