Blue-Collar Portraits 1972-2003
Blue-Collar
A worker engaged in manual work, who by tradition wore blue overalls to a job in a factory. Blue-collar workers can be unskilled, semi-skilled, or skilled but they have in common their experience of working with their hands in an industrial enterprise. Blue-collar workers once formed the core of the traditional working class,
but they have declined sharply as a percentage of the workforce as a result of the shift towards service-based employment.
Oxford Reference
Previous images
Cover: Ford River Rouge Steel Plant. Dearborn, Michigan. 1976
Double: Victory photo United Mineworkers Local 1974. Harlan County, Kentucky. 1974
Left: Auto tire shop, Arcata, California. 1972
Right: McDonald-Douglas. Long Beach, California. 1985
Right: Woman on the UAW picket line in Connecticut. 1980
Next 4 images
Double:
Service Advisor, dealership service center organized by the UAW. Manhattan, New York. 1982
Double:
Mechanic, dealership service center organized by the UAW. Manhattan, New York. 1982
Double: Clothing worker, member of ACTWU, making men’s clothing in Virginia.
1983
Left: Laundry Worker, ACTWU member, Manhattan, NYC. 1981
Next 6 images
Left:
Clothing worker, New York City. 1986
Right:
Pattern cutter, ACTWU, Manhattan, NYC. 1980
Left:
Coal miner, Harlan County, Kentucky. 1974
Right:
Worker in an orange juice plant. Southern California. 2001
Left:
Steelworker, member United Steelworkers. Youngstown, Ohio 1976
Right:
Apprentice insulation worker, San Francisco, California. 2002
Next 6 images
Left:
Server, member of HERE, downtown San Francisco 1984
Right:
Moly miner, Leadville, Colorado. 1984
Left and Right:
Union members on a solidarity march. Manhattan, NYC 1982
Left:
Clothing worker, downtown Los Angeles, California 2001
Right: Striking copper miner. Morenci, Arizona . 1983
Next 3 images
Double:
An information officer on the left and a janitor on the right at Grand Central Station in New York City. 2005
Double:
Three strikers, members of the United Steelworkers and the Machinists on the picket line at the Morenci, Arizona copper mine 1985
Left:
Coal miner, UMWA member, outside of Price, Utah. 1984
Next 4 images
Left:
Clothing workers, ACTWU members, at a Chinatown clothing factory, New York City. 1982
Right: Warehouse worker, UAW member, Queens, New New New York. 1981
Double:
Machine shop workers in the California central valley. 2001
Right: Roofers at a residential home. Los Angeles, California. 2001
Next 6 images
Left:
Retired textile workers who may have worked as children, taking part in the 1912 Lawrence Textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1979
Right:
Stockroom worker, clothing and textile factory. New York City 1986
Left: Farmworker. The picked grapes are laid out on the ground to dry into raisins. Fresno, California. 1999
Right:
Two farmworkers harvesting pomegranates. Pomegranates are grown in Fresno, Tulare, Kern and Kings, California. 1999
Left:
Apprentice backer at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. San Francisco, California. 1999
Right:
Two doorkeepers, the Palace Hotel. San Francisco, California. 1999
Next 6 images
Double: Striking coal miner and son. At home in Everts, Kentucky. 1974
Double:
Machine shop worker. Youngstown, Ohio. 1976
Right: Powder coat sprayer. Sacramento area, California. 2000
Left:
Worker, UAW member, in a small fab plant in Connecticut. 1982
Left and Right: Autoworkers, members of the UAW, on the assembly line in Detroit, Michigan. 1982
Next 7 images
Double:
Potash miner, the Carlsbad Basin area, New Mexico. 1985
Double: Retired UMWA coal miner and Black Lung victim in his bedroom. Coxton, Kentucky 1974
Left:
Lumper, Port of Long Beach. California. 2000
Right:
Apprentice chef in a hotel kitchen. San Francisco, California. 2000
Double: Apprentice chef in a hotel kitchen. San Francisco, California. 2000
Left:
Garment worker. Chinatown, New York City. 1983
Right:
Chinese garment workers, members of the ILGWU, on strike. Chinatown, New York City 1982
Next 6 images
Left:
Two workers, members of the UAW, in Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge steel plant. Dearborn, Michigan. 1983
Right: Apprentice pipe fitter. San Francisco bay area, California. 2001
Left:
Three coworkers on the shop floor, someplace in the Midwest United States. 1985
Right: Warehouse workers. New York state. 1988
Left: Logger near Bozeman, Montana. 1987
Right: Garment worker. New York City. 1986
Next 6 images
Double: Dyer. New York City 1981
Double:
One of the last “Rosie the Riveter” with a photo of herself on the job in the Richmond Shipyard. Richmond, California. 2001
Left:
Presser in a New York Chinatown garment shop. 1983
Right:
Bridge Painter, Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco, California 1983
Left:
Server, member of Hotel and Restaurant Workers Local at Julius Castle. San Francisco, California. 1984
Right:
Gardener, member SEIU LU32B&J, at the World Trade Center. 1983
Next 6 images
Double:
In the Imperial Valley fields harvesting broccolini near Calexico, California 2001
Left:
Security guard, member SEIU
LU32B&J. World Trade Center, NYC 1983
Right:
Copper miner in Lone Star Mining District northeast of Safford, Arizona. 1985
Double:
Coal miners, UMWA members, in a mine near Price, Utah 1984
Left:
Construction workers. Los Angeles, California 2000
Right:
Striking paper workers at the Androscoggin Mill in Maine. 1988
Next 5 images
Left:
Strike Greyhound worker with his son at a rally for striking workers in Long Beach, California. 1983
Right:
Striking paper workers at the Androscoggin Mill in Maine. 1988
Double:
Farmworker family leaving in a garage in Salinas, California. 1997
Left:
Ca battery plant worker in Stockton, California 1984
Right:
Hospital worker. Bay area of California. 1988
Next 6 images
Left:
Striking copper miner. Morenci, Arizona. 1985
Right:
Striking Hormel meatpacking worker with scare from an industrial accident. Austin, Minnesota 1985
Double:
Migrant farmworker in company barracks. Near Avenal, California. 1988
Left:
Auto parts worker. Near Fremont, California. 2003
Right:
Worker in a commercial laundry. New York City 1983
Double:
Farmworker getting ready for the fields. Near Calexico, California. 2003
Next 6 images
Double:
Painters at the NUMI auto plant (now Tesla). Fremont, California 2000
Left:
Clothing worker in NYC. 1986
Right: Canary worker at lunch. Rockland, Maine. 1986
Left:
Workers at a small Southern California fab plant. 2001
Right:
Defense industry workers. San Diego, California. 1983
Double:
NUMI (now Tesla) assembly line worker. Fremont, California. 2003
Next 5 images
Double:
Ironworker apprentice on the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge section to span the Carquinez Strait at Crockett, California. Zampa was a legendary ironworker and union president.
2003
Left and Right:
Janitors on the job in down Oakland, California. Both were part of the SEIU’s “Justice For Janitors” campaign.
Right:
Pastry chef at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. San Francisco, California. 1999
Left:
Autoworker after punching the time clock at the end of shift. Detroit, Michigan. 1982
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