“We in the UAW have been in the forefront of every basic struggle in the country, and we have learned some very simple, fundamental truths; that you cannot solve a human problem by pitting one human being against another human being. We have learned that the only way you can solve human problems is to get people to join hands and to find answers to those problems together. And it’s for this reason that we reject the voices of extremism in America, whether they be white or black; for there are no separate answers. There are no white answers to the problems, there are no black answers; there are only common answers that we must find together in the solidarity of our common humanity.” photo: Reuther (far left), marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. The United Auto Workers and the Teamsters form the Alliance for Labor Action (ALA), later to be joined by several smaller unions. The ALA's agenda included support of the civil rights movement and opposition to the war in Vietnam. It disbanded after four years following the death of UAW President Walter Reuther - 1968 (All Labor Has Dignity: People forget that Dr. King was every bit as committed to economic justice as he was to ending racial segregation. He fought throughout his life to connect the labor and civil rights movements, envisioning them as twin pillars for social reform.) The U.S. minimum wage increased to $6.55 per hour today. The original minimum, set in 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act, was 25¢ per hour - 2008 U.S. minimum wage rose to $7.25 per hour, up from $6.55 - 2009 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services With oral arguments set to begin in AFGE v. Trump, the nation’s largest federal union has set this Wednesday for #RedforFeds day to protest President Trump’s “illegal, union-busting executive orders.” “A little under two months ago, President Trump tried to sneak through three executive orders that undermine our democracy,” said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President J. David Cox Sr. “These orders are a direct assault on our apolitical civil service system and are nothing but thinly veiled attempts at busting unions and rolling back workplace rights across the country,” he added. AFGE will be hosting a rally in front of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Wednesday starting at 12:30p (click here for details). Click here to see other locations participating in #RedforFeds and follow the hashtag on Twitter.
Late one night inside an art-filled home on a tranquil parkway in Silver Spring, Md., a woman decided to take her laptop to bed with her. She clicked on a story about an old picture. Her eyes widened. “No,” Michele Holzman thought to herself. “That couldn’t be me. Could it?” Click here for Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia's great follow-up story about labor organizer Richard Bensinger's 50-year-old photo mystery. photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post |