The “Women Can Build” exhibition currently on view in the AFL-CIO lobby features original photographs and stories of women today who are building America’s buses and trains, as well as historic photographs of WWII-era “Rosie the Riveter” manufacturing workers. The contemporary “Rosies” in the exhibit work for global transit equipment manufacturing companies in U.S. factories. The women were photographed by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice, who employed the dramatic lighting, bold color and work tools used in the original “Rosie” photos while making striking contemporary photos. Her portraits elevate the everyday reality of labor and celebrate it. The exhibit was curated by Fiona Gardner and is sponsored by Jobs to Move America and the AFL-CIO. Labor Beat is the longest running cable TV labor series in the United States (since 1986). It is a valuable, unique, and endangered resource in the union struggle, creating a rare niche in cable television for pro-working class features and news with good production values. “Show me the country in which there are no strikes and I’ll show you that country in which there is no liberty.”
In what could be considered the first workers’ compensation agreement in America, pirate Henry Morgan pledges his underlings 600 pieces of eight or six slaves to compensate for a lost arm or leg. Also part of the pirate’s code, reports the late Roger Newell: shares of the booty were equal regardless of race or sex, and shipboard decisions were made collectively - 1695 Samuel Gompers (right), first AFL president, born in London, England. He emigrated to the U.S. as a youth - 1850 The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America is chartered by the American Federation of Labor to organize "every wage earner from the man who takes the bullock at the house until it goes into the hands of the consumer." - 1897 Workers win a two-day sit-down strike at the Brooklyn electric plant that powers the city's entire subway system - 1937 A handful of American companies announce nearly 60,000 layoffs today, as the recession that began during the George W. Bush presidency charges full-tilt toward what became known as the Great Recession - 2009 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services |