I got my first union card while I worked my way through college as a banquet bartender for the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee (we were represented by a hotel and restaurant local union—the names of the national unions were different then than they are now). With a background in journalism—covering bull roping in Texas and school boards in Virginia—I started working in the labor movement in 1991. Beginning as a writer for SEIU (and OPEIU member), I now blog under the title of AFL-CIO managing editor.
It’s no coincidence that public-sector collective bargaining arose in tandem with the civil rights movement between 1955 and 1965, writes Joseph McCartin, associate professor of history and director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.
John August, executive director of Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and a native Wisconsinite, sends us this on events there. The coalition is an alliance of 29 local unions representing 90,000 health care workers.
I am a proud Wisconsinite—not just because of the recent victory of the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 45, but also because of the state’s great progressive traditions. Those traditions include a strong labor movement and the birth of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the major public-sector union, in 1936.
The world is watching Wisconsin. Because it’s clear if Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature succeed in their attacks against the middle class there, it can happen across the United States.
Wow. Amazing support for Wisconsin workers under siege. This in from Maine state Rep. Diane Russell.
I grew up quite poor in western Maine. The only reason I have the chance to serve the people of this great state is because of public financing. The great thing about public financing is that I am entirely beholden to the best interests of my people, not to the Corporatocracy that has taken over our democratic Republic.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on working families are not about shoring up state finances, economist Paul Krugman correctly points out today.
We are rolling out actions today for people to show support for embattled state and local workers. We’ll have more in coming days. Please join in and pass these along.
New Yorkers looked particularily festive in their bright yellow swiss cheese hats today, as hundreds became honorary Cheeseheads while marching in solidarity with embattled workers in Wisconsin.
Comedian Lee Camp, a friend of working families, urges all of us to join in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin and FOCUS on what’s happening in Wisconsin because:
right when we get involved with something that matters, something that could truly make a difference if enough of us came together as one, we’re told to veer over here, look over there, stop looking at the wrongs being perpretated around the world and instead focus on guitar hero or “Jersey Shore.”
Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga will be on the Union Edge radio program today to discuss the assault on the state’s middle class by Republican Gov. John Kasich and Republicans in the state legislature.
Listen here between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET.
Hats off to economist Dean Baker for putting into perspective Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attempts to decimate family-supporting wages and benefits and take away state employees’ freedom to bargain. Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, writes today:
You have to give Gov. Walker and his wealthy patrons credit. Here we have a situation where Wall Street fat cats wrecked the economy—people like Richard Fuld, Robert Rubin, and Angelo Mozilo—and they’ve somehow managed to blame schoolteachers and the highway patrol.
CEOs are trying to get more power by shutting down the National Labor Relations Board. Tell your senators to confirm nominees to the NLRB.
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