Netroots Nation: Eye on Employee Free Choice
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If you’d like to follow this session live, we’ll be covering it on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/aflcio ).
Thursday kicks off the second annual Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh.
And at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, we’ll be discussing one of the most critical changes that progressives are fighting for, both online and off—the Employee Free Choice Act.
Here are the folks who will weigh in at the afternoon panel, “The Secret Plan to Defeat the Right Forever,” on why labor law reform like the Employee Free Choice Act must be a top progressive priority:
- Stewart Acuff, special assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO. A longtime organizer and the former director of organizing for the AFL-CIO, Acuff has traveled the country in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
- Jake McIntyre, a front page writer at Daily Kos and assistant to the secretary-treasurer of the Bricklayers (BAC).
- Tanya Tarr, director of legislative and political mobilization for the Texas AFT and a specialist on union voter turnout.
- Elana Levin of Workers United, a writer with a long record in collaboration between the union movement and the progressive netroots.
Netroots Nation: Why the Fight for Employee Free Choice Matters
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We’re getting excited this week for the second annual Netroots Nation conference, where more than 1,000 progressive bloggers and activists will meet face to face. We’ll discuss issues key to the future of our nation—including building a stronger, fairer economy by restoring the freedom to form unions and bargain.
Thursday afternoon’s panel, “The Secret Plan to Defeat the Right Forever,” offers an up-close look at why labor law reform like the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to a bigger, stronger empowered middle class and progressive movement.
The AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff, a longtime organizer who has traveled the country working on the Employee Free Choice Act campaign, will talk about what union members and their allies are doing to fight for new labor laws that will restore the freedom to form unions to workers.
National Memorial Dedicated to Fallen Workers
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| On Workers Memorial Day, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka take part in a dedication for a national workers memorial at the National Labor College. |
The names were repeated in a chorus of tragedy. Conrad Johnson, a bus driver killed by a sniper while taking a rest break. Linda Redman, a factory worker who died a slow, painful death from “popcorn lung” disease. An elevator operator killed when an elaveator crushed him on the job. Thirteen coal miners killed by an explosion when they went into a mine to rescue injured co-workers.
Today, on Workers Memorial Day, these and dozens more workers were remembered by their co-workers, family and friends who placed bricks in their memory as part of the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new national workers memorial at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md.
Hundreds of people who lost a loved one who was killed on the job have sponsored bricks for the memorial, which will be constructed in the center of the NLC campus.
New Job Safety Bill, Workers Memorial Day Events at Labor Dept., Labor College
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Fantastic news from Congress this week as we move closer to commemorating Workers Memorial Day on April 28. A new bill, the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067), introduced yesterday, will strengthen and modernize the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
How great it is to see the strong commitment by the Obama administration and the new Congress to worker safety and health after eight years of neglect and scorn for worker safety by the Bush White House.
This Workers Memorial Day, family members of workers killed on the job will join with safety and health activists in Washington, D.C., to attend two congressional hearings on workplace safety and health and gather for a Workers Memorial Day observance and rally at 8 a.m. on the front steps of the Department of Labor. Later that day, at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., we will join with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for a groundbreaking of a new national workers memorial.
