Feed items
Women's History Month Profiles: Dora Cervantes
This year, for Women's History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently active making women's history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Dora Cervantes.
Dora Cervantes made history with the Machinists (IAM) when she became the first woman to direct the international union’s finances. She is also the first Hispanic woman to serve as a general vice president for IAM. She has been a member of the union for more than 32 years after joining Local 2198 in Houston as a Southwest Airlines reservations agent in 1989. Fluent in English and Spanish, Cervantes helps teach the Spanish Leadership series at the IAM’s William W. Winpisinger Education Center
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 03/10/2021 - 09:34
Tags:
Women's History Month
Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Rockford United Labor Volunteers Answer Call for Vaccination Effort
Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
A new COVID-19 vaccination site in Winnebago County, Illinois, has the capacity to vaccinate 2,500 people per day. But county officials organizing the program realized they needed help in setting up all those appointments. That’s when Winnebago County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli put out a call for volunteers to Rockford United Labor President Sara Dorner (AFSCME), and she went to work finding groups to help out. “I reached out to the [American Association of University Women], League of Women Voters, NAACP and a lot of our partners in the community that we’ve worked with on other issues,” Dorner said. Those groups, along with The Salvation Army, Women’s March Rockford and Rockford Today Network, wasted little time signing up. “I’m watching the spots get filled up as I sit with my computer...
Asking for Basic Protection: In the States Roundup
It's time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations on Twitter.
Alabama AFL-CIO:
Solidarity with #BAmazonUnion comes in from all across the country! #1U https://t.co/syXLd4ywwa
— Alabama AFL-CIO (@AlabamaAFLCIO) February 23, 2021
Alaska AFL-CIO:
Workers should never have to choose between their safety and feeding their families.
We will continue to fight for safe work places and give working people a collective voice to address workplace injustices without the fear of retaliation. #akleg https://t.co/mtoPnEJkbL
— Alaska AFL-CIO (@AKAFLCIO) March 6, 2021
California Labor Federation:
There is no one more qualified to join the @USDOL leadership team than @JulieSuCA. She's spent a lifetime in the trenches fighting for low-wage workers, immigrants and people of color. Her historic nomination must be...
Women's History Month Profiles: Ethel Everett
This year, for Women's History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently active making women's history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Ethel Everett.
Ethel Everett has been an active leader with SEIU Local 509 for 30 years, serving as a union activist, steward and regional vice president for the local’s Department of Children and Families Chapter. She is vice president of the Massachusetts chapter of AFRAM, SEIU’s African American Caucus, and sits on the AFRAM Eastern Region Board. She also serves as a board member for the Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation (WMALF) and co-chairs the WMALF Racial Justice Committee. She’s a committed union leader who always engages her members and is a strong advocate for social and economic justice in her union and community.
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 03/09/2021 - 09:30
Tags:
Women's...
Service + Solidarity Spotlight: New Jersey State AFL-CIO: Operation Feed Atlantic City Continues to Give Back to Those in Need
Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech reports that union solidarity brought sunshine and much-appreciated meal kits to laid-off workers in Atlantic City through Operation Feed Atlantic City on Feb. 25.
The food distribution, sponsored by the New Jersey State AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions, the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Agency and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, was one in the labor movement’s continuing series of support programs for the Shore community that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Volunteers from UNITE HERE, Operating Engineers (IUOE), Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), NYSNA Shore Nurses and other affiliates dedicated their day to smoothly checking in the 2,000-plus recipients, directing...
‘Everyone in the Community Is Cheering Us On’: The Working People Weekly List
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
‘Everyone in the Community Is Cheering Us On’: "As lead organizer in the potentially historic effort to unionize 5,800 Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, Josh Brewer heads a small army of organizers for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Brewer recognizes that it’s a high-stakes campaign—it’s the first time a union has sought to unionize all the workers at an Amazon warehouse in the United States. Bessemer, a suburb of Birmingham, was once a thriving union community, with steel mills, coal mines, and a Pullman railcar factory. Brewer, 33, is an ordained minister who gravitated from the pulpit to union organizing because he saw it as a more effective way to lift struggling Americans. The National Labor Relations Board mailed out the unionization ballots on February 8; they are due on March 29, and only then will the ballots be counted. This interview has been edited for...
Women's History Month Profiles: Royetta Sanford
This year, for Women's History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently active making women's history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Royetta Sanford.
Royetta Sanford oversaw the first international women’s conference for the Electrical Workers (IBEW) in 1997. Since then, she convened a committee on women’s issues and launched a department within the IBEW International Office that focuses on women’s and civil rights. She then served as the first director of that department. Sanford recently retired from her position as director of human services for the IBEW.
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 03/08/2021 - 09:38
Tags:
Women's History Month
Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Labor Movement Fighting Anti-Asian Racism in All Forms
Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Anti-Asian racism has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working people condemn this vile behavior as a stain on our nation. We will continue to fight these injustices.
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance National President Monica Thammarath (NEA) stated, “It is not right that Asian Americans are afraid to be alone in public, especially our elders who live in poverty and depend on access to community services, and our young people who live in places where there are few community spaces to turn to. We grieve for the elders who have been assaulted in Chinatowns across the nation. We grieve for Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thai man who was attacked on one of his daily walks in San Francisco. We send our love to Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino American who was attacked on a...
Economy Gains 379,000 Jobs in February; Unemployment Down to 6.2%
The U.S. economy gained 379,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.2%, according to figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In response to the February job numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs tweeted:
Most of February's job gain (moving right on the chart) came from leisure & hospitality, higher wage industries (moving up on the chart) posted milder job gains (professional services including temps, education and health, retail trade), or modest job losses. @AFLCIO pic.twitter.com/QUfY0MvLlo— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) March 5, 2021
State and local government employment declined in February. As in the Great Recession, state and local government employment is a big drag on a healthy recovery. It is vital the Senate pass @POTUS American Recovery Act now and get state and local governments the assurance to hire pic.twitter.com/2G7xCGLISh— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) March 5, 2021
The share and the number of long term unemployed continue to climb. This makes clearing the...
Women's History Month Profiles: Nicole Jeup
This year, for Women's History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently active making women's history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Nicole Jeup.
Nicole Jeup is an integral part of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters’ (UA’s) Education and Training Department, specifically with the Veterans in Piping Program, which helps members of the military learn a trade and successfully transition into the workforce. Jeup is a true labor leader, uplifting everyone she works with and helping members of the military change their lives after completing their military service.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 03/05/2021 - 09:34
Tags:
Women's History Month
