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Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Support Staff Keep Our Students Learning
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.
Schools are communities that include students, teachers, administrators, families and, of course, support staff who keep the schools running. In a video, the California School Employees Association (CSEA) celebrates the contributions of school support professionals who have stepped up to the plate during the pandemic. “We can connect—we can connect with these families. We can hear them when they express what they’re going through, and we can reach out and help them,” said Maria Castillo, a CSEA member and health clerk at a California middle school. “I believe that we make a difference and that’s what we’re here for, to make that difference.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 03/17/2021 - 08:27
Tags:
Community Service, COVID-19
Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Baltimore Teachers Union Secures 20,000 High Filtration Masks for City Schools Staff
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.
Diamonté Brown, president of the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU), an affiliate of AFT, said that thanks to the leadership of member Laur Plawker, more than 20,000 high filtration masks will be donated to Baltimore City schools staff, as teachers and students continue to go back to teaching in person after a local mandate. When local restaurant owner Samantha Claassen heard Plawker was having anxieties over going back to school, Claassen reached out to other restaurant owners and together, with the help of local media, held an incredibly successful fundraiser on Feb. 23. Even after the fundraiser technically ended, donations continued to come in as word spread. BTU has begun distributing the masks to schools as teachers go back to school this week.
“While we were...
Reinforcing Values and Solidarity Highlight AFL-CIO Executive Council Meeting
The AFL-CIO concluded its two-day Executive Council meeting, which centered on fighting for economic relief for working people as we navigate the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to voting unanimously to review archaic Senate rules and delay the AFL-CIO Convention, the council also passed statements mourning the passing of John Sweeney and honoring our retired leaders.
The following statements passed the council:
Senate Rules Cannot Be Used to Block a Workers First Agenda: The AFL-CIO calls on the Senate to work with the president and the House to enact a Workers First Agenda—investment, democracy, freedom and dignity in the workplace and justice in our economy. But if that proves to be impossible under the Senate’s current rules—we call for swift and necessary changes to those rules so that the will of the people of the United States expressed in the 2020 elections can be turned into the progress our country and our people desperately need.
NFLPA Demonstrates the Power of Collective Bargaining: We applaud the efforts of the NFL Players Association...
Women's History Month Profiles: Anne Feeney
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 Anne Feeney.
Feeney, who died of COVID-19 in February, was a major player in the folk music circuit and the first woman to be president of a musician’s union. In her iconic music career, she performed more than 4,000 shows throughout the United States and Europe and collaborated regularly with artists like Pete Seeger, John Prine, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Her anthem "Have You Been to Jail for Justice" is sung on picket lines and in jail cells worldwide. She regularly performed at union halls, on picket lines and at rallies. She also graduated with a law degree and practiced law for more than a decade, primarily representing refugees and survivors of domestic violence.
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 03/15/2021 - 09:30
Tags:...
Women's History Month Profiles: Samantha Lippert-Kendall
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 Samantha Lippert-Kendall.
After graduation from college, Lippert-Kendall found success in the building trades. She successfully completed the Registered Apprenticeship Program with the Heat and Frost Insulators (HFIU) and works as a mechanic. The member of Local 2 leads by example and has become a valued member of the union.
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 03/15/2021 - 09:29
Tags:
Women's History Month
Service + Solidarity Spotlight: UNITE HERE Local 11 Celebrates Serving 3 Million Meals to the Community
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.
On March 3, Hospitality Training Academy and UNITE HERE Local 11 hospitality workers (pictured above), in partnership with local Los Angeles hotels and event venues, celebrated an incredible milestone of 3 MILLION meals served through their "Serving Our Community" program.
The visionary program was launched during the pandemic to help bring meals, which have been a lifeline through the now yearlong pandemic, to approximately 10,000 homebound seniors, people experiencing homelessness and low-income families. By partnering with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the city and county of Los Angeles, the program also provided more than 1,000 jobs to recently laid-off union and nonunion hospitality workers, including taxi drivers who serve as the delivery drivers.
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Women's History Month Profiles: Leeann Foster
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 Leeann Foster.
Leeann Foster is the epitome of a Woman of Steel. She is a new international vice president for the United Steelworkers (USW), one of two women leading North America’s largest industrial union. She leads USW’s major bargaining in the paper sector, heads the Women of Steel Leadership Development Program and was integral in the 2005 merger with PACE and USW. Foster co-chairs the IndustriALL Global Union Federation Pulp and Paper Sector Working Group and is a commissioner in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 03/12/2021 - 09:30
Tags:
Women's History Month
Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Solidarity Center Launches Podcast
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.
This week, the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center launched its new podcast, which is an interview show that highlights and celebrates the individuals working for labor rights, the freedom to form unions and democracy across the globe. The show is hosted by Shawna Bader-Blau, who serves as executive director for the Solidarity Center. The Solidarity Center works in more than 60 countries helping working people overcome the challenges we face: poverty, wages, lack of legal protections, discrimination and abuse.
In the debut episode Bader-Blau is joined by Brenda Modise, a union activist with FEDUSA in South Africa, to mark International Women's Day. Modise talks about how union women around the world successfully pushed the International Labor Organization for adoption of Convention 190 to end gender-based violence and...
20 Ways the American Rescue Plan Helps Working People
This week, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion bill to help fight the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Biden is expected to sign the law, which will provide significant assistance to the American people during this unprecedented crisis. Here are 20 things the American Rescue Plan will do to help working people:
1. Fund public health: Provides $48.3 billion for testing, contact tracing and personal protective equipment (PPE); $7.5 billion for vaccine distribution; $5.2 billion for procurement of vaccines and supplies; and provides $10 billion to expand domestic production of PPE, vaccines and medical supplies under the Defense Production Act.
2. Increase workplace safety: Provides $200 million for pandemic-related worker protection activities at the Labor Department, half of which would go to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to support OSHA enforcement and worker training in high-risk sectors such as meat processing, health care, correctional facilities and agriculture.
3. Provide relief for state, local and...
Women's History Month Profiles: Kate Hunt
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 Kate Hunt.
Kate Hunt began her maritime career as an able seaman (AB) working on ferries in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1976. In 1980, she became the first female patrolman for the National Maritime Union, which later merged with the Seafarers (SIU). After the merger in 2001, she began working with SIU crews aboard military sealift command vessels, research vessels and other government-owned ships. In 2018, she was appointed to serve as vice president for SIU’s Government Services Division, a position she still holds.
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 03/11/2021 - 09:30
Tags:
Women's History Month
