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Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. Tennessee sends in leased convict laborers to break a coal miners strike in Anderson County. The miners revolted, burned the stockades, and sent the captured convicts by train back to Knoxville - 1891 After 14 years of labor by 400 stone masons, the Mt. Rushmore sculpture is completed in Keystone, S.D. - 1941 Int'l Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors of the United States & Canada surrenders its AFL-CIO charter and is disbanded - 1971 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services   Latasha Wood was radiant as she joined her fellow sheet metal apprentices at graduation ceremonies last Saturday. Her entire family was there to celebrate the culmination of the intense 5-year program that trained the 27 apprentices for careers in the building trades. When she entered the Community Services Agency’s Building Futures program, Wood (left) knew she wanted to be a tradeswoman, but she wasn’t sure which trade. She applied to the sheet metal workers (SMART local 100) apprenticeship program and was quickly hired by CMC Sheet Metal. For the next five years she and her fellow apprentices worked by day, studied at night, and on Saturday their commitment paid off as they became journeymen, or, in Wood’s case, a journeywoman. Their families were not the only ones bursting with pride. "Sheet Metal Workers Local 100 started in our area in 1888 and Saturday's graduates have joined the legacy,” said Local 100 president and business manager Richard LaBille III, noting that the local has grown from 200 members to its current membership of 2,000, dedicated to continuing “to provide excellence in craftmanship, advancing to be the best among the best in the industry." "We hope many more women see these nontraditional jobs as a great way to support themselves and their families with family supporting wages and life-long benefits," added BF Program Coordinator Sylvia Casaro Dietert (at right in photo).
If you’re interested in collaborating with the local WANTO (Women In Apprenticeship And Nontraditional Occupations) Technical Assistance program, email [email protected]  After the devastation of Hurricane Michael, Floridians have seen flooding, rains, winds and severe destruction to their homes, possessions and livelihoods. “The road to recovery for those affected, including many of our union brothers and sisters and their families, will be long,” reports AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler. In response, the Florida AFL-CIO has reinstated its disaster relief fund for union families and community allies in the state who are struggling after Hurricane Michael. "The funds you donate will help provide gas cards, rebuilding supplies, food, water and other essentials for Florida families in need,” says Shuler. “Working people in Florida need your urgent help. The challenges these workers are facing are serious, and any contribution you can make today—large or small—will make a real difference in the lives of struggling Florida families.”
Click here to read AFL-CIO National Media Manager Carolyn Bobb’s “Dispatches from Hurricane Michael Relief Efforts in Florida” and here for photos of those efforts. “Human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others. These values are considered ‘intrinsic’ to human happiness and far outweigh ‘extrinsic’ values such as beauty, money and status.”
From his book “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.” |
