Hello, everybody, and welcome to another session of Labor Diary Rescue. Diaries are below the fold.
My apologies on missing Monday's LDR. My "insane work schedule" had me working a 12 hour shift and I had very little sleep. Since there were only two or three diaries up that night, I decided to take a day off. So now we have a few extra diaries in the mix tonight.
You guys know the rules. The LDR is done every Monday and Thursday evenings, barring a bad internet connection, my insane work schedule, or Acts of God. In order to be rescued your pro-union diary must have less than 100 comments, have the words "union" or "labor" in the tag line, and must not have been on any front page diary rescue or rec list.
Here's tonight's diaries, in no particular order:
The Electrical Worker, who regularly gives great diaries showing the link between organized labor and alternative energy, is giving us an update about upcoming AFL-CIO elections in AFL-CIO Leadership Ticket Includes IBEW's Shuler.
Trumka’s team includes Arlene Holt Baker, the federation’s current executive vice president and Liz Shuler, executive assistant to International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers International President Edwin D. Hill, who is campaigning for secretary-treasurer.
Pledging to recruit millions of young workers into the labor movement, Trumka, in his firebrand style, said, "I’m running because I know, just like you, that even though it wasn’t organized labor that created the God-awful mess our country’s in, we are the people who can lead America out of it!"
Ufw has an action diary concerning harm being brought to migrant workers through deregulation of pesticides in TAKE ACTION: Chemical industry urges CA gov to ignore science & approve toxic pesticide.
The highly toxic, mutagenic, new pesticide methyl iodide is currently being given a comprehensive review by the Department of Pesticide Regulations and the agency's registration decision is pending advice from a panel of scientists convened specifically to review this chemical.
However, according to inside sources, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is being pressured by corporate interests to fast-track registration of this toxic pesticide--despite serious concerns from the state's own scientists at the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).
Seth D shows us that even in Arkansas the unions are organizing for workers in Unions Lead Historic March in Arkansas for Employee Free Choice Act.
On Saturday, July 11, we made history in Arkansas. We--civil rights and community leaders, local elected officials, and union activists and leaders--1500 of us--held the largest-ever demonstration in Arkansas to demand that Sen. Blanche Lincoln vote for and support the Employee Free Choice Act.
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Relentless liberal wants another New Deal for America, and wants a new Frances Perkins to lead the way in Put another Frances Perkins on the Obama Team.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to be his Secretary of Labor in 1932, she said she would accept only if he would support her social justice agenda: Federal relief and large-scale public works programs to help victims of the Depression, federal minimum wage and maximum hour’s law, a ban on child labor, and unemployment and old age insurance. The New Deal was born.
Employee Free Choice Act keeps up the good work and shows us first responders in Louisiana wanting EFCA passed in Louisiana 1st Responders Say Pass Employee Free Choice Act.
OPEIU Local 107 members and the NALC Branch 1760 President came together last week for a 1st Responder Roundtable on the Employee Free Choice Act in Lafayette, LA. Ken Bruner, Erica Green, Gerald Soileau, and Ryan Baker are all 1st responder helicopter pilots in the Gulf and local letter carriers that wanted to share their experiences as union members and also lend some insight as to how we can get Louisiana’s economy moving again.
Ken Bruner, President of Local 107 and a veteran of the Vietnam War, recruited participants for the roundtable and is a strong supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act because of the benefits he enjoys as a union member.
"When the pilots at Air Logistics decided to form a union, we quickly saw vast improvements in our wages, benefits, and voice in the workplace," said President Bruner. "We work with our management to solve problems and make our company better now, they respect us and we respect them. As a result of our union, we are able to do our jobs better and safer."
PhishRapper gives us The greatest organized labor tragedy you've never heard of.
You could easily pass by Calumet, Michigan, on US highway 41 without much notice. You'd see the red, iron-ore tinted sandstone buildings that look as though they must have been built at significant expense a hundred or so years ago. They are still standing, owing more to the timeless nature of their materials than to any sort of lavish maintenance and upkeep. Industry and commerce, as such, hardly exists here anymore, and there is little to indicate that almost a century ago Calumet was the site of one of the most tragic chapters in the history of the organized labor movement in the United States.
That's all the diaries, guys. See you on Monday!