From Miami to Los Angeles, Union Summer Interns Made a Difference
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When the 45 AFL-CIO Union Summer 2011 interns are asked what they did for their summer vacation, they won’t have any stories about lounging on the beach or backpacking through Europe. But the will tell about making a real difference in people’s lives and about how much that involvement has contributed to their sense of social justice.
The five interns who worked in Charlotte, N.C., can show the video they created showing how they began building a community coalition from scratch, including a creative and funny segment showing how they had to crisscross the city trying to track down the president of the local NAACP.
The Milwaukee contingent will be able to describe how they helped recall two Republicans who support Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union agenda and how they had to deal with being cursed at and followed by people who opposed their efforts.
With Paintbrush and a Classroom, a Union Painter Gives Back
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Nora Frederickson, AFL-CIO Media fellow, sends us this profile of a union member who gives back to his community in a big way.
Eric Howard, a painter from Hialea, Fla., knows what it’s like to dream of a better life. Growing up in inner city Miami in a working-class family, Howard worked odd jobs after school and learned from his family how to make do. He painted his first house as a teenager—but it wasn’t until his first painting class at Miami’s local Job Corps program that he decided to make his living as a union painter.
Through a partnership between the Miami Job Corps program and the local Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) union, Howard is now a licensed painter with 15 years of experience under his belt. In addition to running his own jobs, he’s president of his local union, IUPAT Local 365. But the role he’s proudest of is his job as a full-time instructor with Job Corps, where he teaches and mentors young people aspiring to become union painters.
As a Job Corps instructor, Howard focuses on filling his classes with promising students—those with the talent and determination to make it in the construction industry—and then teaches them the tools they need to succeed as apprentice painters.
I look for ones who have a positive attitude, the ones who grasp the techniques fast and are good listeners—the ones who are really serious. I let them know when they come into the Job Corps program, that this is everything you’re going to need to succeed in the apprenticeship program.
In his classes at Job Corps, Howard’s students learn techniques and safety practices before moving on to work-based learning. After completing the program, they continue their training as apprentice painters with IUPAT before becoming certified painters.
25,000 City Workers Near Contract in San Francisco—and More Bargaining News
25,000 city workers in San Francisco reach a tentative agreement—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
NEGOTIATIONS
Multiple, City of San Francisco: Unions, representing more than 25,000 city workers, have reached a two-year tentative agreement with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, which will help the city close its massive $483 million budget gap. If approved, city workers will take 12 furlough days a year, including the shutdown of nonessential services between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Solis Investigating Guest Worker Visas on Florida Hotel Project
In one of her first official acts as labor secretary, Hilda Solis has asked for a review of how Mexican sheet metal workers were given visas to work on the St. Regis Hotel project in Bal Harbour, Fla., when more than 1,000 members of the Sheet Metal Workers union (SMWIA) are out of work in the same area.
The company hired to install the heating and air conditioning ducts, CYVSA International, received approval from the state of Florida and the Bush Labor Department for visas to bring in foreign workers for seasonal work. But the visas are supposed to be granted only if there are no Americans available to do the job.
Florida ranked second in the number of jobs certified for foreign workers under one of the visa programs known as H-2B. In 2008, a total of 22,195 jobs in the state were approved for H-2B foreign workers, including 1,145 construction workers, 119 roofers, 10 electricians and six bricklayers.
