For almost 3 weeks, ASARCO workers have been holding signs and taking shifts picketing around the clock. According to the United Steelworkers, about 2,000 hourly workers at five ASARCO, LLC locations in Arizona and Texas voted to strike instead of accepting the Grupo México’s “last, best and final” offer.
Working 12-hour shifts in an open-pit mine, smelter or refinery is difficult and dangerous, and ASARCO employees have not had a wage increase in 10 years. They are on the front lines fighting not only for a fair contract but against corporate greed.
Even with these cold and wet weather conditions, workers say they will continue to fight for what they believe is fair.
AFL-CIO and Allies Converge on the Border to Show Solidarity with Migrant Workers and Asylum Seekers
President Rick Levy and Secretary-Treasurer Montserrat Garibay were part of a large labor delegation at the El Paso/Juarez border this week that expressed solidarity and unity with communities on both sides of the bridge. - Read More
“Sometime ago we decided we should represent our members not only when they’re at work but also when they go home. That means we have to take a stand on issues like white supremacy, justice for immigrant workers and racism." - Rick Levy, Texas AFL-CIO President
Chicago Teachers Union Reach Agreement With Mayor and Chicago Public Schools, Ending Historic 11 Day Strike
The 11-day teachers strike, Chicago’s longest since 1987, is over for students and their striking teachers. But the animosity between the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot lingers in a way that could define the mayor’s tenure. So could bargaining missteps by the rookie mayor that could make negotiating with police and fire unions infinitely more costly and difficult. Lightfoot stubbornly drew a line in the sand, declaring she would not compensate teachers for days spent on strike — then agreed to five paid make-up days. That effectively means a six-day pay cut for striking teachers, and that hurts — so much so that CTU President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates refused to stand with Lightfoot when the mayor announced the agreement Thursday outside her office. - Read More
Austin Statesman: Amid Lack of Regulations in Texas, Heat Takes Toll on Workers
More workers die of heat-related causes in Texas than in any other state — 113 between 1992 and 2017. That’s 27 more than California, where the population is much larger. Nationally, more than 800 people died of heat-related causes during the same period, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Yet in Texas, where temperatures regularly soar into triple digits, there are no state laws to protect workers from the heat — no mandated breaks, no shade requirements, no rules to safely acclimate workers to high temperatures before they set off to spend hours on construction sites, landscaping jobs or road paving crews.
Some Texas lawmakers and worker advocates have tried unsuccessfully for years to pass legislation that would mandate basic protections. They have faced stiff opposition from the politically formidable building industry, which gives millions of dollars to lawmakers. - Read More
Houston Unions Are "Wired for Action" After 2 Day Digital Bootcamp
25 union activists came together at the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation for a 2-day digital bootcamp offered by the Texas AFL-CIO and AFL-CIO Communications Departments. Participants learned the art of digital storytelling using video production, leaflets, Twitter and Facebook. The training ended with a group project simulation tasking participants with creating an engaging FB/Twitter post, interview video, leaflet and email.
Here is an example from a group who chose an apprenticeship scenario for the simulation.
Included on the 1985 R.E.M album “Fables of the Reconstruction,” Driver 8’ suggests a story more than it tells one, and it's probably more correct to say that it suggests many stories. The people who live them in the song speak quickly, or someone speaks for them, about them, or they say the same thing over and over … and some don't speak at all … They're a loosely defined community, which is to say, a nation, bound together by what can seem like not much at all, but bound together nonetheless.
The train in "Driver 8" is the train for everyone, the promise of inclusion, of mattering; it's the deliverance of "The Gospel Train" sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the lyrics of which course through American song, into Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" and Springsteen's "Land of Hope and Dreams". With its chugging rhythm, ambiguous lyrics and modest dramatics, "Driver 8" is a subtle cousin of those songs and that tradition, but it's still related.
Have A Great Weekend! After All...We Fought For It.
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