Hate Crimes Bill Heads to Obama
After fighting for new hate crimes legislation for a dozen years, union and civil rights activists praised the final passage of a bill that expands the definition of federal hate crimes and removes unnecessary obstacles to prosecution.
The Senate passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act late last week by a 68-29 margin. The bill, which was attached to a Defense authorization measure, already had cleared the House. President Obama is expected to sign it into law as early as this week.
Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), which includes the AFL-CIO and several unions, applauded lawmakers for “recognizing the fundamental right of all Americans to be protected from violence because of their race, the way they worship, their sexual orientation, gender identity or disability status.”
Trumka: AFL-CIO Strongly Committed to Diversity
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| At the AFL-CIO Diversity Conference today, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka pledged the AFL-CIO will recommit to embracing diversity at every level. |
The union movement is becoming more diverse and the new leadership of the AFL-CIO is committed to working harder to reach out to young workers, people of color, women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said today at the AFL-CIO National Summit on Diversity. Trumka told the more than 500 participants the federation’s commitment to diversity is on its way to becoming a reality:
I’m here to tell you that we must change. That is why we’re seeking out and encouraging young people, people of color, people of all backgrounds and beliefs and sexual orientation. These are the labor leaders of tomorrow.
Diversity Summit: Future of Unions Depends on Including All Workers
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| UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn (center), Nat LaCour, recently retired AFT secretary-treasurer, and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney were among speakers at the AFL-CIO Diversity Conference today. |
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| More than 500 participants took part in the standing-room only AFL-CIO Diversity Conference. |
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The future of the union movement depends upon our ability to recruit and promote people of color and women, the fastest growing groups of union members. Today, at the AFL-CIO National Summit on Diversity, more than 500 union activists celebrated the progress made since passage of the historic adoption of Resolution #2 at the 2005 AFL-CIO Convention, which set goals to make the movement more diverse. They also mapped strategy to increase diversity at every level in the future.
In a strong and emotional speech, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the priority on diversity in his leadership may well become the biggest legacy of his 14 years leading the federation.
“If we are to have equal educational opportunity, and equal job opportunity, and equal economic opportunity in America, then we must also have equal union opportunity in America.
“We are motivated by our moral imperatives but we also are moved toward our goals by practical persuasions. Simply put, we cannot expect more from our younger and women and minority members unless they can expect more leadership opportunity from our federation.
“Brothers and sisters, we don’t have one dues rate for African American, or Hispanic, or Asian Pacific-American members, and another rate for the rest of our members. Our women members don’ t pay lower dues than our male members. We don’t have lower dues for our gay and lesbian and transgender members or for members with disabilities. So why should they get fewer opportunities to lead and to learn?”
Sweeney’s message resonated with the audience, which interrupted his speech about a dozen times with applause and gave him six standing ovations.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn and former AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour, co-chairs of the Executive Council Committee on Diversity, praised Sweeney for his leadership and determination to bring diversity to the union movement.
Tributes to Sen. Edward Kennedy
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The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy has sparked tributes from around the globe, from those who knew him best in his home state of Massachusetts, to world leaders. We include some of these here, mindful that as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote:
Most Americans will never know how many things Ted Kennedy did to make their lives better, how many things he prevented that would have hurt them, and how tenaciously he fought on their behalf.
Be sure to stop by the Edward Kennedy tribute site at: www.tedkennedy.org/tributes.
* Ted Kennedy was not just a senator for Massachusetts; he was our senator—a senator for working people, for poor people, for the old and the vulnerable. For all those who needed a champion, he was our champion. He personified a sense of aspiration that has become America’s aspiration—to make things better, to make them more fair, to make our nation more compassionate and hopeful, to make life work for working men and women.
—AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
Dionne Warwick: ‘Fair Pay for Air Play’ About Economic Justice
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Little did the public know that when they heard Dionne Warwick sing, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and other hits on the radio for the past four decades, none of the money made off the airplay found its way to her—it all went in the radio station owners’ pockets.
Now Warwick and other performers have a chance to finally get what they are due—but Big Radio CEOs are resorting to personal attacks in an effort to derail legislation that would pay performers like Warwick when their music is played on the radio.
Writing today on the Huffington Post, Warwick says the Civil Rights for Musicians Act (H.R. 848), dubbed “Fair Pay for Air Play,”
is about economic justice for African American artists. It’s about what’s right. And it’s about time.
Union Movement Mourns Former AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer
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Joseph L. Ames, 83, former AFSCME secretary-treasurer, died June 17, the union reported last week. Ames served in the post from 1968 to 1972. Prior to that, Ames was secretary-treasurer at AFSCME Local 410 in St. Louis and served as president of the Missouri AFL-CIO.
AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee praised Ames and said Ames was
a man whose vision of fairness and justice in the workplace extended beyond his own union to the everyday men and women who work hard to live the American dream. Joe helped build AFSCME into the union it is today, and we will always be grateful for his dedication.
Ames also served on AFSCME’s executive board, chaired the commission that rewrote AFSCME’s constitution (adopted in 1965) and helped establish the guidelines and precedents for the union’s Judicial Panel, which he also chaired. The panel decides challenges concerning the eligibility of nominees for office and other matters.
‘Out at Work’ Available on DVD
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Seventeen years ago, a couple of New York City filmmakers, Kelli Anderson and Tami Gold, made their way to AFSCME’s District Council 37 in Manhattan to videotape a conference on lesbian and gay rights in the workplace for a monthly show they produced on public access television called “Labor at the Crossroads.”
As it turned out, this was the beginning of “Out at Work,” a compelling documentary about life on the job in the United States. After it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival—an extraordinary event in itself—Variety would praise it for its “inspiring human dimension.” And some 40 million people would eventually see a version of it on HBO.
Both versions of “Out at Work”—the original documentary film and the HBO presentation—are now available for the first time on DVD from Transit Media Communications at 1-800-343-5540. Mention it if you’re a union member and ask about their discount.
The original idea of “Out at Work” was simple enough. It told about three workers who had little in common except that each was LGBT and confronting colossal challenges connected with discrimination on the job. What’s more, each had an extraordinary story filled with grief, courage, confusion and moral grace.
Trumka: Union Movement Must Reach Out More to People of Color
The election of Barack Obama is just the beginning of a new revolution to create the kind of America that provides a decent living, dignity and respect for all.
Speaking to the Labor Luncheon at the NAACP’s centennial national convention in New York City yesterday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said:
If we don’t seize this incredible moment, we may not get another chance and our grandchildren will never forgive us. Because you and I know that, as tremendous a victory as Barack Obama’s election was, we can’t let it be an achievement to rest on.
It was a milestone, but it wasn’t the finish line.
Trumka pointed out that African Americans are suffering disproportionately from the economic crisis and that the sluggish recovery threatens to wipe out the gains by black workers in the past decade.
Supreme Court Reaffirms Key Voting Rights Provision
In a narrow ruling today, the U.S. Supreme Court preserved a key component of the Voting Rights Act that requires certain states and localities with a history of voting discrimination to submit changes in voting procedures to the Department of Justice or a federal court before they can take effect.
The 8-1ruling keeps in place one of the most important rules that fight voter discrimination. The surpisingly strong majority also deals a setback to conservative groups that have long sought to weaken federal voting rights laws. Clarence Thomas was the only justice to vote to void the voter protection provision.
SCLC Launches 21st Century Poor People’s Campaign
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) today announced the rebirth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Poor People’s Campaign” to fight poverty in some of the poorest regions of America. Launched in 1968, the campaign’s first major initiative sought to win economic justice for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. It was there on a motel balcony where King was assassinated April 4,1968.
In a press conference at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., SCLC General Counsel Dexter Wimbush said the campaign’s goal is to
finish the unfinished business of Dr. King.
