Explore This Section


The School of Management and Labor Relations is pleased to share the following resources and activities in celebration of Women's History Month! 

Scroll down this page to learn more about the following:

  • Film Screening and Conversation - Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones

  • LEARN Lessons Video 

  • HR and Labor Relations Leading Ladies: A Conversation on Women Redefining HR Excellence - Virtual Panel Discussion
  • The Struggle Continues: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Legacy and Worker Activism Today - Panel Discussion
  • "A Third of Your Life" SMLR Podcast Episodes

Film Screening and Conversation -
Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones

Image Tuesday, March 5, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Hybrid Event

Labor Education Center, 50 Labor Center Way, New Brunswick, NJ
Click here to register for guest parking at the Labor Education Center.

Attend Virtually: Click here to log on via Zoom

Join Rutgers LEARN for a film screening and conversation with author and actor Kaiulani Lee on her new film, "Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones." 

Meet and greet to follow the screening!

About Mother Jones

We were never supposed to know her name. She was a poor Irish immigrant who survived famine and war, fire and plague. Unable to save her husband or their four small children, she dedicated her life to saving working families everywhere. The robber barons called her “the most dangerous woman in America,” but workers called her “Mother Jones.”

Upton Sinclair said of her, “she had force, she had wit, she had the fire of indignation; she was the walking wrath of god.” Mother Jones said of herself “I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hellraiser.” Most famously, she told her followers to, “pray for the Dead and fight like hell for the living.” She educated, agitated, and organized the dispossessed and showed America what it could be.

About the Film

Drawn from her autobiography, letters, speeches, and interviews, FIGHT LIKE HELL is as bold and forceful as Mother Jones herself. Adapted from Obie Award-winning Actress Kaiulani Lee’s one-woman play “Can’t Scare Me,” FIGHT LIKE HELL was written and performed by Lee and directed by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ian Cheney.

55 minutes | SDH Captioned

LEARN Lessons Video 

"LEARN Lessons" is a collection of mini-lectures delivered by various experts on topics of importance to unions, labor relations professionals, health and safety advocates, and others working in the field of work and employment. 

In this latest Rutgers LEARN (Labor Education Action Research Network) video, Associate Professor Danielle Phillips-Cunningham presents “From Secret Trade Societies to Clubs: Early Black Women's Labor Organizing Outside of Labor Unions.”

From Secret Trade Societies to Clubs: Early Black Women's Labor Organizing Outside of Labor Unions

After emancipation, most Black women were barred from jobs outside of domestic service and sharecropping. These were the two most unregulated and underpaid occupations in the U.S. economy. Black women could not turn to labor unions to improve their working and living conditions. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries leaders of most major labor unions refused to tackle racial and gender discrimination in the workplace and larger economy. It was not until 1936 when the American Federation of Labor approved a charter for a domestic workers union. “From Secret Trade Societies to Clubs” explores how Black women demanded labor rights before their recognition in labor unions by building their own institutions and organizations from the 1860s to the 1930s.

HR and Labor Relations Leading Ladies: A Conversation on Women Redefining HR Excellence

Image of panelists for March 27 sessionWednesday, March 27, 6:30pm-7:30pm
Virtual Panel on Zoom

Join SMLR Career Services and RU Inclusive for this virtual panel discussion on women in HR and labor relations as we highlight the experiences and different pathways the panelists have taken to succeed in those areas. The group of elite panelists will discuss their current roles and the impact of each of their positions within their organization and on the fields of HR and labor relations.

> Click Here to Register
 

Panelists include:

  • Quadria Tankard, Program Specialist, New Jersey Department of Transportation
  • Brittany Spanos, Executive Director of Community Outreach and Diversity Officer, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System

  • Roxy Mao, AVP, Fixed Income Technology - Front Office Cross Business Analytics & Data Business Intelligence Developer, Jefferies

  • Jennifer Coronato, Senior Program Manager, HealthSTAR Strategic Engagements

The Struggle Continues: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Legacy and Worker Activism Today - Panel Discussion

Friday, March 29*, 12:00pm - 4:30pm
Panel Event
Tendremos traducción simultánea de inglés a español

Labor Education Center, 50 Labor Center Way, New Brunswick, NJ

> Click Here to Register
> Download the Event Flyer

Image of Triangle Shirtwaist memorialJoin us for this event featuring a series of engaging panel discussions including a session with members of the coalition that created the NYC monument paying tribute to the 146 lives lost, mostly women and girls, in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the survivors who lived their legacy going forward. Additional panel topics include using memory and history in our teaching, a conversation with NYU workers who work in the Triangle building today, and representatives from New Labor and other organizations who contributed to efforts paving the way for the passage of the New Jersey Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights in January 2024.

Program Details

Session 1: Honoring the Triangle Memorial Coalition
Mary Anne Trasciatti and Gina Pollara

Session 2: Memory, Art, and Teaching - Reflections on the Legacy
Michele Fazio, Paola Corso, and Naomi R Williams

Session 3: NYU Worker Organizers
Sophia Tintori and invited guests

Session 4: NJ Domestic Workers Coalition Members
Jenifer Garcia and New Labor • National Domestic Workers Alliance • Casa Freehold Wind of the Spirit • Lazos America Unida • Unidad Latina en Acción

 

* Scheduling of this event is due to availability of the primary speakers. 

"A Third of Your Life" SMLR Podcast Episodes 

Image of SMLR podcast

Episode 12: A Ray of Sunshine and Hope

New Jersey recently became the 11th state to enact labor protections for housecleaners, nannies, and other domestic workers. New Labor organizer and SMLR alumna Jenifer Garcia takes you inside the long campaign that made it happen. Assistant Professor Naomi R Williams leads the discussion. Coming Wednesday, March 27th!
 

Also be sure to check out these prior podcast episodes featuring Associate Professor Danielle Phillips-Cunningham:

  • Episode 5: A Tower of Strength 
    Learn about Nannie Helen Burroughs, a visionary Black educator, labor leader, and suffragist who founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909.

  • Episode 10: Quakertown: A Juneteenth Labor and Migration Story, Part 1

  • Episode 11: Quakertown: A Juneteenth Labor and Migration Story, Part 2
    Formerly enslaved Black Americans established their own community in Denton, Texas in the late 1800s. It grew into a socially vibrant, economically prosperous town. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham talks to Alma Clark and Dianne Randolph about their work to preserve the town’s history and legacy. They discuss multiple women who lived and worked in the community, including Angelina Burr, midwife and first property owner in the town, and Mary Ellen Taylor, who refused to leave her house when Quakertown was demolished.

>Visit the "A Third of Your Life" Podcast webpage to access all episodes