History of the Labor Heritage Foundation



In June 1979 longtime union singer, songwriter and educator Joe Glazer invited fourteen labor musicians to a three-day gathering at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, MD. Thus began the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange (GLAE), which continues to be the core engine of our activities.

Over 21 years the GLAE has grown to include many different forms of labor art and culture. In addition to the many rank-and-filers and union staff, participants have included singers Pete Seeger, Hazel Dickens and Bernice Johnson Reagon; artist Ralph Fasanella; cartoonists Gary Huck and Mike Konopacki; muralist Mike Alewitz; photographer Earl Dotter; and poet Chris Llewellyn.

The Labor Heritage Foundation was incorporated in 1984 and hired its first director Laurel Blaydes in 1986. Over the years we have produced two books, five booklets of labor song parodies, one recording (We Just Come to Work Here, We Don’t Come to Die), nine concerts, and three workshop presentations which traveled the country. We have inspired, encouraged, and sent representatives to sixteen regional exchanges, conferences and labor festivals. In 1996 we developed a database of labor artists and prepared a Directory of Cultural Resources to be used by the coordinators of the AFL-CIO’s Union Summer internship program.

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