Karen See Elected to Lead CLUW
 |
||||
|
||||
Delegates to the 15th Bienneial Convention of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) earlier this month looked to the future by electing a new slate of officers. Karen See, a member of the Postal Workers (APWU), was elected president, succeeding Marsha Zakowski.
More than 600 delegates and observers at the convention in Los Angeles discussed strategies for building the organization and recruiting younger members.
See says the convention theme, “The Rising Tide of Change: Activism, Leadership–Union Women!!” summarizes her goal of rejuvenating CLUW and getting union women more involved in the leadership of the union movement.
Dionne Warwick: ‘Fair Pay for Air Play’ About Economic Justice
 |
||||
|
||||
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.
CLUW Highlights National Women’s Health Week
 |
|
Mothers always look out for their family’s health. During National Women’s Health Week May 10-16, you can encourage Mom to make sure she is healthy, too.
National Health Week is a weeklong health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. The nationwide “It’s Your Time” initiative encourages women to take simple steps for longer, healthier lives.
As part of its campaign to raise awareness about how to prevent cervical cancer, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is working with other community and women’s groups during National Women’s Health Week to educate women about steps they can take to improve their physical and mental health and lower their risks of certain diseases, particularly cervical cancer.
Colombian Workers Pay High Price for Flowers
 |
||||
|
||||
This Mother’s Day, remember the mothers in Colombia who grew, cut and trimmed the flowers you receive. Six days a week, Amanda Camacho and thousands of her co-workers at flower plantations in Colombia cut and trim at least 350 flowers an hour. In the weeks before holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, the work extends deep into the night—all for about $8 a day, less than the cost of a bouquet of carnations in the United States.
Speaking today at a brown bag luncheon at the AFL-CIO in Washington, Camacho, a Colombian union leader and activist, said the mostly female flower workers in Colombia are treated like slaves and the flower companies’ claims that they are treating their workers well are simply “lies.’
Camacho begins a national tour next week sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum’s (ILRF) Fairness in Flowers campaign, Jobs with Justice (JwJ), the Coalition of Labor Union Women and U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP).
Equal Pay Day: April 28
 |
|
April 28 is Equal Pay Day and workers across the country will commemorate the day by reaffirming their determination to make sure women are paid equally as men for the same work. Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year.
Equal Pay Day 2009 comes at an exciting time for those who support equal pay for women. President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law on Jan. 29 and established a White House Council on Women and Girls in March. Yet more than 45 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed, women in the United States still earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns—even with similar education, skills and experience—and African American and Hispanic women earn even less.
Members of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) will commemorate Equal Pay Day with rallies around the country in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Employee Free Choice Act. CLUW is urging all workers to wear red on Equal Pay Day to symbolize how far women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay!
Women Gain by Joining Unions
 |
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
|
Today is International Women’s Day and a new report points out that while all workers gain through union membership, women gain a lot more. A new report released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) shows the global pay gap is 22 percent, but women who belong to unions earn more than nonunion women and receive better pay relative to their male co-workers. Click here to read the entire report.
Teresa Griffin, a member of UAW Local 1247 in Hagerstown, Md., has lived the union difference. As a single mother supporting two children, she was making $9 an hour in 1993 working for a small pension plan administration firm. A year later, she was laid off, and took a job with her former firm’s biggest client making $7 an hour. It took her five years to get a $1 an hour raise. When her supervisor asked the company to give her a 25-cents increase, management refused.
A week later, Griffin was hired by Mack Trucks Inc. and became a union member for the first time. Her starting salary was $12 an hour, 50 percent more than her last job. Griffin says:
When I gave my resignation, I was called into the office and asked what it would take to keep me because they didn’t want to lose me. My reply was straight to the point: “Last week I wasn’t worth a quarter and now I’m worth an additional $4. It took me five years to earn [a] $1 [increase], so how long will I have to work to earn another increase?”
Or take Carla Buschjost, who for 10 years was barely able to make ends meet working for a nonunion plumbing company. But when she moved to a union mechanical shop and became a member of the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), her life changed.
AFL-CIO Groups Highlight Cervical Cancer Awareness Month
January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and as part of its campaign to raise awareness about how to prevent this deadly disease, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is teaming up with the Metropolitan Washington Council’s Community Services Agency (CSA) at one of the largest health and fitness expos in the nation.
The two groups will take part in the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo in Washington, D.C., Jan 10-11 at the Washington Convention Center. The Expo—with more than 200 exhibits, health screenings, demonstrations and more—promotes good health and provides advice in making healthy lifestyle choices.
The CLUW/CSA exhibit will focus on cervical cancer prevention, women’s health and how unions can have an impact on women’s health by bargaining contracts with strong health care provisions. The first 1,000 visitors who show a union card or union label will receive a “Pearl of Wisdom” pin, symbol of a new cervical cancer awareness program set to launch later this month.
Labor Union Women Get Out the Vote Through Count to 5! Campaign
 |
||||
|
||||
The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is stepping up efforts to get every working woman involved in November’s election.
Through its Count to 5! campaign, CLUW is encouraging members to find five friends, neighbors, co-workers or family members and get them to commit to voting to protect working women in the election, as well as to help them get to the polls or vote absentee.
Women likely will make up a majority of the electorate this fall, and the issues at stake are especially crucial for working women. Sen. Barack Obama has a strong record and the right proposals on the issues that matter to working women, while Sen. John McCain would continue the Bush-era economic policies that have hurt women.
