New Coalition Formed to Strengthen Social Security

As Social Security turns 75 years old Aug. 14, the nation’s most successful social program likely will be under attack by the federal budget deficit commission, which, by all accounts, is considering benefits cuts and raising the retirement age.

Many coalitions and organizations argue the detrimental affects of raising the retirement age or privatizing social security.  Recently the Older Women's Economic Security Task Force hosted a congressional briefing on their new report, Raising the Retirement Age in Social Security is Dangerous. To learn more visit www.socialsecuritymatters.org.  Or for further information, consult some of these groups:  Americans for Secure Retirement, Social Security Works, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Pension Rights Center, Older Women's League and Alliance for Retired Americans.

IAM Mourns the Loss of Dorthy Height

Dorothy I. Height, 98, whose crusade for racial justice and gender equality spanned more than six decades, died early in the morning on April 20, a spokesman for Howard University Hospital said. The spokesman, Ron Harris, said Ms. Height died at 3:41 a.m. No cause of death was given.

Pictured to the right:  In a Nov. 19, 1964 file photo, from left, James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban League; Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women, talk to reporters in Washington D.C. after meeting with President Lyndon Johnson. Height, a leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement, died Tuesday, April 20, 2010. She was 98. (AP Photo/file) (AP)

Click here to view a video commemorating her accomplishments and contributions to the Civil Rights movement.

Click here to read her online obituary with picture slide show

Countdown to 20th Anniversary of ADA

July 26, 2010 marks the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The act was intended to give broader protections against the discrimination against workers with disabilities.

To commemorate the anniversary, the US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy has created a website designed to connect people with disabilities, their family members, veterans, caregivers, employers, service providers and others with the resources they need to ensure that people with disabilities can fully participate in the workplace and in their communities.  The website includes a blog which highlights a different issue or fact of the ADA, as it counts down to the anniversary.  Click here to follow the blog

Long-Term Unemployment Report from Joint Econmic Committee

National Urban League CEO -- Voice for the Unemployed

National Urban League President and Chief Executive Officer Marc H. Morial today shared the personal stories of unemployed Americans with the Congressional Black Caucus during a hearing on the jobs crisis.

"Their stories are both heartbreaking and hopeful," Morial said. "They paint a portrait of Americans who are willing to fight with everything they have, if only they are given a chance to succeed. On behalf of the more than eight million Americans who've lost their jobs during this economic crisis, the National Urban League urges Congress to pass legislation that funds direct job creation and job training. "

The IAM Women's and Human Rights Department is promoting our JOBS Now! in this same fight to pass legislation that funds the creation of jobs.  You can send an electronic letter to your elected representatives through our JOBS Now! link.

March -- A Time for Telling "Her-Story"

March is National Women’s History Month.  It’s a time to reflect on all the contributions, successes and achievements made by women throughout history.  In celebration of their 30^th Anniversary, the National Women’s History Project is embarking on a mission to “Write Women Back into History.”  Their overall objective is to recognize and celebration the diverse and historic accomplishments of women.  The National Women’s History Project asserts that, “history of women often seems to be written with Invisible ink.  Even when recognized in their own times, women are often not included in the history books.”

 

Learn more about the influential and inspiration women from our history.

visit the National Women's History Project "Her Story Scrapbook"

Visit an interactive Women's History Timeline

 

Canadian Labor and Women's Groups call for a Reality Check

Yesterday, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) along with other trade union and women's organizations released "Reality Check: Women in Canada and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action Fifteen Years On."

 

According to Barbara Byers, CLC Executive Vice President, this report is to counter a report sent by Canada to the United Nations which, “paints a rosy picture on women’s equality in

Canada.”

 

This reality check is needed.  In a press release on the subject, Kate McInturff Executive Director of the Canadian Feminist Alliance For International Action (FAFIA) says, “Five years ago, Canada was ranked amongst the top ten countries in the world for its achievements in women’s human rights; in 2009 Canada has fallen to 73^rd in the UN Gender Disparity Index.  Changes to gender architecture, shifts in policy and programming within the government, and the government’s response to the economic crisis have been felt by the most vulnerable women and girls in Canada.”

 

Canadian General Vice President has signed in agreement of this report on behalf of Canadian Machinists.

 

Read the full report

Support International Women’s Day

The IAM is joining organizations, governments and women's groups around the globe in celebration of International Women's Day, Monday, March 8, to mark the many economic, political and social successes attributed to women.

This year, on International Women's Day and during the entire month of March (Women's History Month), the IAM is calling on all our members to join in the JOBS Now! campaign.  "JOBS Now! is about getting people back to work and putting our country on the road to recovery," says Executive Assistant Diane Babineaux.  "Nothing provides more opportunity and security for our members and their families than equal access to good paying jobs with decent benefits. We must join together in telling Congress American needs JOBS Now!

Send an online postcard to your elected representatives

Download International Women's Day handouts for distribution

Learn more about International Women's Day

 

CLC Highlights African-Canadian History

The Canadian Labour Congress acknowledges Black History Month as an important opportunity to recognize the contributions African-Canadians have made.  Did you know that the phrase, "The Real McCoy" is in reference to an invention by an African-Canadian whose quality couldn't be reproduced by copy-cat inventors?  Or, that ten years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for to a white woman African-Canadian Viola Desmond began her fight with segregation in Canada by sitting in the "whites only" section of a movie theater.

Read more about McCoy and Desmond from the Canadian Labour Congeress 

Other famous African-Canadians

 

Canadians Encouraged to Learn of Their Own Black History

An op-ed printed in the Toronto Star on February 2, 2010, calls for Canadians to use Black History Month as a chance to learn of their country's own history of black Canadians.  Echoing that sentiment is the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS), which is using Black History Month as the launching point for their decade-long education project titled "The Time is Now."  OBHS seeks to acknowledge and foster and understanding of the importantce black Canadians have played in Canadians history.

 Read more to read the Toronto Star Op-Ed article and click here to connect to OBHS's website.

African-American History Honored in February

We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born to parents who were former slaves, he spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in high school at age twenty. He graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. The scholar was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population-and when blacks did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time.

 

In 1926, he launched Negro History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.   Read more to learn why February is also noted for other events significant to the history of the African-Americans.

Click Here to visit the Black History Interactive Timeline

Source: infoplease.com

Labor Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.

Executive Assistant Diane Babineaux led a delegation of IAM members to Greensboro, NC, where they joined other AFL-CIO labor organizations in honoring the life and legacy of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King dedicated his life to the achievement of civil rights for African Americans, as well as other minorities.  He was a supporter of organized labor, as he believed that civil rights would not truly exist if economic justice wasn't achieved.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN, where he had traveled to show support for striking sanitation workers.  Every year over the MLK holiday, members of the labor community rededicate themselves to the common goals of equality and economic justice by planning a weekend of events such as a community service day, spiritual celebrations, parades, workshops and speakers.

‘They Sat, So that We Could Stand’

Three of the four college students who sat down at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, on February 1, 1960, returned to that city last week as living legends of the civil rights movement and guests of honor at the 2010 AFL-CIO Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance.

Job Training for Minorities, Women and Veterans

The Labor Department announced January 6, 2010, that it is awarding almost $100 million in grants for training programs that help dislocated workers, veterans, women, African Americans and Latinos find jobs in expanding green industries.

 

The training will prepare workers for jobs as hybrid/electric auto technicians, weatherization specialists, wind and energy auditors and solar panel installers and will be tailored to jobs that are in demand locally.  The programs are designed to lead to industry credentials and employment, including placement in registered apprenticeship programs.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Remembered

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon.  While addressing the AFL-CIO Convention in December 1961, King said: 

"Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires, and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor's needs — decent wages,  fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth."

AFL-CIO Convention, December 1961 

 

King’s legacy is remembered each year by the labor community through their MLK Jr. Observance Celebration.  This year union members will gather in Greensboro, NC to honor Dr. King’s legacy and commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the lunch counter sit-ins.

Expanding Diversity, Resolution 7

At the 2005 AFL-CIO Convention delegates unanimously passed Resolution 2, which called for diversity and full inclusion of women and people of color within the leadership levels of the labor movement.  Great strides have been made within the past four years and now steps are being taken to carry the principles of Resolution 2 further by adopting AFL-CIO Convention Resolution 7.

Minorities Bear Recession's Blunt

The issues of poverty and race took center stage at the 39 th Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) this week.  The overall poverty level is the highest since 1997.  A report released by the US Census Bureau shows many African Americans -- one in four -- live below the poverty level.  Additionally, children have been especially hard hit, with 6.3 million considered poor, 750,000 more than 2007.  Researchers say the situation will only get worse this year as more and more people become unemployed.

AFL-CIO Delegates Deliver on Diversity Pledge

Four years ago, the delegates at the 2005 AFL-CIO Convention in Chicago approved an historic resolution to bring more women, more minorities and more young people into the ranks and leadership of the 56-union labor federation. This week, as the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention gets underway in Pittsburgh, PA, fully 43 percent of the delegates and alternate delegates are women and people of color.