Jane Ellen LaTour (May 3, 1946 – April 3, 2023) was an American labor activist, educator, and journalist in New York City who advocated union democracy and documented the role of women in traditionally male-dominated trades.

[9][10] Toward the end of her first year in college, LaTour started working in factories in Philadelphia, and later in Newark, New Jersey, to support herself, learning firsthand about what she called "large and small daily indignities" in the workplace.

[7][12] Her experience in industrial action included leading walkouts at a factory in Philadelphia to protest the lack of heating, and participating in a Teamster-sanctioned wildcat strike at United Parcel Service in Edison, New Jersey.

"[7][3] LaTour shifted focus to work as a labor educator, and became an advocate for union reform and for women in traditionally male-dominated blue-collar trades.

[9] For several years, LaTour worked as an organizer for the White Lung Association, a nonprofit focused on educating the public about the hazards of asbestos exposure in the workplace.

[9][15][3] LaTour also worked with the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University,[3] where she was initially hired to process the papers of Burton H. Hall, a lawyer who had represented dissidents within unions.

[7][9] For her first book, LaTour conducted oral history interviews and compiled research on 23 women who entered traditionally male blue-collar trades in New York City in the late 1970s and 1980s.

[17][9] The women profiled included carpenters, electricians, plumbers, truck drivers, telecommunications technicians, firefighters, biomedical engineers, and union officials.

[9] Published in 2008 by Palgrave Macmillan, Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City received positive reviews.

[13] LaTour was a two-time recipient of the Mary Heaton Vorse Award, the top journalism honor given by the Metro New York Labor Communications Council.

[3] Smith was an organizer and staff representative for the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, working with thousands of members from First Transit and New York Waterway, as well as school bus drivers.