The opening ceremonies for the summer Olympic Games last Friday were as thrilling as usual but for American union members they were especially meaningful. For the second straight Olympic Games, all of the clothing the American athletes wore was made in America. Since 2008, Ralph Lauren has designed and manufactured the opening and closing ceremony clothing worn by US athletes. For the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Ralph Lauren debuted an all American-made line of clothes for the ceremonies and, with the help of more than 40 apparel companies in the United States, the same is true for the Rio Summer Games. Team USA was decked out in blazers, shirts, shorts, boat shoes and other apparel. The blazers and shorts are manufactured by Hickey Freeman in my hometown of Rochester, New York, made by members of Workers United and the Operating Engineers. Oxford shirts are manufactured by the New England Shirt Company, in Fall River, Massachusetts, made by members of UNITE HERE. The boat shoes are made by Rancourt & Company in Lewiston, Maine. American-made clothing will appear in other parts of the Olympics, as well. Uniforms for the U.S. rowing team are manufactured by Boathouse Sports in Philadelphia and all of the NBC male on-air commentators are dressed in Hardwick Clothes menswear, made in Cleveland, Tennessee.
For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1935, hundreds of Transport Workers Union members descended on a New York City courthouse, offering their own money to bail out their president, Mike Quill, and four other union leaders arrested while making their way through Grand Central Station to union headquarters after picketing the Interborough Rapid Transit offices in lower Manhattan. Today’s labor quote is by president Barack Obama, when he signed a $26 billion dollar bill on this date in 2010 designed to protect 300,000 teachers, police and others from layoffs spurred by budgetary crises in states hard-hit by the Great Recession. "We can't stand by and do nothing while pink slips are given to the men and women who educate our children or protect our communities"
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