Using interviews, personal accounts, and archival footage, this program investigates the major events in the history of American trade unions, from the formation of the first “friendly societies” in the 18th century, to the challenges posed by new technologies in the 1980s and ’90s. Important issues such as minimum wages, health and safety conditions, discrimination, benefits, job security, and strikes are addressed. Veterans of labor struggles, labor historians, and business and government officials reveal fascinating personal insights into labor’s sometimes violent origins and how its influences have changed the workplace over the past 200 years.