Labor history can be pretty hard to find. Key events and places might be marked by a small plaque, at best. But not in Portland, Ore., where a stunning 8-ft. by 32-ft.labor history mural graces the side of the building on the Portland Community College (PCC) campus that houses the offices of the college's two AFT locals.

What started as a project of the PCC Federation of Classified Employees grew to involve the PCC Faculty Federation and a number of other Portland area unions, culminating in a September unveiling of a work entitled "Remember" that depicts 20 key images from Northwest labor history.

"I'm excited about the mural," says Martha Wolf, president of the PCC classified local. As she and Michael Dembrow, president of the faculty federation, point out in an educational booklet that the unions produced to accompany the mural, "Our hope is that viewers will love the mural for its beauty, dynamic use of space and complex structures, but will also be moved to learn more about this history."

The mural project was inspired, in part, says AFT-Oregon president Debbi Covert, by a popular exhibit of AFT-Oregon history produced for the state federation's convention three years ago. "Locals should be making time to get their history recorded so it isn't lost," says Covert, a PCC classified employee who also serves on the AFT's PSRP program and policy council. "So much of our history is taken for granted."

The Portland mural includes a couple of images from the AFT's PCC locals--logos from both the locals (including the classified employees' motto, "We Keep the College Running") and a reproduction of a button the unions produced to rally support for a PCC bond issue. Among the mural's other images of labor struggles and victories: a labor cartoon on women's unpaid work in the home, war resister and workers' rights activist Dr. Marie Equi, social and labor activist Julia Ruuttila, a 1934 dock strike and a 1935 mill workers' strike, Asian fish packers, women welders in wartime shipyards, civil rights marchers and more.

The mural is done on removable panels and was painted by 12 PCC students under the direction of local artist Bill Garnett, a member of the faculty federation. Laura Campos, an artist and historian as well as member of the classified federation staff, was the guiding force from the project's inception. "This project took on a life of its own," Campos says. "This is collaborative art embedded in the community, and that is what union activism is all about."

The booklet the unions produced to accompany the mural includes background on all the images, as well as a bibliography on each one for people who want more information. The locals have been selling the booklets and postcards of the mural to help pay for some of the costs of the project.