PNLHA Blog

This conference explored the impacts and lasting influences of this history on contemporary labour.

Read the 20 Year History of Portland Jobs With Justice

Firefighters in Public Life: A Special Culture and its Contributions to Community Affairs – An Oral History Investigation Terry Schrunk served Portland as mayor from 1957 to 1973, a notably long term for a political leader of a major American city. The end stage of his career has interested historians for its run-in with a mafia-hunting Bobby Kennedy. But little has been made of its exceptional origins: Terry Schrunk was a distinctly public man who arrived to politics from the profession of firefighter. What’s really interesting is that this is not the only case of its kind. Oregon would seem in [...]

The Oregon Labor Oral History Program (OLOHP), an affiliate project of the PNLHA and the Oregon Historical Society, preserves the collective history of labor unions and work life of Oregonians. The following audio excerpts illuminate a teenager’s dramatic passage from regular ordinary life, through the unbelievable extremes of war in the Pacific, to the transformation into passionate labor leadership. Mel Schoppert (17 July 1924 – 28 May 2002) worked as an officer of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 for eighteen years and served as as a business representative for eleven. Mel Schoppert: Tape 2, Side 1 October 16, 2001: [...]

This conference explored the impacts and lasting influences of this history on contemporary labour.

More than 20 workshops, presentations, films and displays brought labor history to life.