A beautifully simple picture book biography of a union advocate and martyr. Fannie Sellins stood up against a government that valued profit over people, and her story is as important now as it was 100 years ago. ( )

The incredible story of Fannie Sellins, a labor activist who traveled the United States advocating for better working conditions, living conditions, and wages for employees in the garment and mining indus - try. She sacrificed her life working to achieve the American ideals of equality and justice for all. Author’s Note, Glossary, Timeline, Sources, Websites and Books for further in formation, Index.

Fannie Never Flinched is the true and tragic life story of early labor leader, Fannie Sellins, but it is also the heartbreaking story of tens of thousands of laborers in the United States. Fannie first became interested in the rights of American workers when she was forced to work in a garment factory sweatshop after the death of her husband. Working conditions in the late 1800s were harsh—long hours, dangerous conditions, and extremely low pay.

In 1902, Fannie launched Ladies' Local 67 of the United Garment Workers of America, eventually earning a shorter work day and increased wages for the new union. Seeing that other Americans were suffering as well, Fannie became an outspoken labor leader. She traveled the country supporting other unions, including coal miners working under horrific and deadly conditions in Missouri, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Although her activism ended in her murder by sheriff's deputies in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, her legacy lives on.

Fannie Never Flinched is a treasure-trove of annotated images and photos chronicling the American labor struggle. At one point, Fannie was briefly jailed. Readers can see one of the many postcards sent to President Wilson to petition for her release. In telling her story, the author uses Fannie's words whenever possible,

"'Help us fight,' she told union coal miners during a speech in Illinois in November 1909. 'We women work in factories on dangerous machinery, and many of us get horribly injured or killed. Many of your brothers die in the mines. There should be a bond of sympathy between us, for we both encounter danger in our daily work.'

The miners stomped their feet and shouted their agreement. Some were so moved by Fannie's speech, they wiped tears from their eyes."

The struggle for American labor rights is a story of individuals striving for fair wages and safe workplaces, realizing that there is strength in numbers. Fannie Never Flinched is a well-researched, compelling story of the individual human sacrifices that were made for the common good, in order to provide future generations with things that we now take for granted—weekends, lunch breaks, the 8-hour-day, safety regulations, and vacations. There will always be friction between employers and workers. The struggle continues today.

The book's end matter includes an Author's Note, Glossary, Time Line of Select Events in the American Labor Struggle 1877-1935, Notes, Sources, Websites for More Information, Books for Further Reading, Acknowledgments, and Index.

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This book, subtitled “One Woman’s Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights” tells the story of labor activist Fannie Sellins.

Fannie Sellins was born Fanny Mooney in 1872. She married Charles Sellins, and after his relatively early death (when her youngest was just a baby) she had to support her four children. She went to work in a garment factory, one of the two sweatshops owned by the Marx & Haas Clothing Company. Girls as young as ten as well as grandmothers toiled there together, working ten- to fourteen-hour days, six days a week. Their pay averaged less than five dollars a week ($145 a week in today’s dollars). The building was stifling in summer, freezing in winter, and locked all day from the outside; this was a common practice in factories to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft. [This same observance led to the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York, in 1911, in which 146 garment workers died.]

Fannie heard about the garment workers unions in Chicago and New York, and together with some other seamstresses organized Ladies’ Local 67 of the United Garment Workers of America in St. Louis. Fearing a strike, Marx & Haas nearly doubled workers’ wages and shortened the workday, but they did not improve conditions otherwise.

The air was filthy, and many of the employees contracted tuberculosis. When one tailor couldn’t make it up the six flights of stairs because of his illness, he was docked a week’s pay. To protest, Fannie and other union workers went on strike.

One month into the dispute, the local union leader died of tuberculosis, and Fannie became the new president. She traveled from city to city, speaking up to six times a day to all kinds of labor unions about the poor conditions at her factory and at other labor sites. She asked for support for the strikers. She also asked her audiences to buy only clothes with the “union-made” label inside them.

The book details the poor working conditions not only in the garment industry, but in the other places of work to which Fannie visited. Fannie was particularly affected by the West Virginia coal miners, who lived in abject poverty. Boys started in the mine as early as age six. The families lived in hovels with minimal food to eat and even without running water.

Fannie helped the miners of Colliers, West Virginia raise funds for a strike. Mine managers promptly evicted families from their houses - they now had to live in tents - and hauled in trainloads of strikebreakers. Fannie was arrested, although the first time, the judge released her with just a warning. Later she spent three months behind bars, during which time her health suffered greatly.

She moved on to help the coal miners in Western Pennsylvania organize, convincing thousands of miners to join the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and eventually to go on strike. The millionaire Lewis Hicks who ran fourteen notoriously bad mines went to the South to find strikebreakers, bringing up black sharecroppers by train. Hicks never told them they would be strikebreakers, or that they would be in danger because of it, just that they would be getting better wages. Hicks had the train doors locked from the outside [a favorite practice, it seems] so that union workers couldn’t get to the men.

When the train came to the mines, Fannie ran alongside it, yelling to the men inside through the windows not to break the strike and to support the union. She encouraged the men to climb out the train windows and join them. But the impasse was not broken until America entered World War I on April 6, 1917. The U.S. made a wage deal with coal mine operators to keep the mines working, and Hicks agreed to give workers a 50 percent pay raise, at least until the war ended.

Once again after the war, the UMWA initiated strikes. In August, 1919, Fannie was assigned to the Allegheny River Valley district to direct picketing by striking miners at Allegheny Coal and Coke Company. She was killed by sheriff’s deputies on August 26 who claimed that she led a “charging mob of men and women armed with clubs and bricks,” which was not true; in fact, Fannie rejected the idea that miners arm themselves for protection. Although there were a number of witnesses who gave sworn statements that the attack by the deputies was unprovoked, the local sheriff’s department refused to arrest them. When the case was reopened in 1923, again the deputies were acquitted. The author speculates that fears of communism - growing since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, colored the attitudes of the juries.

As the author writes:

“Today, both Fannie Sellins’s death and her passion for the welfare and rights of working people have been largely forgotten. But her name remains hallowed among union people in Western Pennsylvania, and her spirit lives on whenever someone stands up for the American ideals of equality and justice for all.”

At the end of the book, there is a glossary (words such as arbitration, lockout, and sweatshop), a detailed timeline of select events in the American labor struggle from 1877-1935, notes, sources, and a list of websites and books for further information.

This book for young readers is not a picture book, although the format is similar. Rather, it tells the story of Fannie Sellins with a great many photographs and reproductions of relevant documents.

Evaluation: This thoroughly researched book for ages nine and over includes an excellent selection of historical photos that brings the story to life in a way words could not, especially the depictions of poverty among mine workers. The story of Fannie Sellins’ belief in justice and personal sacrifices against the tenacious greed of factory owners is a lesson we still can learn today. ( )

This was a powerful look at a tumultuous time in history and the women and others who fought for rights for American labor.

Readers used to toned down biographies and nonfiction will get a startling wake-up call as the story begins with the murder of the main character, Fannie Sellins. After the stunning opening, Farrell explains the history, context, and as much as is known about the life of Fannie Sellins.

Little is known about her early life, marriage and widowhood, but eventually she went to work in a sweatshop, manufacturing clothing. With the other seamstresses they formed a Ladies' Local of the United Garment Workers of America and negotiated with the management to win better pay and shorter hours (although the dismal conditions of the sweatshops changed little). Sellins eventually came to work for the union full-time and began to travel, uniting workers, standing up for the rights of women and children, and garnering support for factory workers. Eventually, she came to the dangerous work of the coal mines of West Virginia. With workers in virtual slavery and government-backed mine owners, Fannie could have given up and gone back to her successes in the garment industry. However, she stayed and fought, supporting coal miners and their families. She was arrested, jailed, beaten, and eventually murdered. The sheriff's deputies who shot Fannie Sellins, despite numerous eyewitnesses, were never convicted.

The book is filled with original documents and photos that show the grim conditions and the powerful organizations that Fannie Sellins faced. The author's note discusses more about the struggle for labor unions and whether or not Sellins made a difference. It also discusses her research and the gaps in the information about Fannie's life. Back matter includes an extensive glossary, time line of labor strikes and their results, notes and sources. There are also further resources for learning more about unions, acknowledgements, and an index.

Verdict: Some reviewers recommend this for as young as fourth grade but for my audience it's going to land squarely in middle school up to teen, along with Farrell's other powerful work about women in history, Pure Grit. The story is dramatic but never exaggerates or is needlessly graphic. Readers may be shocked and horrified but will also be inspired to think about the changes they can make in their own families, communities and the world. Strongly recommended for teen nonfiction collections.


ISBN: 9781419718847; Published 2016 by Abrams; Review copy provided by the publisher and donated to the library