Looking for something that covers post-Industrial Revolution labor as well as a less intensive overview of labor pre IR. Thanks so much for the suggestions!
The book, Strike! by Jeremy Brecher is one of my favorite books on the American Labor Movement. It is limited in that is really only a chronology of stirkes and union actions starting in the mid 19th century to roughly WWII. It also is exclusively about American labor, ignoring the large German and European labor movement despite many of the American labor unions large immigrant bases.
With those exceptions in mind, it is immensely readable, covers a long time span, and provided the richest view of both the universality of the struggle on a national level as well as the tactical evolution of unions in strike activities. I particularly loved the areas focusing on strikes during wartime, and the few but inspiring instances of general strikes.
Sounds like someone has a paper due.