WorkLore: Changes in the Workplace

The Bumps of Boom and Bust

Brooklyn may be a place like no other, but it still is affected by what goes on elsewhere. It prospers during good times. But when the economy turns downward, jobs can begin to disappear — with the poor and people of color hit hardest.

In the Great Depression of the 1930s, factories closed all across the borough, and thousands were unemployed. During the boom years of the 1990s, however, Brooklyn flourished. New firms and local internet entrepreneurs helped revitalize neighborhoods, attracting more new businesses and nourishing old ones.


			You are listening to Ann Fawcett Ambia and Isaiah Thompson, two former Drake Bakery workers. Isaiah Thompson (far right) worked for Drake Bakeries for 29 years beginning in 1969, soon after emigrating from Jamaica. Ann Fawcett Ambia (next to Isaiah) worked there from 1977 to 1980. To listen to the audo, click on the "play" button on the radio to the left. To play the audio you need to have Flash installed in your computer.

'I left a corporate job to work for an exciting wireless communications company. Suddenly after a year, 70% of the workforce had been laid off. I wanted to do something fun. And as I saw the population swell in Williamsburg, I decided to open a neighborhood hot dog joint, serving great hot dogs and cheese fries made with health conscious ingredients, and named it after my dog, Sparky.'

Brian Benavidez
2002
Courtesy of the New York Times

Brooklyn Battery Tunnel Construction Workers

'My father worked as an elevator operator in the early '30s. I can remember when he announced that he had lost his job. Roosevelt started the alphabet jobs — the WPA, PWA, the CCC. My brothers got jobs, chopping holes in the street, digging trenches, shoveling snow onto trucks anything to get pay. They were very lean years.'

Brooklyn Battery Tunnel Construction Workers
1947
Collection of Brooklyn Public Library – Brooklyn Collection