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.
Back to School to Learn Labor History
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As children begin returning to school after the holidays, AFT is providing tools for educators to teach them things they ought to know about America’s labor history. A special section in the winter edition of American Educator, the union’s quarterly journal, focuses on the importance of including labor history in our classrooms.
With the key protections for workers unions have gained under attack, there is a greater need for the next generation to understand the real role of working men and women in building the nation and making it a better place, contributors to the journal say.
James Green, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, explains that learning about the role of working men and women shows students “the contributions that generations of union activists have made to building a nation and to democratizing and humanizing its often brutal workplaces.”
While their predecessors successfully fought for monumental changes that benefited all Americans (not just union members), such as passing the Social Security Act of 1935 and ending child labor, today’s union veterans can take pride in their own accomplishments. For example, they pushed for mine safety laws and workers’ compensation laws. They fought for the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
