Latest / Children's Hour / 8.29.26 - Part 2
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Radio Eye's Children's Story Hour. As
- 0:06Speaker 1: a reminder, Radio Eye is a reading service intended for
- 0:10Speaker 1: people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
- 0:14Speaker 1: it difficult to read printed material. Today we are going
- 0:20Speaker 1: to read about a holiday that is celebrated each year
- 0:25Speaker 1: on the first Monday of September and it's called Labor Day.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Your reader today is Patty. So we're going to start
- 0:36Speaker 1: with the book called Let's Celebrate Labor Day. This book
- 0:42Speaker 1: was published by the Kane Press in the year 2015,
- 0:50Speaker 1: and the author is Barbara DeRubertis. From the back cover,
- 0:58Speaker 1: Everyone loves celebrating Labor Day weekend. It's the last hurrah
- 1:06Speaker 1: of summer with parades and picnics and fun. But on
- 1:10Speaker 1: the first Monday of September, we remember the true meaning
- 1:14Speaker 1: of the holiday to celebrate and honor all of the
- 1:19Speaker 1: workers in our American labor force, especially those who fight
- 1:24Speaker 1: for safe workplaces and fair pay. So now we'll begin
- 1:29Speaker 1: the book. Just about the time school begins in the fall,
- 1:38Speaker 1: we celebrate a national holiday called Labor Day. This holiday
- 1:45Speaker 1: always falls on the first Monday of September, giving us
- 1:51Speaker 1: a three-day weekend. Labor Day honors all those who, quote,
- 1:58Speaker 1: labor or do skilled work to earn wages. We celebrate
- 2:04Speaker 1: the important contributions that skilled workers make to the strength
- 2:10Speaker 1: and success of our country. A photograph on this page
- 2:15Speaker 1: shows four workers, and they look like they might be
- 2:20Speaker 1: building something, because there's a construction project in the background.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Two of them are men, and they have hard hats
- 2:27Speaker 1: on their heads. And there's a woman with a safety
- 2:31Speaker 1: vest on. And then another young man who has a
- 2:36Speaker 1: tool belt on. So they're ready for construction work. Because
- 2:44Speaker 1: of the efforts of American workers over the years, we
- 2:49Speaker 1: are one of the most productive countries in the world.
- 2:53Speaker 1: And we have some of the best working conditions, such
- 2:57Speaker 1: as fair pay, fair hours, and safe workplaces. But working
- 3:04Speaker 1: conditions were not always as good as they are today,
- 3:08Speaker 1: and there is still room for improvement. The photograph here
- 3:15Speaker 1: shows a construction worker who is busy putting steel rods
- 3:20Speaker 1: into a wall ready for concrete to be poured. The
- 3:27Speaker 1: first Labor Day was in 1882. Two groups, the Central
- 3:35Speaker 1: Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, wanted to create
- 3:39Speaker 1: a holiday to honor workers and give them a day off.
- 3:44Speaker 1: They also wanted to call attention to the need for
- 3:47Speaker 1: better working conditions. A parade was held in New York
- 3:53Speaker 1: City and thousands of people attended. In 1894, Congress passed
- 4:00Speaker 1: an act making Labor Day a federal holiday. A photograph
- 4:07Speaker 1: appears on this page. It's a black and white photograph
- 4:11Speaker 1: of New York City Street and all these vast number
- 4:17Speaker 1: of people are marching down in the Labor Day parade.
- 4:21Speaker 1: And the caption says, A Labor Day parade in New
- 4:26Speaker 1: York in 1900. When did labor unions form and why?
- 4:38Speaker 1: During the last half of the 1800s, many factories were built,
- 4:45Speaker 1: creating many new jobs. This was called the Industrial Revolution
- 4:53Speaker 1: because the factories, new machines, made producing goods faster and cheaper.
- 5:00Speaker 1: But the working conditions in the factories were terrible. People
- 5:06Speaker 1: worked 14 to 16 hours a day, six days a week.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Men earned about 10 cents an hour, and women earned
- 5:17Speaker 1: half as much. Even children worked, and they were paid
- 5:22Speaker 1: even less than adults. Child labor kept children from attending
- 5:29Speaker 1: school and often ruined their health. So workers began joining
- 5:35Speaker 1: groups together called unions. They felt they would be stronger
- 5:43Speaker 1: acting together than if they tried to solve these problems alone.
- 5:48Speaker 1: On these pages, there are three black and white photographs.
- 5:53Speaker 1: The first one is of boys and girls working in
- 5:56Speaker 1: the spinning room of a cotton mill. Many young children
- 6:02Speaker 1: are gathered around these cotton looms. The other picture is
- 6:09Speaker 1: of a girl working in a textile mill. She looks
- 6:13Speaker 1: very young. And then there's a photograph of boys working
- 6:18Speaker 1: in a glass factory at midnight. Continuing, workers in different trades,
- 6:28Speaker 1: such as carpentry or bricklaying, formed separate unions. Some of
- 6:34Speaker 1: these unions then joined together to form larger, more powerful unions.
- 6:41Speaker 1: The main goals of the unions were better wages, more
- 6:45Speaker 1: reasonable hours, and safer working conditions. And they did not
- 6:50Speaker 1: want children working in dangerous factories. Here we have a
- 6:57Speaker 1: photograph of a Women's Trade Union League float at a
- 7:02Speaker 1: Labor Day parade in New York in 1908. It's again
- 7:07Speaker 1: a black and white photograph of many people marching in
- 7:11Speaker 1: this parade. And there's a float there that has a
- 7:14Speaker 1: banner on the side that says Women's Trade Union League.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Educational reformers were also working to protect children. But it
- 7:26Speaker 1: wasn't until 1938 that an act was passed by Congress
- 7:32Speaker 1: forbidding children under 16 from working in factories and mines.
- 7:39Speaker 1: This act also set the minimum wage, or the lowest
- 7:44Speaker 1: amount of money a worker could be paid for an
- 7:47Speaker 1: hour's work. And for the first time, it set the
- 7:51Speaker 1: maximum number of working hours in a worker's week. A
- 7:57Speaker 1: photograph here, also black and white, is of Catherine Lamrute,
- 8:03Speaker 1: chief of the United States Children's Bureau, and she's arguing
- 8:08Speaker 1: against child labor in 1937. Continuing, what kinds of workers
- 8:19Speaker 1: can join unions? The following workers, and many more, have unions.
- 8:25Speaker 1: Government workers, police, teachers, actors, airline pilots, musicians, postal workers, firefighters,
- 8:35Speaker 1: iron workers, bricklayers, electrical workers, football league players, nurses, taxi drivers, plumbers,
- 8:44Speaker 1: and pipe fitters, utility workers, and riders. The American Federation
- 8:51Speaker 1: of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations called the AFL-CIO
- 9:02Speaker 1: is the largest, quote, umbrella union in the United States.
- 9:07Speaker 1: It has more than 50 member unions that represent over
- 9:12Speaker 1: 12 million workers. A photograph here shows shows members of
- 9:18Speaker 1: the Communication Workers of America Union as part of the
- 9:23Speaker 1: AFL-CIO march in a Puerto Rican Day parade in New York.
- 9:30Speaker 1: There's another photograph of someone holding a sign that says,
- 9:36Speaker 1: Workers' Rights are Human Rights. How do unions help workers?
- 9:44Speaker 1: When it's time for new job contracts, employer and union
- 9:48Speaker 1: representatives often sit down at a table to share their ideas.
- 9:53Speaker 1: This is known as collective bargaining. If they cannot agree
- 9:58Speaker 1: on everything, they bargain. or work out a compromise. Then
- 10:03Speaker 1: the union representatives present the new contract to the union members.
- 10:09Speaker 1: They vote whether to accept or reject it. If they
- 10:13Speaker 1: accept it, everyone signs a new contract describing his or
- 10:17Speaker 1: her job, and its hours, pay, and benefits. But what
- 10:22Speaker 1: happens if workers vote to reject the contract? Sometimes union
- 10:29Speaker 1: and employer representatives go back to the bargaining table again
- 10:33Speaker 1: and again. And eventually, if the union members still aren't satisfied,
- 10:39Speaker 1: they may take more drastic action. Sometimes they stage a
- 10:43Speaker 1: slowdown or a strike. The slowdown means what it sounds like.
- 10:48Speaker 1: The union members protest by working at a much slower pace.
- 10:53Speaker 1: But if they strike, the union members stop working. They
- 10:57Speaker 1: may carry protest signs and march in picket lines outside
- 11:01Speaker 1: the company. Sometimes an employer will break the strike by
- 11:07Speaker 1: hiring new workers to replace the union members. And sometimes
- 11:12Speaker 1: employers and workers finally reach an agreement. and everyone goes
- 11:16Speaker 1: back to work. A photograph here shows teachers on strike
- 11:22Speaker 1: for better schools. And it's many people, most of them
- 11:26Speaker 1: wearing red T-shirts. And they are carrying signs that says,
- 11:32Speaker 1: teachers are heroes or on strike. And they're picketing out
- 11:38Speaker 1: on the streets. When was the Department of Labor created?
- 11:45Speaker 1: Labor leaders worked for many years to persuade Congress to
- 11:50Speaker 1: create a Department of Labor and a Secretary of Labor.
- 11:55Speaker 1: The Secretary would be an important advisor to the President
- 11:59Speaker 1: on labor issues. This finally came to pass in 1913.
- 12:03Speaker 1: The chief purpose of the Department of Labor is to
- 12:09Speaker 1: protect workers. It helps them get fair wages and hours,
- 12:14Speaker 1: retirement plans, health insurance, and safe working conditions. The department
- 12:20Speaker 1: also provides training to help workers find jobs, and it
- 12:25Speaker 1: gives extra help to veterans looking for jobs. There's a
- 12:30Speaker 1: black and white photograph on the page that shows President
- 12:34Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet, and the caption says, President
- 12:39Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson made William B. Wilson the And he's listed
- 12:44Speaker 1: at the bottom right of this poster as the first
- 12:48Speaker 1: Secretary of Labor in 1913. Who was Rosie the Riveter?
- 12:58Speaker 1: A big change happened in the labor workforce after America
- 13:03Speaker 1: entered the Second World War in 1941. Many of the
- 13:09Speaker 1: men working in factories left their jobs behind. to go
- 13:13Speaker 1: fight in the war. But the factory jobs and many
- 13:16Speaker 1: other jobs were an important part of the war effort, too.
- 13:20Speaker 1: So the government began asking women to fill these jobs.
- 13:25Speaker 1: A poster titled, We Can Do It, instantly became popular
- 13:31Speaker 1: in 1942. On this page, there is a color photograph
- 13:36Speaker 1: of this poster. It shows a woman. She has her
- 13:39Speaker 1: hair dyed. tied up in a red bandana. She's wearing
- 13:44Speaker 1: blue coveralls, and she's showing her arm muscles. And above,
- 13:50Speaker 1: it says, we can do it. In 1943, a song
- 13:56Speaker 1: called Rosie the Riveter was released. It celebrated all the
- 14:01Speaker 1: Rosies joining the labor force, and it became wildly popular.
- 14:08Speaker 1: And here are the words of the song that was
- 14:10Speaker 1: written by Red Evans and John Jacob Lee. All the
- 14:15Speaker 1: day long, whether rain or shine, she's a part of
- 14:20Speaker 1: the assembly line. She's making history, working for victory. Rosie
- 14:26Speaker 1: the Riveter. There is a photograph on this page as
- 14:31Speaker 1: well with a caption, A real life Rosie the Riveter.
- 14:36Speaker 1: working on an A-31 Vengeance dive bomber aircraft in 1943.
- 14:43Speaker 1: And it shows a woman who looks very much like
- 14:47Speaker 1: this Rosie the Riveter poster, holding a tool where she's
- 14:52Speaker 1: working on the side of an aircraft. Women answered the
- 14:59Speaker 1: call for help. the number of working American women increased
- 15:03Speaker 1: from 12 million to 20 million between 1940 and 1944.
- 15:10Speaker 1: After the war ended, some women left their jobs and
- 15:14Speaker 1: returned to being homemakers, but many remained in the workforce.
- 15:20Speaker 1: From that time on, women have been a large part
- 15:24Speaker 1: of the American labor force. There are several pictures, photographs
- 15:30Speaker 1: on this page. One shows another defense worker riveting as
- 15:34Speaker 1: part of her training to become a mechanic at a
- 15:38Speaker 1: naval air base in 1942. And then there's another photograph
- 15:44Speaker 1: of a woman who is obviously in a science lab.
- 15:49Speaker 1: And then there's another one of a construction worker. This
- 15:52Speaker 1: woman wears a hard hat. Who was George Meany? George
- 16:01Speaker 1: Meany was a hardworking leader of the American labor movement.
- 16:05Speaker 1: He believed in always doing the right thing and had
- 16:09Speaker 1: no tolerance for dishonesty. Meany had begun his working life
- 16:14Speaker 1: as a plumber. After working with several labor groups through
- 16:18Speaker 1: the years, he was elected president of the American Federation
- 16:23Speaker 1: of Labor, the AFL, in 1952. The other large umbrella
- 16:30Speaker 1: union at that time was the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
- 16:34Speaker 1: the CIO. In 1955, the two groups merged and Meany
- 16:40Speaker 1: was elected the first president of the combined AFL-CIO. He
- 16:47Speaker 1: served as its president for 24 years. George Meany supported
- 16:53Speaker 1: other causes besides the protection of labor's interests. including the
- 16:57Speaker 1: rights of women and minority, and he supported programs for
- 17:02Speaker 1: health care, like that for retired workers. On this page,
- 17:08Speaker 1: there is a black and white photograph of George Meany.
- 17:12Speaker 1: There's also a picture of a postage stamp honoring George
- 17:16Speaker 1: Meany that was issued in 1994. There's a black and
- 17:22Speaker 1: white photograph of President Gerald Ford, meeting with George Meany
- 17:28Speaker 1: in the White House. What are some of the ways
- 17:33Speaker 1: we celebrate Labor Day? Parades march through many towns and cities.
- 17:39Speaker 1: People attend festivals and fireworks displays, and speeches honoring American
- 17:46Speaker 1: workers are given. Sporting events are held, including football games,
- 17:53Speaker 1: auto races, and tennis tournaments. Here on this page, there's
- 17:59Speaker 1: a photograph of another parade in New York City, and
- 18:04Speaker 1: there are three men wearing bright orange safety vests, and
- 18:10Speaker 1: they're carrying a banner that says, One City, Five Boroughs,
- 18:15Speaker 1: All Workers. And it's from the 2014 New York City
- 18:20Speaker 1: Labor Day Parade. Continuing. Families sometimes gather for picnics, cookouts,
- 18:29Speaker 1: camping trips, and weekend getaways. And many people go swimming
- 18:35Speaker 1: before the pools and beaches close for the winter. Labor
- 18:40Speaker 1: Day is the last hurrah of summer. Here's some photographs
- 18:46Speaker 1: show a large family gathered around a picnic table. And
- 18:50Speaker 1: there's a grill there where they're grilling hamburgers and hot dogs,
- 18:55Speaker 1: ready to sit down and eat their picnic. There's also
- 18:58Speaker 1: a photograph of a young boy at the beach, and
- 19:02Speaker 1: he has placed some American flags in the sand. You
- 19:06Speaker 1: can see the ocean behind him. Do some workers have
- 19:11Speaker 1: to work on Labor Day, the holiday for workers? Yes.
- 19:18Speaker 1: Many workers spend the holiday working. Some stores offer special sales,
- 19:24Speaker 1: which means store employees, a large part of the labor force,
- 19:28Speaker 1: have to work on this holiday. The photographs here show
- 19:34Speaker 1: people in various store settings selling across the counter. There's
- 19:41Speaker 1: a grocery store and a hardware store, and these workers
- 19:45Speaker 1: are selling special sale items on Labor Day. Other workers,
- 19:51Speaker 1: such as restaurant employees, transportation employees, and essential employees like nurses, police,
- 20:00Speaker 1: and firefighters, also must go to work on Labor Day.
- 20:05Speaker 1: The photograph here is of firefighters standing next to their
- 20:09Speaker 1: fire truck. and a police officer and his working police
- 20:14Speaker 1: dog on the streets working as well. Many fine examples
- 20:21Speaker 1: of public art reflect our respect for working women and men.
- 20:28Speaker 1: A hammering man sculpture stands outside the Seattle Art Museum.
- 20:35Speaker 1: The hammering arm works moving up and down. every day
- 20:41Speaker 1: of the year except one. On Labor Day, it rests.
- 20:46Speaker 1: And there is a photograph of the sculpture of the
- 20:49Speaker 1: Hammering Man outside the Seattle Art Museum. Another Hammering Man
- 20:57Speaker 1: sculptures stand in various cities around the world. The sculptures
- 21:03Speaker 1: were created to honor all workers everywhere. These sculptures and
- 21:10Speaker 1: many others remind us that all work is honorable and important.
- 21:16Speaker 1: There's a photograph of a sculpture called the Garment Worker
- 21:20Speaker 1: in New York, and it shows a person sitting at
- 21:25Speaker 1: a sewing machine. Here's a photograph of a statue that
- 21:30Speaker 1: is dedicated to railroad workers in Flagstaff, Arizona, and it
- 21:36Speaker 1: shows the man swinging a pickup as he builds the railroad.
- 21:45Speaker 1: Not every worker belongs to a union, but every worker
- 21:50Speaker 1: is important, and we celebrate all of them on Labor Day.
- 21:56Speaker 1: There are many photographs on this page. We see two
- 21:59Speaker 1: chefs who are working in a restaurant kitchen. We see
- 22:05Speaker 1: some construction workers and architects looking at blueprints, and all
- 22:10Speaker 1: of them are wearing hard hats. There's a photograph of
- 22:14Speaker 1: a doctor who's examining a small child in the doctor's office.
- 22:20Speaker 1: There's a photograph of a woman answering a telephone, and
- 22:24Speaker 1: a photograph of a young person who is singing in
- 22:27Speaker 1: a recording studio. For kids, the most important job is school.
- 22:37Speaker 1: Doing a good job in school is the best way
- 22:40Speaker 1: to prepare for doing a good job as an adult.
- 22:44Speaker 1: And it's the best way to contribute to our country's
- 22:49Speaker 1: future success. And here is a quote to end our
- 22:54Speaker 1: book from the Secretary of Labor, Thomas Edward Perez. The
- 23:01Speaker 1: basic bargain of America is that no matter who you are,
- 23:06Speaker 1: where you come from, or what you look like. If
- 23:09Speaker 1: you work hard and play by the rules, you can
- 23:13Speaker 1: make it. Well, that book said that the most important
- 23:19Speaker 1: thing for kids was to do well in school. So
- 23:23Speaker 1: now we'll read another book about school. The title of
- 23:28Speaker 1: this book is Fall is for School. The author is
- 23:33Speaker 1: Robert Neubecker. And it was published by Disney Hyperion in 2017.
- 23:41Speaker 1: From the inside front cover. Fall is time for turning leaves,
- 23:47Speaker 1: new friends, counting stars, and telling stories. Fall is time
- 23:53Speaker 1: for school. Now this story is about a young girl
- 23:59Speaker 1: and her slightly older brother. The young girl you will
- 24:04Speaker 1: hear in this story is very anxious to go to school.
- 24:08Speaker 1: Maybe the older brother not quite so anxious. So let's
- 24:12Speaker 1: read this story. The young girl says, Fall is time
- 24:17Speaker 1: for school! And the young boy says, That really is uncool.
- 24:27Speaker 1: Fall is here! It's time for school! The summer's in
- 24:29Speaker 1: the past! But her brother says, I'm staying here. I
- 24:36Speaker 1: will not go. Vacation went too fast. But fall is
- 24:42Speaker 1: time for turning leaves. The weather's growing cool. Fall is here.
- 24:47Speaker 1: Come on with me. It's time to go to school.
- 24:49Speaker 1: And the boy says, school is really not my thing.
- 24:55Speaker 1: You go on alone. I'll be fine all by myself
- 24:59Speaker 1: sitting here at home. Oh, come on, let's go. Meet
- 25:04Speaker 1: your teacher. You're going to look so nice. Tuck in
- 25:08Speaker 1: your shirt and tie your shoes. You must take my advice. Teacher, teacher. Oh, sister, no.
- 25:18Speaker 1: I do not think that I can go. The illustration
- 25:23Speaker 1: here shows the young girl pulling her brother down the
- 25:27Speaker 1: steps of their house. In school, we'll learn of Romans
- 25:33Speaker 1: who really were no dummies, and the pyramids in Egypt
- 25:37Speaker 1: all filled up with mummies. Dinosaurs and carnivores, mighty Tyrannosaurus,
- 25:46Speaker 1: giant tigers, woolly mammoth, really were enormous. I am going
- 25:56Speaker 1: to play all day. It doesn't matter what you say.
- 26:00Speaker 1: And the girl says, recess is for playing games. We'll
- 26:06Speaker 1: run and climb and jump and climb some more. Let's
- 26:10Speaker 1: go right now and join the fun. You really must
- 26:14Speaker 1: not whine. Whine, said the boy. Do your numbers. One, two, three. Add,
- 26:24Speaker 1: subtract and multiply. A million, trillion, my oh my, count
- 26:28Speaker 1: the stars up in the sky. I do not like arithmetic.
- 26:32Speaker 1: It hurts my eyes. It makes me sick. I will
- 26:35Speaker 1: not go. I do not care. I have not, I
- 26:38Speaker 1: have heard enough. To tell the truth, I'm not like you.
- 26:42Speaker 1: School is just too tough. Rocket ships that fly to Mars. Music, sports,
- 26:50Speaker 1: and art. These are all the things you love. I
- 26:53Speaker 1: think you're very smart. We will learn to read and
- 26:58Speaker 1: write the stories we will tell. And if you want
- 27:00Speaker 1: to do it right, you have to learn to spell.
- 27:03Speaker 1: Fall is time for parties, for spooky Halloween. We'll dress
- 27:08Speaker 1: up just like zombies and paint our faces green. In science,
- 27:12Speaker 1: we will never stop until we ace the pumpkin drop.
- 27:16Speaker 1: And the boy said, pumpkin drop? Pumpkin drop. We pad
- 27:22Speaker 1: them up and drop them. It's really engineering. If your
- 27:25Speaker 1: pumpkin doesn't smash, The teacher will be cheering. And the
- 27:30Speaker 1: boy asks, Is that something I can do and everyone
- 27:33Speaker 1: is going? Staying home after day after day was getting
- 27:38Speaker 1: kind of boring. Fall is time for school. We'll learn
- 27:44Speaker 1: and we'll be clever. A great big world will open
- 27:47Speaker 1: up and change our lives forever. The boy says, Well,
- 27:52Speaker 1: maybe school will be all right. I might just reconsider.
- 27:57Speaker 1: Maybe you are not so dumb for my baby sister.
- 28:00Speaker 1: Fall is time for school. School is full of awesome.
- 28:05Speaker 1: The world is mighty cool. It's an amazing universe. Fall
- 28:11Speaker 1: is time for school. Well, this concludes the Children's Story
- 28:17Speaker 1: Hour for today. Please join us next time as we'll
- 28:21Speaker 1: read more stories or fables and fairy tales. Thank you
- 28:25Speaker 1: for listening. And please stay tuned for continued programming on
- 28:30Speaker 1: Radio Eye.