ATU Local 689 member Tyrhonda Pinkney was interviewed on WUSA 9 recently about the fare jumper epidemic on Metro. “Out of 500 people that get on the bus, maybe 100 might pay,” Pinkney told Channel 9. The problem has led to a 37% increase in assaults against Metro workers in the last year. The lack of paid family and sick leave disproportionately disadvantages women, said author Caroline Fredrickson, who discussed her new book, “Under the Bus: How Working Women are Being Run Over,” Monday at the AFL-CIO. Women comprise the majority of minimum wage workers, who largely lack paid leave or protection against discrimination, Frederickson said. Only 11% of American workers qualify for paid family leave, and most of them are men, who are more frequently employed in the highest paying jobs. But Fredrickson emphasized that while these issues are often mislabeled as women’s issues, they actually apply to all workers. “Men get sick too, last time I checked,” she pointed out. However, women are typically more affected because they usually have lower-paying jobs, and are often the ones responsible for childcare in the family. “Under the Bus” explores the issue through stories of women who are fired for staying home with their children, or who work without overtime in domestic jobs. “These are economic justice issues,” said Fredrickson, “and many women can’t afford to ‘opt out’ of the workforce.” -Sivan Rosenthal America has a harrowing and atrocious history of racial inequality, and while the labor movement has not been immune, it also has not wavered in its commitment to confront problems of race. This Friday, labor and community leaders will discuss ways to strengthen the ties between the racial justice and labor movements at the Race and the Labor Movement Town Hall, 5p at the AFL-CIO. Speakers will include Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D, DC), Jennifer Bryant, ONE DC’s Black Worker Center, Tiffany Flowers, UFCW 400 Director of Organizing, DC Jobs with Justice’s Nikki Lewis and more. Click here go.aflcio.org/RaceTownhall to RSVP. Throughout the history of the labor movement, people of all colors, nationalities, sexualities, and gender identifications have protested, lobbied, organized, and fought alongside each other to improve the workplace for everyone. In late February, leaders of the AFL-CIO voted to create a new Labor Commission on Racial and Economic Justice to examine how the federation’s member unions can better address these issues. In early May, after the Baltimore riots against police brutality captivated the nation, One Baltimore United, a coalition of labor and community groups representing tens of thousands of Baltimore residents, called for a comprehensive civil and economic rights recovery program to heal the city. The organization was able to show the Baltimore community that black lives matter in the workplace as well as the streets. Despite our progress, we still have work to do. Young leaders and activists are in the streets around the clock demanding justice for racially motivated crimes against people of color. We must not only continue our own work, but we must stand with those young leaders and activists, and show the world that our movements are one and the same. by Jeremiah Lowery, Restaurant Opportunities Center Children are exploited because “companies like child labor because it is cheap," and "children cannot form unions, they cannot go to the polls,” said Kailash Satyarthi, speaking this week to a gathering of child rights advocates at the Lincoln Memorial. More news from around the world at the Solidarity Center. |