Florida Protesters Greet Wisconsin’s Walker
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This is a cross-post by Karen Hickey, communications director at the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.
Working families in southwest Florida are standing in solidarity with Wisconsin workers and protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) visit to Naples. Walker spoke this morning at the Ritz-Carlton resort in Naples, Fla., as part of the James Madison Institute think-tank luncheon.
The protesters in the Sunshine State are shining a light on Walker’s attacks on middle-class families. WZVN, a local news station, is reporting that:
Protesters are lined up to express their disapproval of the embattled governor…at Vanderbilt Beach and Airport Pulling. They say Walker is in town trying to raise money to defeat the recall election he faces in Wisconsin.
The timing is perfect, says Wally Ilczyszyn, president of Florida’s Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT).
Walker’s at the Ritz-Carlton for a $500-a-plate luncheon because he can’t find enough money in his home state to fight against his recall. So he has to come here. Read the rest of this entry »
Painters Give Women’s Safe Haven Building Needed Makeover
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AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer sends us this report.
Members from the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 2, friends and family came together in South St. Louis in recent days to give the “Women in Transition” organization a much needed makeover.
Union painters, tapers, glaziers, friends and family of District Council 2 put the two apartment buildings in their sights to be re-painted. After being graciously supplied with donations by PaintSmith Companies, CR Painting and More and Sherwin-Williams of Crestwood, they decorated the eight apartments in just one day! Read the rest of this entry »
Check Out Video Clip of Ironworkers, IUPAT Rallying for Bridges, Jobs
The Ironworkers today send us this video of their action at the South Capitol Street Bridge in Washington D. C., with the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) during last week’s AFL-CIO’s Infrastructure Investment Day of Action. The actions highlighted dozens of bridges across the nation in desperate need of repair and called on Congress to put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding the nation’s crumbling bridges and roads.
African American Delegation Arriving Now in Alabama
Brenda Loya in AFL-CIO Media Affairs sends us this from Alabama, where she will report on the delegation of African American labor and civil rights leaders as they investigate Alabama’s recently passed anti-immigrant law. Follow the delegation here.
With the passage of H.B. 56, Alabama has taken a huge step backward, into the 1950s. Today, an African American delegation of labor and civil rights leaders traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to help shed a light on what is seen as one of the harshest immigration laws in the country and how it invokes inhumanity reminiscent of the Jim Crow South.
The delegation will investigate first-hand the impact of Alabama’s H.B. 56 on the lives of Latino working families. National, state and local leaders will hear from the families directly impacted by the law, document the impact of the law on Latino communities, acquire a better understanding of the civil rights implications of the legislation and assess the impact of the law on workers and businesses.
1,000 Ohioans Hit Streets to Strike Down Issue 2
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AFL-CIO Field Communications Coordinator Andrew Richards sends us the latest on efforts to get-out-the-vote to repeal a bill killing collective bargaining rights in Ohio.
There are only 24 days to go until Election Day, Nov. 8, but Ohio’s working families aren’t slowing down. On Saturday, nearly 1,000 union members and community activists across the state participated in walks and phone banks to talk with working families and urge them to vote “NO” on Issue 2 to repeal S.B. 5 on Election Day or through early voting. S.B. 5, which guts the collective bargaining rights of public employees, was pushed through last spring by Republican Gov. John Kasich and the Republican-controlled legislature.
Cleveland Teachers Union/AFT President Dave Quolke joined North Shore AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Harriet Applegate and more than 200 union members to kick off Saturday’s “NO on Issue 2/S.B. 5” walks and phone banks in that city. As Quolke told volunteers:
It will be all of us and our brothers and sisters that will ensure all of Ohio hears our message to vote No on Issue 2 to repeal S.B. 5. We will make certain on Nov. 8, Election Day, no one will ask did I do enough or did I do everything I had to do.
Nearly 100 walked and phone banked in Akron. Garvin Carter, of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) Local 841 and an active member in the Akron NAACP chapter, participated in the walks on Saturday. Carter said he is concerned about the deliberate attempt by Kasich and his corporate-funded backers to confuse Ohio voters.
If you watch TV ads, they are twisting everybody’s words.
Carter referred to this. He also said the local NAACP is working hard to get the word out to communities of color in the area.
Follow Today’s National Jobs and Justice Symposium Live Here
The AFL-CIO and the King Center’s national symposium on Jobs, Justice and the American Dream will get underway shortly and you can follow it with our live Twitter feed here and on Twitter with the hashtag #jobsjustice.
The first session, Jobs and the American Dream (9-10:45 a.m.), moderated by former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, will include AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, Martin Luther King III, Rep. John Lewis, Bruce Western of Harvard’s Weiner Center for Social Policy, Sarita Gupta from Jobs with Justice, Painters and Allied Trades member Davon Lomax and AFT member Kathleen Hofmann.
The second session, Justice and the American Dream (11 a.m.-12:45 p.m.), moderated by Noticiero Univision’s Maria Elena Salinas, will include AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler; former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Mary Frances Berry, Wisconsin Fire Fighter Mahlon Mitchell, DREAMer student Isabel Castillo, AFL-CIO Young Worker Coordinator Kurston Cook and Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Rea Carey.
Toilet Paper Drive Collects 115,000+ Rolls for Sacramento Area Nonprofits
AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer describes union volunteer efforts to stretch the limited dollars of Sacramento area nonprofit organizations.
Every year local nonprofit agencies spend thousands of dollars on toilet paper for families in need. That’s money they could be spending on much-needed services that benefit the community. Since 2009, the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the local United Way have partnered to create Toilet Paper Drives to help local nonprofit partners offset costs and redirect the money saved into vital programs.
This year the partners collected 77,227 rolls of toilet paper (compared with 50,000 rolls last year) that were matched by a local company, bringing the total to an impressive 115,000 rolls.
Pulte Got Taxpayer $$ to Create Jobs–But Didn’t
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Ben Horowitz from Painter and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, sends us this report.
In Romulus, Mich., seven community members linked arms and refused to leave the street outside the Detroit Airport Marriott, blocking a bus they believed was carrying PulteGroup’s board of directors. Minutes later, while the Romulus 7 were taken away in handcuffs, the PulteGroup board sat inside, still not held accountable for the $880M tax refund they ostensibly received for job creation.
The money came to Pulte thanks to the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. This Act was intended to create jobs and extend benefits to the unemployed. Instead, PulteGroup is spending the cash on debt buy-downs and land, while increasing the ranks of the unemployed by laying off employees.
The Rev. Charles Williams II, who was arrested by Romulus police, summed it up this way:
I believe Pulte’s acceptance of $880 million taxpayer dollars is unethical and should be illegal. And if it takes me getting in their way of business as usual to make the Board of Directors do the right thing, then I’m willing to do that. We’re calling on Pulte shareholders and our federal legislators to make Pulte do the right thing — use the money to create jobs, or give it back.
Some 200 more union members, community activists and other allies remained outside, holding signs demanding answers and chanting:
Where are the jobs? Where is the money?
As states across the country grapple with deficits and contemplate tax cuts of their own, the Building Justice campaign by the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and IUPAT District Council 15 with the support of the AFL-CIO has followed PulteGroup executives across the country to remind taxpaying Americans that money for job creation needs to come with accountability. In January of 2011, activists interrupted a conference of mortgage executives being led by Debra Still, Pulte Mortgage’s director.
Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams said:
We have shown up at virtually every public event attended by Pulte executives to ask one simple question. Where did the money go that Pulte got from the federal government to create the jobs? There needs to be accountability here.
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.
Union Members Generously Give for the Holidays
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Throughout the holiday season, union members have spread more than a sleigh full of holiday cheer, from helping Santa answer kids’ letters, to food and toy drives and reuniting families. Here are just a few of the holiday highlights.
For six years, the Atlantic and Cape May (N.J.) Counties Central Labor Council has brought far-flung families back together with its “Fly Home for the Holidays” program. The council takes requests from area residents who want to fly home two relatives, but need help. Along with the airfare, comes a $500 holiday shopping spree and other goodies.
Says council President Roy Foster:
Being in a labor movement is about meeting and helping people in the community. If we can help in some small way, especially at this time of the year, then we’re fulfilling our mission.
