Nurses Tell Wall Street: Pay Debt to Main Street
More than 1,000 nurses from National Nurses United (NNU) are in San Francisco for the union’s annual convention that kicks off tonight with an address by Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown (D). The convention runs through Friday.
Tomorrow, delegates will rally at the Federal Reserve office downtown as part of NNU’s ongoing campaign for a tax on Wall Street’s financial speculation to provide revenue for Main Street reforms, including jobs at living wages, guaranteed health care for all and freedom from hunger, homelessness and retirement insecurity.
Additionally, the convention will include an international panel of nurses discussing the global economic crisis and international solutions, including a financial speculation tax, similar to what NNU proposes, which has been adopted in more than a dozen other developed nations, and may soon be adopted for the full European Union.
Filmmaker Michael Moore and Linda Silas, RN, president of the Canadian Federal of Nurses, will address the convention.
Reuther Brothers Film Gets World Premiere at Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival
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We’re looking forward to the release later this year of the documentary “Brothers On The Line,” which chronicles the lives of UAW leader Walter Reuther and his brothers, Roy and Victor—from the Great Depression to the Great Society.
But this month, activist moviemaker Michael Moore will give audiences at his annual Traverse City Film Festival (July 26-31) a sneak preview when the film’s writer, producer and director, Sasha Reuther, screens his work in progress. Sasha is Victor Reuther’s grandson.
Reuther says he sent a rough cut of the film to Moore who then invited him to screen it at the festival where Moore will be paying special tribute to unions.
“Brothers On the Line” follows the Reuthers from the 1930’s bloody battles with auto company thugs, sit-down strikes to the establishment of the UAW as one of the most influential unions and through their fight for equality and civil rights. According to the film’s website:
Michigan Workers Set to Rally Against Snyder’s Attack on Democracy
Thousands of Michigan union, community, student, faith and other activists are on their way to Lansing today for a massive rally to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) blatant assault on democracy with his “financial martial law” bill that won final legislative approval yesterday.
The so-called emergency managers bill would allow 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 whole cities or school districts without any public input.
Michigan State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney says the bill is:
an affront to the bedrock principle of a representative democracy that our nation was founded upon.
‘America Is Not Broke,’ Michael Moore Tells Cheering Thousands
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This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin Labor History Society.
Film producer Michael Moore captivated the thousands of protesters at the state Capitol Saturday, March 5, with his speech, “America Is Not Broke.” He said, the “country is awash in cash. It’s just that it’s not in your hands” but with 400 of the uber-rich, whom he called “little Mubaraks,” who now have more cash, stock and assets than more than 155 million Americans combined.
Moore told the cheering crowd that “until Madison, Wis., and this last month, we have felt helpless against the rich.”
Michael Moore to Wisconsin Workers: All America Thanks You
For the third straight weekend and 20th straight day, tens of thousands of workers are rallying at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., for the right of public employees to bargain for good middle-class jobs. Filmmaker Michael Moore joined the crowd and is on stage now, saying:
All America thanks you.
Watch the action live online here. Follow the action on Twitter with the hashtags #notmywi and #wiunion, and check out some recent tweets below.
ekvraga The Capitol square is packed with protestedrs for the third straight weekend, so many the picture upload failed! #wiunion
ubiquity75 Michael Moore has taken the stage. “All of America thanks you, #WI.” #wiunion
wapi40 RT @MMFlint Money doesnt grow on trees WALKER ! Peopel do ! Workers do ! Education system ! Wake up #WALKER you Idiot ! #UNION
aftrachel Please RT – volunteers needed to www.recalltherepublican8.com #wiunion #solidaritywi #weac #notmywi #killthisbill #wiunions
jennnnie Anyone else notice GOP is talking a lot more about firing public workers than they are about getting people back to work? #WIunion #tcot #p2
Michael Moore Headed to Madison, Watch Today’s Rally Online
Just announced: Filmmaker Michael Moore is headed to Madison, Wis., to join citizens for another massive rally as Day 20 of protests gets under way. With the right of public employees to bargain for good middle-class jobs on the line, residents from across the state have remained energized in their struggle against Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to kill collective bargaining and fire employees.
Today’s rally in Madison begins at 2 CT. Watch the rally live-streamed here. Follow the action on Twitter with the hashtags #notmywi and #wiunion, and check out some recent tweets below.
aftrachel Just announced – M Moore will be at Capitol in an hour! #wiunion #solidaritywi #weac #notmywi #killthisbill
LJHerrmann 1500+ supporters in Eau Claire for rally today. Great turnout! Go 14! #killthebill #wiunion #notmywi
Karofsky RT @TagEvers: Michelle Shocked&Jon Langford perform noon 2day: Step It Up-We R #Wisconsin! Rally #wiunion #wearewi #notmywi
imagist RT @CapTimes: Op/Ed: Mary Buchholz: Walker’s bullying is reprehensible http://dlvr.it/JM8bF #wiunion #notmywi #notmyusa
JohnTweedale Gov Walker needs to be recalled, or something, this man is clearly an enemy of Democracy and freedom! #wiunion #notmywi
Striking Temple Hospital Workers Reach Agreement
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Some 1,500 striking workers, including 1,000 nurses and 500 health care professionals, at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia are voting today on a new tentative agreement reached last night. If they ratify the new deal, the workers could be back at work as early as Friday.
Members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), have been on strike since March 31. They have been without a contract since September.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the new contract, which expires in October 2013, includes wage increases and provides some tuition reimbursement for dependents.
The key issues in the strike included wages, health benefits, a new clause forbidding employees from disparaging the hospital and the withdrawal of tuition reimbursement for dependents, a longtime benefit.
Michael Moore Gets ‘People’s Oscar’
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The Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) Council, AFL-CIO and the American Film Institute in Silver Spring, Md., co-sponsored last night’s showing of “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Michael Moore’s fantastic new documentary that some of us were fortunate to see at its U.S. premier in Pittsburgh during the AFL-CIO Convention. Below is a cross-post from the central labor council.
Calling it “The People’s Oscar,” Michael Moore (left) enthusiastically accepted the Tony Mazzocchi Labor Arts Award at last night’s D.C. preview of his new film Capitalism: A Love Story. “I knew Tony and he was a remarkable man,” an obviously touched Moore said after being presented with the award by DC Labor FilmFest Co-Chairs Jos Williams and Mark Dudzic, “this really means a lot to me.” (Mazzocchi, president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, was a driving force in establishing the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1970.)
The Revolution Will Be Twittered
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How appropriate Michael Moore premiered “Capitalism: A Love Story” in Pittsburgh this week, to coincide with our 26th AFL-CIO Convention. Moore, in an action spearheaded by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), marched with AFL-CIO delegates to the movie theater, and afterward, encouraged all of us to sponsor it in theaters throughout the country, because, as he says at the end of the film, he needs help to spark the populist revolution.
He’ll have a great partner with the new leadership of the AFL-CIO. Late yesterday, delegates elected Richard Trumka president, Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer, and re-elected Arlene Holt Baker executive vice president. The team is a mini-revolution in itself: It’s the first time the top leadership of the AFL-CIO includes two women, and Shuler, 39, is the youngest-ever unionist ever to hold so high a position in the labor movement.
CNA/NNOC Hosts Moore’s ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ for AFL-CIO Convention
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Pittsburgh isn’t just hosting the AFL-CIO Convention next week: The city also will host a special showing of Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Monday night.
Moore, who most recently directed “Sicko,” now turns his lens on the U.S. financial and economic crisis. On Monday, Sept. 14, following the second day of the AFL-CIO Convention, AFL-CIO delegates and guests will get a chance to see the film.
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), says that the film is:
the best major labor film in years…an unabashed advocacy of working people and critique of an unjust system and the financial misdeeds that have led to the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
