Solis to Receive Top Award at MLK Event
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Tonight in Detroit, where hundreds of activists are gathered for the annual AFL-CIO Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance, participants will honor several individuals for their outstanding contributions to working people. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will receive the top honor for her extraordinary dedication and commitment to improving the lives of workers throughout her lifetime. The At the River I Stand award is given to a national leader who has demonstrated an unyielding commitment to civil rights and workers’ rights.
Since her 2009 appointment as labor secretary, Solis has worked to end wage theft, improve job safety by holding employers accountable and spotlight abuses like sexual harassment, workplace violence and gender discrimination. She also has significantly broadened the department’s outreach by holding a series of webinars, parterning with Facebook to help people find jobs and launching an app to help workers track their hours and how much they should be paid.
Michigan African Americans Being Robbed of Elected Leadership
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In Michigan, a majority of the state’s African American citizens could soon be without elected representation, because of a law passed earlier this year with the backing of billionaires Charles and David Koch. Last week, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) sent a request to Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the civil rights implications of the law.
If Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has his way, Detroit may no longer be ruled by its elected leaders, but by gubernatorial appointees, the result of draconian changes to the state’s emergency manager law passed earlier this year by the Republican legislature. As we reported, this law gives managers the authority to cancel union contracts, among other sweeping powers. Read the rest of this entry »
New Film Sheds Light on Perils Faced by Detroit Firefighters
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As Detroit’s economy reaches unimaginable lows, firefighters go to work in a nearly bankrupt city set aflame by arsonists—some by building owners looking to collect insurance and others by gang members. The perils faced by these front-line first responders captured the imaginations of filmmakers Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez, who are putting the finishing touches on “Burn: The Detroit Firefighter Documentary.”
The filmmakers are raising funds to finish the film on the site Kickstarter.com, where they describe what motivated them to make the film:
We started the project in December 2008, after the death of Detroit firefighter Walter Harris, who perished fighting an arson fire in an abandoned house. Everyone can agree—public safety is a national and local priority. But fire, police and EMS across the nation are struggling with intense budget cuts to gear and manpower. Although our film is about the Detroit Fire Department [DFD], the DFD faces issues that can now be found in nearly every major American city. Our goal is to share their story so that everyone can appreciate and value their first responders, no matter where they live.
Poet Laureate Levine: I Do Believe in People
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Introducing the nation’s poet laureate, Philip Levine, yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka described his poetry as cutting through false language and ”unflinching” in exposing the ”raw realities around us.”
In lifting up the truth in our lives, Trumka said, Levine:
“writes about what it is to be human, which is to say that he writes about labor and dignity and the heart of the human condition.”
Levine, who gave a reading of his poetry at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., is best known for his visceral depictions of working life and his volume, “What Work Is.” He has authored 20 collections of poetry, won a Pulitzer Prize, two National Book Awards, two National Book Critic Circle Awards and received many other honors. He also taught literature and creative writing at California State University, Fresno, for 30 years.
His poems, not easily excerpted, are best read in their entirety, as with his most oft-quoted poem, “What Work Is,” which he read here during the gathering (see video, above). Asked about his source for inspiration during these difficult economic times, Levine offered a sage’s view:
In a way, times have always been hard.
Levine went on to say his inspiration is his memory—of the factory work he experienced in Detroit beginning at age 14 and, most of all, of the people who made those tedious, dirty jobs bearable. The workers who fill his poems carry with them the hope and perseverence that Read the rest of this entry »
Philip Levine: Reflecting the Poet’s Vision of Working in America
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When the nation’s Poet Laureate, Philip Levine, gives a reading of his work tomorrow here at the AFL-CIO, he will recite poems that weave a lyrical web of words around his visceral understanding of the world of work. Levine, whom the Library of Congress named Poet Laureate in May, and who has written of his experiences working in Detroit factories in the post-World War II years, finds his verses especially resonate with America’s workers—and that’s in part because his portrayals are so honest. (To attend the event, which begins at 1 p.m. Nov. 15, RSVP here.)
“I hated many of the jobs I had—they were hard, they were dirty, they were brutal, working lousy hours,” Levine recalls of the time he spent working at forges, on assembly lines and around slag heaps. Yet he also notes:
When I became a union worker, things were a hell of a lot better.
His experiences on the job without a union burned an anger in him so deep that for years he tossed every poem he wrote about that time. Quoting the poet William Wordsworth as saying Read the rest of this entry »
Obama: A Voice on the Job Is Everyone’s Right
President Obama spent Labor Day in Detroit speaking with working families in an event sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other top union leaders joined Obama, who asserted his strong support for workers’ freedom to seek a voice at work through a union.
And I want everybody here to know, as long as I’m in the White House I’m going to stand up for collective bargaining….Because having a voice on the job and a chance to organize and a chance to negotiate for a fair day’s pay after a hard day’s work, that is the right of every man and woman in America—not just the CEO in the corner office, but also the janitor who cleans that office after the CEO goes home. Everybody has got the same right.
Obama blasted efforts by lawmakers to take away workers’ ability to collectively bargain for good middle-class jobs.
When I hear some of these folks trying to take collective bargaining rights away, trying to pass so-called “right to work” laws for private sector workers—that really mean the right to work for less and less and less—when I hear some of this talk I know this is not about economics. This is about politics.
In his remarks, Trumka pointed to Labor Day as the:
Obama to Talk Jobs at Detroit Labor Day Festivities
President Obama will join AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and tens of thousands of workers at the nation’s biggest Labor Day celebration in Detroit on Sept. 5, the White House announced today.
Obama will deliver an addresses focused on jobs and job creation at a rally sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will accompany Obama to Detroit. Prior to the president’s address, musical legend Aretha Franklin will perform.
Tickets for the rally are available to union members from their union. Others should call the Metro Detroit central labor council for tickets at 313-961-0800. The rally will be held at the General Motors (GM) lot adjacent to the Renaissance Center. Enter at the corner of Rivard and Atwater streets.
The city’s huge annual Labor Day parade begins around 9:30 a.m. and Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams told the Detroit Free Press that the parade that normally draws 50,000 to 60,000 marchers could draw as many as 100,000 people with the announcement of Obama’s visit.
Financial Martial Law Imposed in First Mich. City–Walker Denies Seeking Similar Powers
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On Friday, Benton Harbor, Mich., became the first town in that state to get crushed under the boot of Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) “financial martial law,” when his appointed so-called “emergency manager” suspended the decision-making powers of city officials.
In Wisconsin today, Gov. Scott Walker (R) denied reports that his administration is secretly crafting a plan to give Walker similar power to suspend democracy.
The Michigan law allows Snyder to declare a “financial emergency” in a city or school district and appoint a manager with broad powers, including the ability to fire local elected officials, break teachers’ and public workers’ contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services—and even eliminate entire cities or school districts without any public input.
In Benton Harbor, financial manager Joseph Harris’s order means city officials can only call meetings to order, adjourn them and approve minutes of meetings. All other decision–making powers rest with Harris. As Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney says:
With the stripping of all power of duly elected officials in Benton Harbor and the attack on Detroit school teachers, we can now see the true nature of the Emergency Manager system.
This is a real life instance of taking away our fundamental rights… These new powers are taking away the will and voice of the people by stripping away the rights of public officials elected by Michiganders.
Gaffney said that emergency managers can exploiting the current crisis situation, creating a ”true case of political over-reach, and will simply add to the hardships of an already suffering populace in Michigan.” Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s What Happens When Manufacturing Disappears
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Steve Cappozola of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), reports on what happens when manufacturing jobs disappear. This is a cross post from the AAM website.
Last week, Manufacture This published a chart showing how lost manufacturing jobs correspond with lower state revenues and higher state budget deficits.
We thought we’d amplify that point by citing a sad and disturbing New York Times article on the exodus of Detroit’s population. With Michigan hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs, Detroit’s population has fallen by 25 percent over the past decade. The result? 237,500 residents have left town. Read the rest of this entry »
Labor Day Wrap: It’s Time for Jobs
While AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was in Milwaukee Labor Day with President Obama and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler traveled throughout California, taking part in three Labor Day celebrations. In Los Angeles, she told an enthusiastic crowd at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor ’s Labor Day breakfast:
There’s nothing wrong with good jobs in America. There’s nothing wrong with trade that creates jobs—instead of killing them.
At Detroit’s massive Labor Day parade and rally, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told the more than 50,000 participants we must use our votes to ensure that jobs are created:
For the next 57 days [until the election], the labor movement is going to be hard core about politics—the politics of change and not the politics of “No.” What we’re working for is jobs—jobs and the future.
