Eva McDonald Valesh was a journalist and labor rights activist in late 1880s Minneapolis. Hear what she has to say about her work in this video.

The first women flour packers at Washburn-Crosby Company in Minneapolis. From “Pictures Revive First Girls' Crew," Eventually News 1, no. 11 (January 7, 1920), 2.

Flour mill employees march in a Labor Day parade in Minneapolis, September 5, 1904.

The flour-packing floor of Pillsbury-Washburn Company in Minneapolis, ca. 1890.

John M. Finley, president of the International Union of Flour and Cereal Employees (here called the International Association of Union Flour Workers). Published in the Minneapolis Tribune on October 11, 1903, with the article “Finley’s Resignation is Accepted by the Board” (page 7). Accessed through an institutional subscription to ProQuest historical newspapers at the Minnesota History Center.

Headline of an article on the flour milling strike of 1903 published on the front page of the Minneapolis Tribune on September 24, 1903. Accessed through an institutional subscription to ProQuest historical newspapers at the Minnesota History Center.

In the summer of 1985, hundreds of workers walked off their jobs at a Hormel food packing plant in Austin, Minnesota, when the company cut workers' hourly wage and benefits. As producer Sam Radwany reports in this MN90 segment, the strike tested the union’s limits, and put the community on a national stage.

Employees of George A. Hormel and Company, 1896. Used with the permission of Hormel Foods.

Crew at Biesanz quarry in Winona, ca. 1900. These workers drilled the stone used in the foundation of the Minnesota State Capitol.