NEA’s Van Roekel: This Is Our Time, This Is Our Opportunity
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The changes in our country since the November elections have been dramatic and union members must be ready to take advantage of the opportunities for working people. In a powerful speech at the AFL-CIO Convention this morning, National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said this is the time for working families to rebuild America’s working and middle class.
Making those changes requires power and power comes through unity, Van Roekel said.
We must find a way to change the country’s attitude towards the union movement and the middle class. We need the power to act.
Obama to Address AFL-CIO Convention
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President Barack Obama will address our AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, marking a major shift in the relationship between the union movement and the White House. For the past eight years, the Bush administration waged war on America’s workers, and union members took a big step toward taking back America by playing a major role in electing Obama and a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Obama will address a convention that will make history by electing a new leadership team. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is retiring after 14 years at the helm.
Along with Obama, the Sept. 13-17 convention will hear from many prominent political and union leaders, including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Caroline Kennedy and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous.
CWA Delegates Back Employee Free Choice, Health Care and Unity
More than 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) delivered a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill yesterday: It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform.
The Capitol Hill lobby day is part of the union’s four-day convention in Washington, D.C., which ends today. Delegates will go back to the Capitol today to join thousands of workers in the mass rally in support of health care reform.
Unemployed Worker: We Need Help Now
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Liz Freeberg knows how devastating the economic collapse can be for the average American family. In the past two and half years, she and her husband both lost their jobs, they are losing their home and they can’t afford health insurance.
Freeberg, who lives in Circle Pines, Minn., a suburb of the Twin Cities, is a member of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate. She came to Washington, D.C., to implore Congress to help her and millions of other average Americans by passing President Obama’s economic recovery package. In a Capitol Hill press conference Thursday, Freeberg said:
With so many American’s continuing to struggle, we must do something to get our economy moving. This economic recovery package will help create much-needed jobs that would benefit families like mine.
Educators Praise Obama’s Choice of Duncan as Ed. Secretary
The leaders of education unions today praised President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Arne Duncan, superintendent of the Chicago school system, as education secretary in the new administration. AFT President Randi Weingarten, Jill Levy, president of the School Administrators (AFSA), and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said Duncan has shown genuine commitment to the key priorities for an incoming education secretary.
In a statement, Weingarten says:
There may be times when we will differ, but we believe we will agree fully that America’s students and teachers need an education secretary committed to focusing on real solutions for closing the achievement gap and providing every child with a rigorous, well-rounded education that prepares him or her for college, work and life.
