Thousands of labor and environmental activists gathered in downtown St. Louis today to protest corporate greed at Peabody Energy’s annual shareholders meeting, in solidarity with the United Mine Workers union. For more check out the Twitter hashtag #UMWA. (Photos from @CathySherwin and @aliemalie)
This makes me so proud of our Union Brothers and Sisters in St. Louis!
.@repalgreen, @rweingarten, and @hcaflcio’s secretary-treasurer, Richard Shaw listen to community leaders and organizers talk about the issues surrounding #immigration reform #labor #union
On the weekends during NWHM, I tend to post maybe more controversial figures to the list of women. Controversial because they’re more artist: actor, singer, the like, than academic, which is where many writers can be categorized. I still try to focus on women who have truly made a difference, in some way, shape, or form, though.
My Dad has a huge crush on Sally Field. No lie. He will watch any movie she’s in. I doubt he’d leave my Mom for her, even if she would leave him for Bruce Springsteen, but still, Sally Field is his celebrity crush.
I don’t know if that came about before or after the film Norma Rae. You see, my Dad was a Building Steward for CWA when he worked for Southwestern Bell. He was one of the better ones, vocal in his organizing. I’m not sure if my Mom as a member of the union before they met, but I’d be willing to bet so, so I grew up as a union kid, and I know very well what they’ve done for me and for the middle class of this country.
I think that’s why I try to dedicate my time to the union efforts, why I’m drawn to them. Though, this post is not about me, this is about Sally Field and Crystal Lee Sutton.
Sally Field has created some of the best loved characters on both the small screen and in movie roles. From Gidget to Norma Rae to M’Lynn, she has lit up the screen and made us laugh, cry, and root for a “Bandit”.
Yet, she still champions women’s health and women’s rights, including using her “pulpit” during her 2007 Emmy win to state, “If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no wars in the first place!” even though the U.S. audience watching at home didn’t see the entire quote. (It was censored, but played around the world.)
Most notably, Sally Field works to gain awareness of osteoporosis, and considering that my mother’s own form of arthritis is as yet, technically unclassified, but relates most commonly to osteoarthritis, I am grateful. Many women do not understand how much osteoporosis can affect them as they age, nor are there people that champion the far less sexy health risks that are especially dangerous for women, like heart problems (which kill more women than breast cancer) or things like osteoporosis.
Additionally, Sally Field uses her time to fight on behalf of the LGBT community for Equal Rights.
Yet, when she played Norma Rae, she did so in a field that was largely unionized in an environment where unions were largely more accepted.
It was Crystal Lee Sutton, not Sally Field (or Norma Rae) that should get the kudos for standing on a work bench, after writing “UNION” on a piece of cardboard and waiting for each and every machine and worker to stop and look at her. This act immortalized on film by Sally, was completely true, and Sutton paid dearly for it, by also being arrested and then, being fired for her attempts to unionize the J.P. Stevens textile factory she worked at under the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
Until you work for a union, you have no idea how much strength it takes for an employee to not just stand up and say, “I can’t take it anymore, I quit”, but to go further and say, “I can’t take it anymore, this is completely unfair and we need to work to change the system.” it’s incredibly rare, especially when you’re going against the grain. It’s rare to watch or see people willing to sacrifice their own comfort, their own home life to make a difference, not just for themselves, but for their fellow workers.
Crystal Lee Sutton deserves to be remembered, for doing just that.
(Shameless plug and request for recommendations for women to feature.)
Happy Labor Day!
This woman… I love how she communicates with people… She puts it in their language, not expecting them to become policy wonks. This is a fundamental problem with the Democratic Party today and if she can help reverse some of that thinking in the party? She deserves a medal.
I have spent way too much time looking for a better shot of it, but one of the best things about Spiderman, from a personal perspective?
Sally Field wears a United Bridge Workers t-shirt, not once… but twice and the first time it’s seen is in this scene. The Bridge Workers and the Iron Workers all fall under the same International organization, and being that I’m a political coordinator for the local Iron Workers here in Houston, my first and only reaction was: I’m proud of you, Norma Rae!! :o)
Also - she’s my Dad’s celebrity crush.
(via sinwithagrin1986-deactivated201)
But at least I saw one today… (Kroger plug b/c they still employ #union labour) (Taken with Instagram)
- AFSCME DC37
- AFSCME DC 1707
- AFSCME CSEA Region 2
- AFSCME Local 371 (SSEU)
- AFSCME Local 372 DC 37
- AFSCME Local 375 DC 37
- AFSCME DC 37 Retirees Association
- AFT - PSC/CUNY
- American Federation of Musicians Local 802
- Anakbayan NY/NJ
- Answer Coalition
- BAYAN-USA
- Brandworkers
- Centro Guatemalteco Tecun Uman
- Coalition for a District Alternative
- Coalition for Public Education (CPE)
- Committees of Correspondence
- Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center
- Community Farmworker Alliance
- CSEA 1000
- CWA District 1
- CWA Local 1180
- CWA Local 31003 The New York Newspaper Guild
- NABET-CWA Local 16
- Domestic Workers United
- Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE)
- Freedom Socialist Party
- Frente Unido de Inmigrantes Ecuatorianos
- GABRIELA USA
- Greater NY Labor-Religion Coalition
- Green Party of NYC
- Green Party of NYS
- Guyanese American Workers United
- Honduras USA Resistencia
- IBT Joint Council 16
- IBT Local 808
- IBT Local 814
- IBT Local 210
- IBT Local 272
- Immigrant Workers Movement
- Immigrant Solidarity Network
- Industrial Union Council New Jersey
- International Action Center
- International League of Peoples Struggle
- International Migrants Alliance
- International Socialist Organization
- Jersey City Peace Movement
- Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
- Jornaleros Unidos de Woodside
- Kurland Group
- Labor Network for Sustainability
- La Fuente
- La Pena del Bronx
- Labor for Palestine
- Left Labor Project
- LIUNA Local 10
- LIUNA Local 78
- LIUNA Local 79
- Long Island Workplace Project
- Make the Road New York
- May 1st Coalition
- National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON)
- National Domestic Workers Alliance
- New Immigrant Community Empowerment
- National Immigrant Solidarity Network
- New York Broadcast Trades Council
- New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
- New York City Labor Against the War
- New York City LCLAA
- New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP)
- New York Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
- New York Communities for Change
- New York Immigration Coalition
- New York New Jersey Regional Joint Board, Workers United
- New York Taxi Workers Alliance
- NYS District Communist Party USA
- NYS Nurses Association
- Occupy Sunset Park
- Occupy Wall Street
- Operation Power
- Organization of Staff Analysts
- Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
- Philippine Forum
- Radical Women
- Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York
- Retail Action Project
- RWDSU
- School of Americas Watch (SOA Watch)
- 1199SEIU
- SEIU 32BJ
- Senegalese Workers Association
- Sisa Pakari Cultural & Labor Center
- Take Back the Future TWU Local 100
- UAW Region 9A
- UAW Local 1981 National Writers Union
- UNITE HERE Local 100
- United Federation of Teachers
- United NY
- Veterans for Peace Chapter 3 NYC
- Workers United, SEIU
- Workers World Party
- Writers Guild of America, East
Nation Wisconsin reporter John Nichols recalls a stunning event that turned into a defining moment for the pro-labor movement when firefighters, whose collective bargaining rights remained intact, stood up for the public workers under attack by Scott Walker in a very powerful way.
(Source: thenation.com)
