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U.S. Brands and Retailers Should Sign the Bangladesh Safety Accord

Rana Plaza, the Bangladesh factory that collapsed three weeks ago, killed more than 1,100 workers, many of them young women. This tragedy adds to the more than 1500 Bangladeshi workers killed in preventable fires and building collapses since 2005. Documents found at the factory show that the workers produced for big names in global retail revealing the link between poor workers in Bangladesh and major retail brands.Obviously, the government must improve local laws and their enforcement to stop these tragedies, but brands must also take responsibility for their supply chains. They must be held accountable to the tragedy that happened in their supply chain. Read more >>>

Attack on NLRB Goes Beyond Washington, Costs Illinois Worker His Home

Marcus Hedger will have to wait even longer to get his job back if Senate Republicans continue to block President Obama’s bipartisan nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Call your senators toll free at 1-888-264-6154 and tell them to confirm the board nominations now. Hedger was illegally fired in 2010 from his pressman’s job at an Illinois printing company for his union activities on behalf of his fellow union members in the Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters. Last September, the full NLRB—two Democrats and one Republican, at the time—ruled he should get his job back with back pay. Read more >>>

Trumka: The 'Grand Bargain' Is a Dead End

Most voters agree that big corporations and the wealthy should start paying their fair share in taxes. But, of course, big corporations and the wealthy don’t want to do that. They want to pay less, and they are used to getting their way. So what do you do? Some people in Washington think the answer is a “grand bargain.” In a “grand bargain,” Republicans agree to stop protecting millionaires from having to pay a single penny more in taxes. In return, Democrats agree to cut Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits. Read more >>>

Q&A with Saru Jayaraman

The partition that separates diners from the inner workings of the restaurant industry toppled for Saru Jayaraman shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Fekkak Mamdouh, one of the headwaiters of the restaurant housed on the top floor of the World Trade Center, approached Jayaraman seven months after the attacks. His former boss deemed him and his former crew “not experienced enough” to work in his new Times Square restaurant. Jayaraman, a 27-year-old organizer of immigrant women, took up the case to advocate for the displaced workers, organized protests and won—most of the workers were awarded the good jobs their former boss promised.

Jayaraman and Mamdouh formed Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United in April 2002 and were flooded with stories of workplace atrocities in New York City and, eventually, across the country. We spoke with Jayaraman earlier this month about her new book on the ills of the restaurant industry, Behind the Kitchen Door.

Keeping it Clean—The Custodians of Dr. King’s Legacy

For Lapronda Eason and the other building service workers at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the link to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--who died in Memphis in 1968 advocating for the rights of city sanitation workers to form a union--is as real as the job they do every day.

We Need To Organize A New Generation of Workers

This information came from Don Siegel of IBEW, which he recently sent to his members, I have taken the liberty to edit it to be more inclusive to the entire labor movement.

We need to organize a new generation of workers into unions. While we tend to believe that this new generation is indifferent to unions we also know that they know very little about unions.

Mr. Siegel found this link to a video about a protest against the CEO of Whole Foods who recently wrote an op ed in the Wall Street Journal about health care reform. Needless to say the CEO, John Mackey, didn’t think that the health care reform that was being proposed was worth consideration and went on to say among other things that health care is not a right but rather a privilege.

This link will take you to a 6 minute video that I think is worth your time for two reasons. Number one it takes John Mackey to task for his public denunciation of the cu rrent health care reform proposal and number two and much more importantly please take notice of the age of most of the protesters. They are certainly not from my generation and we should take some comfort in that. This group could teach some of us some new things about civil disobedience not to mention the raw courage it takes to expose your self publicly for a cause you believe in. I encourage you to watch the whole video and consider that this is the generation that we need to bring into our union.

They may not know much about unions but they sure know how to engage in concerted activity. They are creative, committed, energetic and determined when they find something that they can believe in. They are an example of what the labor movement can become if we can connect with their passions. The challenge is ours to reach out to a new generation of union members and I hope that this video shows that they are ready, if we are willing to take the time to listen to their concerns and explain how unions can be a part of the solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APs76Cd6fbI

AFL-CIO Now Blog -- Recent News Stories

Faces of Labor

Faces of Labor

Valued Friendship

By Terry J Havener February 6, 2009

From my perspective, a friend is a blessing, bestowed upon us to define our value and relevance on this earth. True friendship is given freely and unselfishly. You have only to accept it and, hopefully, return the same…for to have a friend, you must be one.

Shelley Herochik was my friend. Though we never met face to face, we talked via the internet and established a friendship that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Those of you who have read my columns in the T-D have Shelley to thank for it. Her encouragement is what inspired me to write down my thoughts and present them to the newspaper. Recently, an illness took her life and, I will freely admit, left a void in my own.

Except for my wife, Denise, who is my sounding board/proofreader, Shelley was my biggest supporter. While friendship established the lines of communication between Shelley and me, her qualifications made me respect her words.

Over her career in organized labor she represented Garment workers and Healthcare workers on both ends of the country. Shelley serviced union workers at both the local level, serving as staff to Garment workers local 122 in New York City and Service Employees healthcare local 49 in Portland Oregon; and at the International level as Assistant Education Director to the then International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in Washington DC.

As is often the case, her labor involvements led her into other responsibilities such as a time spent as a staff person for Congresswoman Jolene Unsoeld from the 3^rd District in the state of Washington. She also served on the task force on National Health Care Reform lead by then First Lady Hillary Clinton.

After 20 years in the labor movement, Shelley used her writing skills and refocused herself. She became a regular contributor to the west coast periodicals, the Portland Business Journal, Portland in Focus and BUILDERnews Magazine covering a diversity of subjects from healthcare and high-tech business development to personnel profiles and building techniques.

In 2005, Shelley returned to her first love, teaching (early in her career she had taught labor history at Rutgers University). That year she accepted a position at Cambridge College in Chesapeake, VA as the undergraduate coordinator. Even in this position, Shelley found a use for her labor background, coordinating a program which targeted dislocated union workers from a local auto manufacturing plant shutdown and assisting in assimilating them back into the local workforce.

Shelley’s life on this earth was a full one, and she will be missed by those whose lives she touched.

In these times of escalating costs and economic downturns the value of most goods and services fluctuate, but a friendship is free and its value is constant…priceless. When you are fortunate enough to develop one, hold it close and cherish it.

For many, myself included, Shelley was indeed a valued friend and a true Face of Labor.

2009 Labor Council Scholarship Contest

2009 Scholarship Essay Contest

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