Built by Workers, Remembered by Workers
On Labor History Today: An automobile museum full of cars—but where are the workers who built them? Retired autoworker and union leader Mark Strolle helped answer that question with “Assembled in Lansing,” a new permanent exhibit at Michigan’s R.E. Olds Transportation Museum.
In this conversation with Chris Garlock, a shorter version of which originally aired on the Labor Heritage Power Hour, Strolle traces Lansing’s labor history through sit-down strikes, the successful one-day Lansing Labor Holiday, and the union contracts that helped generations of workers buy homes, send their children to college and retire with dignity.
He also shares his own experiences from 16 years on the assembly line: the physical toll, the unpredictable layoffs and the union community that helped workers weather both. And he connects that history to today’s challenges, from deindustrialization to AI and automation.
Plus, Rick Smith remembers Woody Guthrie, the Dust Bowl troubadour whose songs spoke to working people’s struggles.
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Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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