Ciao!
….it’s that time again. Mille grazie to the Feministe crew and the loyal readership. Hope to see some of you at my blog sometime in October, when I start posting there again (gonna be at a union conference this week, so…..little to no internet access. Believe it or not, not everyone has a laptop, or [...]
...read moreHealth Insurance, Unemployment and Bankruptcy
Awhile back*, I posted about my daughter’s premature birth, hospitalization, my concurrent job loss, and…..health insurance. I tried to explain to non-U.S. readers exactly why the loss of a job meant the loss of healthcare and probable bankruptcy. We take that for granted in the U.S.—that in the event of a serious illness like cancer, [...]
...read morePhoto Essay: Factory Like A City
Run, don’t walk, to David Bacon’s photo essay, “Factory Like A City”, posted at Z magazine. It’s about Toyota’s announcement of the closing of the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California after General Motors announced it was withdrawing from the partnership. It’s a good illustration of the exponential effects of the demise of manufacturing in the [...]
...read moreIt’s Cold & Flu Season….Do You Have Paid Sick Days?
Not a day goes by lately that I don’t see some update or another on H1N1, or on the seasonal flu vaccine. It’s that time of year again. The National Partnership for Women and Families has a good site on supporting paid sick days, as both a worker justice issue and a public health concern. [...]
...read moreCreating a Culture of Belonging: Riffs on Time, Place, and Co-creating Space
This whole post is going to be a freestyle; inspired by bell hooks and her book Belonging: A Culture of Place and Little Light’s amazing post on vulnerability. In fact, I’ll just say now that one of the reasons I don’t post more often is because I’m self-conscious about always having to “get it right”—wordsmithing [...]
...read moreWill the Last One Out of ***** Please Shut Out the Lights?!
A pithy saying often heard in the Rust Belt, reflective of…..the loss of community, dearth of culture, malaise/apathy, physical atrophy/blight, urban decay, exodus, and general collapse that accompanies job loss and its attendant economic withering. The recent economic downturn is hardly new to most of us in Flyover Country™. That doesn’t mean there still weren’t [...]
...read moreCrystal Lee Sutton: Labor Heroine
Crystal Lee Sutton, originally of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, died of cancer September 12 at the age of 68. She was instrumental in the 10-year fight to unionize the J.P. Stevens mill, where she once worked for $2.65/hr. You may remember her as “Norma Rae”, as portrayed by actor Sally Field in the Oscar-winning film [...]
...read moreGreetings From the Rust Belt!
‘Ssa benerica! (s’abbenedica, s’abbinirica, assabenedica….it’s a blessing). I’ve been here before on three occasions. I run my mouth on the regular in the comments section. Still trying to get the hang of blogging (where does everyone find the time?). You can read my previous introductions here at my new blog. Who is La Lubu? mother, [...]
...read moreMyths About Labor Unions: Capitalist Salvos in the Class War
Every now and then, someone will take me to task for being a proud member of a labor union. “Why do you belong to a union? They just take your money and run!” or “But unions are so anti-woman!” or “But you’re smart—why do you need to belong to a union?” Sometime it isn’t personal. [...]
...read moreCan We Call It a Recession, Yet?!
The economic picture over here in “flyover country” isn’t very rosy. The overall unemployment rate in Illinois is 7.3%, but there are sections of the state where the rate is even higher. The State of Illinois is laying off 450 of its employees, and closing 11 state parks and 12 historic sites (including the Frank [...]
...read moreLabor’s Hidden History: Bloomington, Illinois and the Labor Party
As I watch the election coverage, read and listen to endless arguments about the value of third parties and/or shifting a major one to the left for a change…..I can’t help but think about how much history has been vanished from the standard-issue history books, how historical amnesia is no accidental occurence. And especially, how [...]
...read moreEight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will!
That was the motto for the Eight-Hour Movement, chanted in labor demonstrations and union halls far and wide in the latter part of the 1800s. The fight for the eight hour day was a long one, originating with the onset of the Industrial Revolution itself (first in the form of the ten-hour day, with two [...]
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