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Women's History Month Profiles: Jackie Anklam

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 Jackie Anklam.

Jackie Anklam of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9899 in Saginaw, Michigan, is a true woman of steel. An environmental technician at St. Mary’s Hospital, she is among the essential workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic going to work every single day to make sure others get the care they need. While doing her job, she also represents hundreds of steelworkers at Ascension St. Mary’s. Anklam, a member of the USW's Health Care Workers Council, fought for respirators and personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning supplies and gowns for those on the front lines. The fight became personal when Anklam’s father died of complications of COVID-19 in a Michigan hospital that ran short of PPE. Activism is nothing new for Anklam....

Women's History Month Profiles: Laurel Brennan

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 Laurel Brennan.

Laurel Brennan is currently serving her seventh term as the secretary-treasurer of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, a position she has held since 1997. She is the first woman to be elected to this position in New Jersey. 

Brennan began her career in the labor movement with an internship with the New Jersey State Federation of Teachers. She also worked for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Philadelphia-South Jersey District Council and the Southern New Jersey Central Labor Council, where she was the first woman elected to the position of secretary-treasurer. She formed the Southern New Jersey chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, for whom she also served on the national executive board. She also...

Service + Solidarity Spotlight: South Florida AFL-CIO: Labor Activists Gather to Unveil Miami Mural

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.

South Florida advocacy, civil rights and labor groups, including the South Florida AFL-CIO, gathered on March 18 to unveil “Rise,” a mural created to call attention to a long list of bills in the Florida Legislature that are anti-worker and racially oppressive. Next to the child in the mural, a rainbow of colors drips down and a stack of books represents the critical learning tools that help to ensure a functioning democracy and a free and fair society—justice, voting, equality, free assembly and labor representation. A hummingbird with its wings spread out floats above, and in the middle is a quote from Maya Angelou: “[B]ut still, like the air, I’ll rise!”

One such bill the Florida AFL-CIO is speaking out against is Senate Bill 50, which seeks to begin collecting sales taxes on...

Success in the Tech Industry: Worker Wins

Despite the challenges of organizing during a deadly pandemic, working people across the country (and beyond) continue organizing, bargaining and mobilizing for a better life. This edition begins with:

CODE-CWA's Tech Industry Organizing Efforts Lead to Union Recognition at Mobilize: Workers at Mobilize, a community-organizing app, announced the formation of a new union as part of the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees' (CODE-CWA's) efforts to organize in the tech industry. EveryAction, which owns Mobilize, agreed to voluntarily recognize the union. This is the third big win for Communications Workers of America (CWA) in tech sector organizing, after recent wins at Glitch and Google. Jared McDonald, a member of the organizing committee, said: "They said, 'Yeah, we want to do this the right way, we're highly invested in the labor movement as well, and workers' rights, and their ability to organize in the collective bargaining unit. Obviously we have a privileged position where we work for a progressive employer, but if we don't do it, how are the people who are going to work for less progressive...