NEWS: Union members already know that being in the union benefits them, but now there’s more evidence that unions benefit everyone. As reported on the Union Plus blog, a new study reiterates that as union membership density falls, more money goes to the top 10%. Unions “not only raise the wage floor but can also lower the ceiling,” says economist Colin Gordon. “Labor unions both sustained prosperity, and ensured that it was shared.” But with the decline of unions in recent years, the share of income that goes to the top 10 percent has been hitting record highs; in 2012, the top 10% had nearly half of the nation’s wealth, the highest in nearly a century. Just one more reason to be proud of your union. Go to unionplus.org to read the complete report.
Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1865, a national eight-month strike by the Sons of Vulcan, a union of iron forgers, ended in victory when employers agreed to a wage scale based on the price of iron bars—the first time employers recognized the union, the first union contract in the iron and steel industry, and what may have been the first union contract of any kind in the United States. In 2008, some 12,000 Hollywood writers returned to work today following a largely successful three-month strike against television and motion picture studios. They won compensation for their TV and movie work that gets streamed on the Internet. Today's labor quote is by American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic James Baldwin: “Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.”
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NEWS: "If you want to be that guy who never gets laid-off; work hard, work safe and never stop learning."
That was the advice of Elevator Constructors Local 10 Apprentice Director Sonny Yeatman last Saturday at the local’s apprentice graduation. Forty-three people took the grueling mechanics test and just 11 passed. After four years of training, the Local 10 apprentices graduated to journeymen status. "You deserve credit for your four years of hard work, and your families deserve credit for the sacrifices they made to support you in this journey," said Yeatman. Members of Local 10 build and service elevators, escalators and moving walkways. Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1818, abolitionist Frederick Douglass was born into slavery near Easton, Maryland. In 1880, John L. Lewis, president of United Mine Workers of America and founding president of the CIO, was born near Lucas, Iowa. Today's labor quote is by Frederick Douglass: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. That struggle might be a moral one; it might be a physical one; it might be both moral and physical, but it must be struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will. People might not get all that they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get." News: Over 600 members of the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, will rally on Capitol Hill at noon today to call for "a Government that Works for America." "We devote our lives and careers towards making our country better," says AFGE. "We keep our friends and neighbors safe when they travel. We treat them when they are ill. We keep their communities safe. We defend them at home and abroad. We ensure that they have the benefits they need to support their families. AFGE members work for our country every day. We do all of this because we believe in a government that works for all of us – and together, we can make that government even stronger. Isn’t it time we had a government that works for all of us?" The noontime rally will be in Upper Senate Park; click here for details.
Today's labor calendar also includes Second Tuesdays at PERB, starting at 10 am, and an Informal Conversation with the Greek General Confederation of Labour starting at 12:45pm. Click here for details. Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1908 the American Federation of Labor founded the Building and Construction Trades Department as a way to overcome the jurisdictional conflicts occurring in the building and construction unions. In 1963, eleven members of the Carpenters’ union in Reesor Siding, Northern Ontario were shot, three fatally, by independent local farmer-settlers who were supplying wood to a Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company plant. Some 400 union members were attempting to block an outbound shipment from the plant. The action came as the company was insisting on a pay freeze and two months of seven-day-a-week work. And on this date in 1973, forty workers were killed on Staten Island, New York, when a huge storage tank filled with liquefied gas exploded. Today's labor quote is by Martin Luther King, Jr.: "We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools." News: Bayard Rustin is the focus of our first Black History Month Labor Profile. Rustin served the trade union and civil rights movements as a brilliant theorist, tactician and organizer. In the face of his accomplishments, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten and fired from leadership positions because he was an openly gay man in a severely homophobic era. He conceived the coalition of liberal, labor and religious leaders who supported passage of the civil rights and anti-poverty legislation of the 1960s and, as the first executive director of the AFL-CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, Bayard Rustin worked closely with the labor movement to ensure African American workers' rightful place in the House of Labor. One of Rustin's most notable moments came when he was tapped to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an event for which he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Go to dclabor.org for the complete profile, which was originally published on the AFL-CIO Now blog.
Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1903, five hundred Japanese and 200 Mexican laborers united to fight the labor contractor responsible for hiring at the American Beet Sugar Co. in Oxnard, California. They ultimately won higher wages and the right to shop at stores not owned by the company. In 1913, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones was arrested while leading a protest of conditions in West Virginia mines. She was 83 years old at the time. In 1948, the first “White Shirt Day” was held at UAW-represented GM plants. Union members were encouraged to wear white shirts, marking the anniversary of the 1936-1937 Flint sit-down strike that gave the union bargaining rights at the automaker. The mission was to send a message that “blue collar” workers deserve the same respect as their white-collar management counterparts. On this date in 1968, some 1,300 sanitation workers began what was to become a 64-day strike in Memphis, ultimately winning union recognition and wage increases. The April 4 assassination in Memphis of Martin Luther King Jr., who had been taking an active role in mass meetings and street actions, brought pressure on the city to settle the strike. In 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced that he would call out the National Guard, if necessary, to deal with any "unrest" among state employees in the wake of his decision to unilaterally end nearly all collective bargaining rights for the workers. In 2015 he formed an exploratory committee to run for president. Today's labor quote is by Bayard Rustin: "When labor speaks of free medical care, it is saying we need it for blacks who do not have it and whites who are concerned that they will have to pay for giving it to them. When labor calls for full employment, it is talking about blacks who are without jobs and whites who want to protect the ones they have. When labor says we must build more homes, it is seeking to create a society where the black brother need not be enraged because he does not have a home and the white need not fear for the home he has." |
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