Social Media: New Tools Aid in Organizing
They’re tweeting in Northern California about the Employee Free Choice Act, sharing about health care reform on Facebook in Montana and posting organizing messages on My Space for workers in York, Pa.
Across the country, union members are using the new social media to mobilize workers and share information.
Steve Selby, an Electrical Workers (IBEW) organizer in York, Pa., knows the value of social media. He urgently needed to reach 300 workers at a local Comcast office. Rather than standing outside the office and handing out a flier with different information each day, Selby taught himself how to set up a MySpace account. He handed out one flier directing workers to his MySpace page, where he shared information the workers needed to know.
Trumka to Netroots Nation: Keep Telling the Truth
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One of the highlights of Netroots Nation was last night’s stirring keynote address by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, who delivered a call to action to the netroots.
Trumka won a standing ovation for his speech, which pointed out the critical role of the netroots in fighting corporate domination and amplifying the voice for progressive change:
Trumka said: “God bless you for looking at power and saying, ‘We won’t back down.’ “
Acknowledging the need to educate a new generation of young workers about unions and why they matter, Trumka pledged to listen to the voices of younger people and to reach out to those who are entering a new kind of workplace in the 21st century. In this troubled economy, he said, the freedom to join a union and bargain was more important than ever. Giving workers bargaining power means giving them the buying power they need to keep our economy going.
You can’t borrow your way into the middle class. You have to bargain your way into the middle class.
Netroots Nation: The Labor Caucus
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The union movement has come a long way online, and at this year’s Netroots Nation conference, online union activists got a chance to check in and talk about where we still need to go. This year’s Labor Caucus was the largest yet since we first got together at what was then the YearlyKos convention in 2006.
About 60 people came out for the caucus, mostly union members and union staffers from across the movement but also bloggers and activists who support workers. Our own Tula Connell and Michael Whitney of SEIU moderated the session.
We kicked off the caucus by noting what we’ve accomplished thus far. The strong union participation in Netroots Nation is a good sign we’re a vibrant, important part of the progressive blogging community now. We’ve made the case that working family issues are progressive issues.
Union Beer and Activism—Together at Netroots Nation
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Hundreds of Netroots Nation attendees are showing their support for health care and the Employee Free Choice Act—and getting to sample a great union-made beer at the same time.
More than 200 people already have signed up to join Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, and hundreds more have taken action on key issues at the AFL-CIO/Working America booth in the Netroots Nation exhibit hall. Then they’re “raising a glass for the working class” at our union beer tasting. It’s a hit among Netroots Nation attendees.
Chad Cyrowski, a blogger for Progress Michigan, was among the hundreds who took action and enjoyed a union brew:
I signed up in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. I think it’s a really important way to give workers the ability to get ahead. We have to do it to fix our economy. I hope we can pass it this year.
Netroots Nation: Working with Unions in Your District
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At Netroots Nation, there is a wide variety of activists and bloggers who hope to make positive changes in their own communities. In their local unions they have a strong potential partner in this effort—but only if communication and trust between the groups is created. That’s was the focus of “Working with Unions in Your District,” a panel held Thursday afternoon at the conference.
Blogger Chris Shannon moderated the panel, which included Blaine Rummel of AFSCME, Matt Browner Hamlin of SEIU, Elana Levin of Workers United and our own Eddie Vale, AFL-CIO media specialist. The panel introduced bloggers to what unions are and how progressives can work with them to help make positive change in their communities.
Rummel noted that union members can have the biggest impact at the local level, because they’re bottom-up, member-driven organizations.
We Are All Steelworkers
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So I took a tour of a steel plant today. There was a lot of hot, molten steel, but also high-tech computerized systems running the show, making sure just enough steel is poured into a mold at just the right temperature and speed, among many other functions.
The tour of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in North Braddock, Pa., was sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing and the Campaign for America’s Future as part of the Netroots Nation conference here in Pittsburgh.
On the way to the Thomson plant, we passed by the spot on the Monongahela River where, in 1892, striking steelworkers literally did battle with Pinkerton thugs who tried a sneak attack on them from barges in the river. The workers were prepared, and the Pinkertons surrendered. Ultimately, though, Carnegie, the owner of the plant, won the Homestead strike.
Passing by Homestead was a reminder that many people associate steel mills with the hazy history of our nation, but this tour was not about nostalgia. It was about the future—and how steel plants and manufacturing must be an essential part of 21st century America, or our economy will wither.
Netroots Nation: Eye on Employee Free Choice
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If you’d like to follow this session live, we’ll be covering it on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/aflcio ).
Thursday kicks off the second annual Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh.
And at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, we’ll be discussing one of the most critical changes that progressives are fighting for, both online and off—the Employee Free Choice Act.
Here are the folks who will weigh in at the afternoon panel, “The Secret Plan to Defeat the Right Forever,” on why labor law reform like the Employee Free Choice Act must be a top progressive priority:
- Stewart Acuff, special assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO. A longtime organizer and the former director of organizing for the AFL-CIO, Acuff has traveled the country in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
- Jake McIntyre, a front page writer at Daily Kos and assistant to the secretary-treasurer of the Bricklayers (BAC).
- Tanya Tarr, director of legislative and political mobilization for the Texas AFT and a specialist on union voter turnout.
- Elana Levin of Workers United, a writer with a long record in collaboration between the union movement and the progressive netroots.
Raise a Glass for the Working Class
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A couple months ago, Mike Elk at the Campaign for America’s Future wrote a piece about why he had stopped drinking Yuengling beer. Titled “Union Busting Ended My Love Affair with a Beer,” it got some other people thinking about responsible beer-drinking. (Responsible beyond obvious stuff like not drinking and driving, that is.)
The AFL-CIO and Working America have joined together to move that discussion forward at Netroots Nation. And, since it’s Netroots Nation, it’s got to be fun as well as educational. That’s why we’re, literally, raising a glass (or a few hundred of them) for the working class.
During Netroots Nation, stop by our booth any time the exhibit hall is open, and take action for working families—sign on to support health care reform or the freedom to join a union, or join Working America (if you’re not already a member). We’ll also have wallet-sized info cards to carry as a reminder of which beers are union made.
Then, each afternoon, come back to the booth and (if you’re older than 21), sample some union beer. We’ll have locally brewed Iron City, Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat and Classic Amber, and either Miller High Life or Budweiser American Ale. If you’re not an alcohol drinker, you can taste some Sharp’s.
We hope we see you there!
Netroots Nation: Panels to Watch on Workers’ Issues
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Breaking: AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka will speak at Netroots Nation on Saturday, Aug. 15.
It’s only a few days until the second annual Netroots Nation conference, where progressive bloggers and activists from across the country will meet to discuss the issues facing our country.
Here are some sessions we’ll be attending that focus on workers and the economy:
- Bloggers and Blue Collar Workers Unite: You Have Nothing to Lose But Wall-Street Domination: Thursday, 10:30 a.m. United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and our own Tula Connell will be among those discussing how bloggers can join in the fight to protect working people from corporate control.
- How to Work with Unions in Your District: Thursday, 3 p.m. Find out how unions and bloggers can partner on campaigns and events with the AFL-CIO’s Eddie Vale, AFSCME’s Blaine Rummel and other activists.
Jobs Don’t Live Here Anymore
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The unemployment data is due tomorrow, and it’s likely to be bad, with an expected 300,000 to 320,000 jobs lost in July, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and others. That’s a big problem. But unfortunately, when it comes to getting the nation back to work, tomorrow’s unemployment rate isn’t the biggest problem we face.
What’s really troubling is long-term unemployment.
EPI economists see the economic stimulus as alleviating the jobs crisis created under Bush. In fact, the economic recovery program already has saved or created some 750,000 jobs. Plus, says John Irons, EPI director of research and policy, the gross domestic product (GDP) report last week showing GDP shrunk far less in the second quarter of this year (-1 percent) than the first quarter (-6.4 percent). That means
we’re beginning to see the fingerprints of the economic recovery package.
