100th Anniversary of Bread and Roses Strike— Was It the First Occupy?
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Today in Lawrence, Mass., union members and their allies will gather at a historic mill building for a re-enactment of the historic Bread and Roses strike that moved the conscience of the nation, bringing national attention to the plight of the families, including young children, who toiled in the dirty and dangerous factories of Lawrence and throughout the country.
The re-enactment kicks off a yearlong celebration of the Bread and Roses centennial, which will commemorate change-making events in Lawrence that gave rise to the U.S. labor movement.
On Jan. 12, 1912, some 25,000 workers at the mills of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence walked off the job when the company cut their pay—already a mere $8 a week for the men, and less for the women and children—after the state legislature passed a law shortening the length of their workweek from 56 hours to 54 hours. Workers stayed off the job for months, enduring beatings from police and the Massachusetts militia, who spared not even women and children.
Some see in the conditions that led to the Bread and Roses strike parallels to today’s growing income disparity between the wealthy and the rest of us, as well as the exploitation of America’s workers by financial interests. Robert Forrant, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts, calls it “the first Occupy movement.” Says Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman:
Nurses Rally Across the Country in Support of UK Strikers
NNU Communications Director Chuck Idelson sends us this report.
Thousands of nurses from National Nurses United (NNU) along with other union members and allies held rallies in six cities across the country today to support the nearly 2 million British workers striking in the United Kingdom.
U.S. nurses held the actions at British consulates in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando (Fla.), and San Francisco, and at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest the conservative ruling party’s plans to cut public pensions in the United Kingdom.
Corporations in Britain, like the United States, are sitting on massive cash reserves while government officials in both nations push reductions in retirement security and other cuts.
In Washington, D.C., where 200 nurses and their supporters gathered at the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Karen Higgins, an ICU nurse at the Boston Medical Center who is co-president of National Nurses United, said
If people have to keep working with no pensions, it is hurting everyone.
Rajini Raj, RN, agreed:
We’re here in support of the more than 2 million people striking in Great Britain today. We know an injury to one is an injury to all even if there is an ocean between us.
Jos Williams, president of the DC Central Labor Council, summed it up this way:
Today, it is the British workers and tomorrow it is the American workers.
PATCO Strike Changed America, Sheds Light on U.S. Today
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When 12,000 U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan threatened that if they were not back on the job in 48 hours, they would be fired. Two days later, 11,000 of them, all members of PATCO, were terminated and permanently replaced. The PATCO strike not only changed the lives of those involved, who were unable to ever work again in their field, it proved to be a key turning point in this nation for workers seeking a voice at their workplaces, according to Georgetown University professor Joseph McCartin.
Speaking last night as part of a Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor panel at Georgetown, McCartin said the PATCO strike resulted in a fundamental shift in workers’ ability to utilize the strike, widely recognized as workers’ most effective tool in seeking a fair shake on the job. After PATCO, employers were emboldened to replace strikers and, in turn, workers waged fewer and fewer walkouts. By 2010, there were only 11 strikes involving 1,000 or more workers, compared with 222 such strikes in 1960—a 95 percent drop in walkouts. As the ability to successfully strike decreased, so did workers’ strength at the workplace and their numbers in unions. As McCartin summed up:
Ever since a Supreme Court ruling in 1938 in the Mackay case, private-sector employers knew that they had the legal right to replace workers in most strikes. But until 1981 few were willing to risk the conflict and public disapproval that might come from doing so.
Reagan’s firing of the PATCO strikers, which the public initially strongly supported, helped break that barrier of reticence.
McCartin, author of the newly published book, Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers and the Strike that Changed America, was joined by several former PATCO Read the rest of this entry »
Still Nickel and Dimed and (Not) Getting by in America
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Congratulations to author Barbara Ehrenreich for the 10th anniversary re-issuance of her classic study of the working poor, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.” Ehrenreich didn’t just write a theoretical study, she based the book on her experiences working as a waitress, a Wal-Mart “associate,” a nursing home aide and a maid employed by a cleaning service. At the time the book came out, Ehrenreich wrote a piece for us based on her experiences. She concluded:
…even in an economy celebrating unequaled prosperity, a person can work hard, full-time or even more, and not make enough to live on.
That was in 2001. The U.S. unemployment rate at mid-year was 4.5 percent. There were 150,400 home foreclosures in the first quarter of that year, as reported in Aug. 17, 2001, by The New York Times, which noted that home sales were on track to make 2001 the second-best year ever.
Today, the 2001 economy seems like a dream. America’s jobless rate has hovered between 9.1 percent and 10.1 percent for more than a year, with foreclosures in July alone totaling 221,763—and that figure is a 44-month low.
Working at low-wage jobs during the dot.com boom when the economy was buzzing, Ehrenreich wrote that while employed as a waitress,
Eagles Fans Learn About Verizon Greed from Striking Workers, Union Allies
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Liz McElroy of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO and AFL-CIO field communications staffer Nora Frederickson send us this report about a Verizon action in Philadelphia.
As 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW) on the East Coast continue their strike against Verizon to maintain quality, middle-class jobs, union locals in southeastern Pennsylvania decided to take their message directly to the public – at the local ballgame.
More than 500 CWA Local 13000 and Local 13500 members and their allies showed up for the Philadelphia Eagles pre-season game at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia last night–not to tailgate but to educate Eagles fans about the real reasons behind their strike at Verizon.
Members of the local unions there as elsewhere in New England and south through Virginia, have been on strike since Sunday. Rather than reward the hard work of Verizon employees who have provided the quality service that earned the company more than $32.5 billion in revenue over the past three years, management continues to insist on cuts that total $1 billion. That’s about $20,000 per Verizon family. These workers have played by the rules—and now Verizon wants to break them. Read the rest of this entry »
45,000 Verizon Workers on Strike
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UPDATE: Tomorrow morning, Aug. 8, thousands of striking workers will join mass picket lines and rallies at more than 100 Verizon work locations across New York and New Jersey to push the highly profitable company to back off its sweeping demands. The list of picket lines and rallies is here.
And in the Washington, D.C., area, you can show your support for striking workers at a mobilization rally Monday at noon at the Chesapeake Complex, 13100 Columbia Pike, Silver Spring.
More than 45,000 workers from New England to Virginia went on strike just after midnight today at Verizon Communications. Since bargaining began July 22, Verizon has refused to move from a long list of concession demands. As the contract expired, Verizon, a $100 billion company, still was looking for $1 billion in concessions from 45,000 workers and families. That’s about $20,000 in givebacks for every family, nearly 100 concessionary proposals remained on the table.
Twin Cities Nurses Vote to Strike
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Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports on the strike vote by 12,000 Twin City nurses.
Amid chants of “Safe Patient Care,” members of the Minnesota Nurses Association announced they have authorized a strike of Twin Cities hospitals—the largest nursing walkout in U.S. history.
More than 12,000 registered nurses are ready to walk off the job in a one-day strike if a new agreement with six Twin Cities hospital systems can’t be reached before June 1, when the current contract expires, the union said. Nurses had been in talks with 14 Twin Cities hospitals for months, but the union says the hospitals are using the weak economy as an excuse to make cuts that would ultimately hurt patients.
The walkout would affect 14 hospitals in the North Memorial, HealthEast, Allina, Methodist, Children’s and Fairview systems.
Of the 9,000-plus Twin Cities RNs who voted Wednesday, more than 90 percent rejected the labor contracts and pension proposals from the hospitals, the union said. Read the rest of this entry »
