The book Three Strikes written by Howard Zinn, Dana Frank, and Robin Kelley is a gateway for readers back to the difficulties Americans faced in the early twentieth century. More than that it deals with three specific strikes that took place in American history that most people are unaware of. Mainly miners, musicians, and salesgirls and how they fought the labor battle in these times. The authors capture the drama and grief of the labor clashes that pit corporations against union organizers, chain stores against low-wage sales clerks, and new technologies against displaced workers. Zinn tells the story of the bloody Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado coal miners' strike in 1913-14. Frank writes of the successful seven-day strike by Woolworth salesclerks and waitresses in Detroit, Michigan. And Kelley tells of the events by New York City Theater musicians to organize and unite as the introduction of "talking pictures" in the 1930s threatened their jobs. It also implies how people then and now use unions to fight for equal human rights and touches on the ongoing rights for American workers as well as their future. I will present the reasons for these groups to strike, what their g

The three strikes are very similar each other because they are all a struggle for the working rights of Americans in this time period, and were the first stages towards better work conditions and greater benefits that we have today. I think that all three strikes were justified because the wishes of the strikers were very reasonable and well deserved in order for them to make a decent living. If I put myself in each situation I would have fought too. Whether it was being a coal miner and having all your rights as an American citizen taken or as a girl in Detroit being overworked and underpaid or even as a musician just being laid off and watching your fellow musicians suffer. The strikers in all three should definitely have had collective bargaining rights, because without them the company that they work for has complete control over them. The hours that the men and women work and the wages that they are paid are all dictated by the company if the workers do not have collective bargaining rights. With no collective bargaining rights workers would face a situation much like our world today with sweatshops in underdeveloped countries. As Americans we have made huge steps in the labor battle, but there is still a problem in some labor arenas in our country. These three particular labor battles started the path to a better workplace for all Americans of today and tomorrow.

First I will give a brief summary of the events that lead up to the strikes. Zinn tells the grim tale of the conflict in which at least 66 people died, including women and children who were burned to death in a pit beneath the coal miners' tent colony in southern Colorado. Although Woody Guthrie wrote a song about the tragedy, historians have mostly overlooked it still today. It should be recalled, because embedded in the events of the Colorado strike are issues still alive today. The class struggle between owners of large enterprises and their workers, the relationship between economic power and political power, the role of the press, and the way in which culture censors out certain historical events, which we are not proud of. Frank’s story is about young women in the 1930s, and Woolworth's Five and Dime stores, which was the equivalent of Wal-Mart today. The chain boasted 2,000 stores in five countries; the company exploited its workers and sold products made in sweatshops. Kelley's story is about the struggles of New York musicians getting replaced with technological improvements and America’s change of taste in music in the early1930’s. This relates today with tensions between musicians and consumers about downloading music, and with workers who are losing their jobs to technology.

The strike in Detroit, Michigan at the Woolworth store dealt with pay and benefit increase for the working class women of 1937. The Woolworth store was started by Frank Woolworth and was part of a chain of over 2000 other Woolworth’s Worldwide. The Woolworth’s were known as a five and dime store because you could buy a lot of the items in the store for five

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