Remembering those who serve A tribute to Americas food-and-beverage workers
“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning, and Rich Edwards, a wine steward at L’Auberge de Sedona restaurant in Arizona, kisses his son Devon goodbye. He won’t return home until long past 10 p.m., when Devon is fast asleep. A brief embrace is all they will share together this holiday.
Officials challenge Wal-Mart on child labor
HARTFORD, Conn. — Anger was evident at the state Capitol here recently over revelations of a secret deal between Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to cover up child labor law violations. The charges include requiring teenage workers to use heavy equipment, including chain saws and forklifts.
The rural movement to oust Bush
There’s more than bridges in Madison County WINTERSET, Iowa – With its fertile pastures, meandering streams and quaint covered bridges, Madison County, Iowa, has become a symbol of rural America.
Women need unions on job
Interview with Utility Workers Local 132 President Marti Rodriguez-Harris LOS ANGELES – Verbal abuse, sexual harassment and unequal treatment were the issues that drove Marti Rodriguez-Harris to the union movement.
Coalition opposes Border Patrol raid
PORTLAND, Maine – Reyna A. Marroquin Solorzano, 22, was working in a laundry here to support her parents and seven siblings in Guatemala. She was injured in a fall while trying to escape a fire in her third-floor apartment and died the next day, Jan. 16.
Grocery union leader assesses strike
BAL HARBOR, Fla. – As a result of the hard-fought Southern California grocery strike, the union now has tens of thousands of political activists, said Joe Hansen, the newly-elected international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
AFL-CIO president: Bush AWOL on jobs crisis
BAL HARBOR, Fla. – “The jobs crisis has become a national disaster,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. And during this crisis, “George Bush has been AWOL,” he added. click here for Spanish text
Actors Guild warns against blacklisting
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The entertainment industry must not blacklist people who speak out against war with Iraq, the Screen Actors Guild said last week.
There is no good news
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ unemployment report for February reminds one of the nightly radio broadcast by the London correspondent of CBS News in the early days of World War II. “There is no good news, tonight,” he would intone, as German armies roared from victory to victory on both the Western and Eastern fronts.
State employees win union rights
ALBUQUERQUE – After 10 years of bitter struggle, New Mexico state employees finally won back their collective bargaining rights when Governor Bill Richardson signed into law these rights at a Round House Ceremony, March 7.
