Historian Hy Berman, who died Sunday at age 90, is being remembered for his knowledge of the state’s labor movement and his commentaries on public policy, both past and present.

In a video produced in 2013 by the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service, Berman recalls his move to Minnesota in 1961 and research he conducted with miners on the Iron Range. (Note: Berman’s comments follow introductory remarks by interviewer Victor Bloomfield for the video, titled “Reflections on the History and Future of the University of Minnesota Senate - Part One).

“We've lost one of our favorite storytellers who touched the lives of so many students. We'll miss you, Hy Berman,” the University’s College of Liberal Arts, where Berman taught, said Monday via Twitter.

Over the decades, he was frequently sought out by the media to comment on Minnesota history and politics and events such as the landmark 1934 Minneapolis truckers’ strike.

In 2003, Berman spoke on the future of the labor movement at a program in the “Untold Stories” series organized by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library and the Labor Education Service.

“The excesses of the Republican right, the libertarian neo-conservatives, will cause a reaction,” he predicted. But, he said, restoring the importance of workers’ right to organize, of collective bargaining and of other justice issues “requires a conscious effort by those who believe in community, who believe in solidarity.”

Labor unions, Berman said, have to demonstrate their ability to fight back. “My students feel the labor movement has not fulfilled the function it had. They feel it is unable to solve the needs of new workers coming into the workforce.”

Although he retired in 2004, Berman continued to speak out regularly at conferences and community events.

View other videos on the University of Minnesota Senate featuring Berman:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7