#women's labor unions

[uwmspeccoll]

Happy Labor Day!

In recognition of Labor Day and the continued fight for workers’ rights, we’re highlighting a 1921 National Women’s Trade Union League pamphlet from our social-justice-based Fromkin Memorial Collection.  

The National Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) was established in 1903 to represent women's rights within the American labor movement and remained active until 1950. The organization was notable for its diverse population of working women and upper-class reformers, including Eleanor Roosevelt, who fought side by side to organize women workers into unions, provide educational opportunities to women and girls, and solidify protective workplace and social legislation. The WTUL is credited with playing a critical role in supporting the 1909 New York Uprising of the 20,000, which remains the largest strike by American women in history. Within their working-class ideology, WTUL also advocated for the eight-hour workday and supported women’s suffrage.  

This promotional pamphlet spotlights three of the WTUL’s achievements including opening a School for Women Leaders in the Labor Movement in 1911, initiating a federal investigation into the conditions of woman and child wage-earners in 1907 which lead to the establishment of the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau in 1920, and presenting its Reconstruction Program at the 1919 international Peace Conference.  

While we enjoy a long Labor Day weekend (or perhaps time and a half pay for union members), may we also reflect on the WTUL’s spirit and accomplishments and all of those who continue to fight for social justice. 

View posts from Labor Days past.

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[folk-enjoyer]

Song of the day

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask, and I'll do a full rundown like here)

"Bread and Roses"

Judy Collins, 1976

since its labor day i thought we could talk about some good ol' IWW labor history

in 1911, Helen Todd gave a speech about women's suffrage and ended it

"Not at once; but woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country, in the government of which she has a voice."

James Oppenheim, inspired by this speech, created the poem "Bread and Roses" in 1911, whose words would later become the lyrics for the judy collins song.

in 1912, 30,000 immigrant textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, went on strike due to poor working conditions and poor pay. this strike was led by the International Workers of the World and was comprised mostly of women. the phrase "bread and roses" was all over signs and became the slogan of the strike, with it even being called the "Bread and Roses Strike". like many strikes in the USA it was absolutely brutal for the strikers, and several people died, but they were able to win some of their demands.

in 1970, the James Oppenheim poem was put to music by mimi fariña, and then covered by judy collins. my favorite cover is by Utah Phillips in 1983 , where he explains the history of the textile strike and the meaning of the slogan

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses 🌹

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Striking members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) picket on 7th Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets, March 6, 1958. The strike, then in its second day, involved 105,000 workers in seven eastern states, 65,000 of them in the New York City area. The strike was the first in 25 years and union officials said it was "100 percent effective."

Photo: Associated Press via U Calif Irvine School of Social Sciences

[shayne-the-sage]

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re someone with a lot of voting power.

[useless-catalanfacts]

In the 1970s, women started being accepted as spokespeople for trade unions, which until then had been dominated by men.

In this photo: the union representatives for CCOO in the factory Cosmo. Year 1978, Barcelona, Catalonia.

Photo by Pilar Aymerich (source).

[skidaddleskidoddle]

Hashtag protest at 9/3 19:00-21:00 KST on Project Moon's unfair dismissal over its main CG artist's deleted feminist retweets from six years ago

you can use [https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/] to convert KST(Seoul) to your timezone.

The english hashtags are

# Protect_Moon

# FreeVellmori

If you want to keep engaging in limbus content guilt-free here's your chance to make your voice heard. By keeping silence you let the incels on twitter speak for you. A company is nothing without its consumers, especially when it need to pay rent, pay its workers, run a restaurant, develop new games, and is run by an incompetent CEO.

[gacha-incels]

post edited July 18th with new info ✌️ from the Feminism Thought Verification Joint Response Comimitee (link is to the Korean Women’s Workers Association’s repost) regarding the wildly misogynistic post in the Hyundai Heavy Industries branch of the Metal Workers Union newsletter. the company urged the removal of an advertisement where a hand that was kind of in the 🤏 could be seen. sorry it auto translated this as “water polo girlfriend” idk what this means but it doesn’t really change the overall message of what you’re reading. this is how the page in the newsletter looked

the autotranslate on the right side idk it’s kind of a mess, you can try doing it on your own time or help me out if you would like, but the other side is readable and you can see how unbelievable it is to put something like this in a newsletter. saying you need to “fix” feminists at a psychiatric hospital, on the other side it said these are women with “mental leprosy” putting this secret man hating hand everywhere…there’s something so fundamentally revolting seeing such angry, violent and gleeful misogyny posted like it’s normal, and then these guys act like they’re actually the victims of what they think is a “female dominated society” and it’s women’s fault they can’t get jobs.

more information as provided by @sagaschan ! Thank you

NEW- Hyundai branch’s apology

(end of the new section)

the rest of the article on the KWWA site. again this is basic mtl so you’re getting what you’re getting, nothing perfect but enough to understand the basics like usual…

[cafterdark]

Doing hot girl shit*

*being an active member of my union

[leannareneehieber]

(Pictured: Carnations laid in honor of the dead at the sidewalk of NYU's Brown Building. Photo by Leanna Renee Hieber)

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire took the lives of 146 people, most of them women and girls. As a NYC tour guide of over 15yrs, I speak about this site with vehemence. Never forget the importance of modern labor laws and the lives lost before we gained these rights. Andrea Janes and I wrote about this site, and its importance in the capacity of residual haunting, in our book A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN. Our chapter on the fire, Industrial Monsters, is up on the Boroughs of the Dead blog: https://boroughsofthedead.com/industrial-monsters-ghosts-of-the-triangle-shirtwaist-factory/

Please support union workers and legislation aimed at shoring up worker protections. Honor the dead.

[vintageseawitch]

happy Labor Day! just a reminder that it was leftists who got us the weekend. it's leftists who give us unions & keep them strong.

the federal minimum wage hasn't risen from $7.25 in well over a decade. the main culprit? Republicans of course, & too many people that are in a union are Republican.

Republicans HATE unions nowadays. rich people are so far up their asses they've become living meat puppets for them. rich people don't care about a happy population; they want to get rich at our expense. people blame the president for the high cost of living, such as groceries, when this is actually a global issue & companies have openly stated they were the ones who were price gouging.

it's rich people behind the scenes & they're a massive reason why Project 2025 is a real threat. they want to take away 40 hour work weeks & turn them into 160 hours work months. they will take away the right to get paid for working overtime (page 592). they want to ban unions for public service workers (page 82), make it easier for private companies to decertify unions (page 603), & allow states to opt out of federal labor laws (page 605).

a SCOTUS justice (Thomas) has expressed they he thinks OSHA needs to go. some states like Arkansas have allowed child labor with limited safety & legal measures. they want to take away so many workers' rights that have been so hard fought for & earned. OSHA became a thing because of so much bloodshed. people are going to die from these but it's okay because these rich people who do so much for us will be getting paid more while not being required to even pretend we are human beings.

are you gonna be like the rednecks of old? who gave such a shit for their fellow workers that they literally fought to protect them all? do you really believe rich people are good for us? they don't care at all. they need us more then we need them. even with their power, they're scared in the back of their pathetic little greedy minds. they exhaust us on purpose. Project 2025 is going to make so many aspects of our lives hell & they will not only do nothing about the conditions now to improve our way of life but they fully intend to make it WORSE.

they will force people to stay married & make babies they can't afford while offering no help whatsoever. they want working conditions to be lethal again. they want us to be wage slaves. how can anyone want this? you think it's horrible now? why risk this??

please don't stop talking about Project 2025 or Agenda 47. they're the same plan & the reason why trump doesn't talk about policy is because Project 2025 IS his policy. he's only in this to stay out of prison. he doesn't give a shit what kind of evil, insane people will be doing in the background to fuck us all over. the rest of the world is watching us nervously, hoping he won't be president again. it won't ve good on a domestic OR international level. this is a dangerous time.

please check your registration status often & vote early if you can. encourage friends & family. make a day of it! don't wait until three last minute but be careful out there, too. if it's not voting issues they'll cause people might get violent. ladies, if you're with a Republican partner but you're scared to vote for Harris... please know that your vote is private & you can pretend you're doing something else in order to get it done. stay registered Republican just to be safe. we got this 💙

[captainjonnitkessler]

I want to be clear that I am NOT an expert in trade unions: My experience is limited to the IBEW and I’ve only been a member for four years. That being said:

My experience thus far is that 99% of being in one is the same obnoxious bureaucratic bullshit as national politics on a smaller scale. Everyone loves to bitch about the administration: It’s corrupt, they’re just giving themselves raises for doing nothing, the business manager is doing his “recruiting” exclusively in the bar, the negotiators are licking the contractors’ boots, we inexplicably voted to give the golf club ten thousand fucking dollars, they don’t actually care about us, they’re just sitting on their asses doing politics while we work to support them. And then you ask “so are you going to meetings and voting?” and the answer is always “hell no, I’m not giving up an evening a month to go listen to a bunch of bullshit”.

Obviously I 100% support forming and joining unions, they offer way more protection and support than non-union workplaces, and they’re a powerful force for labor rights. Just . . . remember they’re just made up of all of your coworkers, including the ones you hate, and they require the involvement of the membership to actually function. It’s a lot of compromising and politicking and bullshitting, it’s not a magic bullet to fix labor problems. Half the time I can’t even agree with my coworkers on what the problems ARE, much less how to fix them!

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Dorothy Lee Bolden

Workers' rights activist Dorothy Lee Bolden was born in 1924 in Atlanta, Georgia. Having endured poor working conditions as a Black woman and domestic worker, Bolden was inspired by Rosa Parks to get involved in Civil Rights activism. In 1964, she organized a boycott of Atlanta schools to protest the lack of improvement in education for African-American students. In 1968, Bolden founded the National Domestic Workers Union of America, which she led for 28 years. The union fought for higher wages for domestic workers, and for their access to workers' compensation and Social Security.

Dorothy Lee Bolden died in 2005 at the age of 80.

[thoughtportal]

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was an American labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of women's rights, birth control, and women's suffrage. She joined the Communist Party USA in 1936 and late in life, in 1961, became its chairwoman. She died during a visit to the Soviet Union, where she was accorded a state funeral with processions in Red Square attended by over 25,000 people.[1]

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born on August 7, 1890, in Concord, New Hampshire, the daughter of Annie (Gurley) and Thomas Flynn.[2] The family moved to New York in 1900, where she was educated at the local public schools. Her parents introduced her to socialism. When she was only 15 she gave her first public speech, "What Socialism Will Do for Women," at the Harlem Socialist Club. After this, she felt compelled to speak out for social change. She left Morris High School before graduation, a decision she later regretted.[3] However, other sources state she was expelled from high school due to her political involvement.[4]

[lesbiangummybearmafia]

Omg I'm itching for a fight! I'm try of all nonsense and bullshit! That we were subjected to on a daily basis! It's turning my brain into utter mush... but on the other side of that I'm so fucking frustrated and aggravated of the lies. Like how is fucking Fox News still standing when all those text came out that they literally hate Trump, didn't believe the big lie even though they were all reporting like they did. Are partially responsible in my opinion of what happened on January 6th. If something like happened at any other time Fox News would be destroyed! But because we not live in a world where truth is lies, lies are facts, facts are not to be trusted, it's like every fucking person on the right thinks their being gaslight. Their still watching Fox News and completely ignoring what they did. It's completely ridiculous.

Everyone talks about bringing the country back together, it's not like I don't want to see that happen but how? When we have one side determined to eradicate certain civil rights, groups of people, certain freedoms. Their looking more and more like everyone must live the way we deem correct and their making laws to have that happen, from Florida to Wyoming to Arkansas to Tennessee to Texas to Oklahoma...

We can no longer sat idly by and allow these laws to stand in place. We should be out in the streets everyday in every city, every town, in front of the White House, in front of Congress, in front of the Supreme Court. We need to show those in power that we don't stand for what their doing. That we will not allow them the silence our voices!

We fought at Stone Wall, we fought during the Aids Epidemic, we fought for gay marriage, we fought for civil rights, we fought for women's rights, we fought for labor unions, we fought against child labor, we fought for women's rights to vote, we fought against the Vietnam War, we fought for black lives matter, we fought against police violence...

We Americans have always fought and protested against the evils in our country no matter what they are. We have to do again now!! The evil on our door step seems innocuous but it is not. It's worse kind pitting people against one other, saying the way someone lives is incorrect by a narrow definition. To villainize someone simply because their different then you. Trying to erase our history because the truth makes certain people uncomfortable. Deciding to take the control over women's health care choice away from her because they think the know better. Forcing one religious point view on the country! Deciding that fascist ideals and an authoritarian view point is far better then democracy, civil liberties, freedom of choice, our Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Right now it seems like nothing but if we do nothing we're going to be in very deep waters. We'll be treading water we won't know how we got here...

[razziecat]

For a detailed and heartbreaking account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, I highly recommend the book Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, by Dave Von Drehle

I don't see people talking about this so today is the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in where the factory owners locked working women and girls inside to "eliminate the risk of theft" (in reality it was too keep them from taking breaks), which resulted in the gruesome deaths of 123 mostly immigrant women and girls and 23 men, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor either in a panicked attempt to escape or in order to die quickly. There were reports that some of the workers were on fire already as they jumped.

The eighth floor of the building was able to telephone the tenth floor to warn them about the fire, but the factory on the ninth floor where these women and girls labored had no such communication and such warning.

The factory owners were criminally charged with manslaughter for actions that contributed to the mass deaths but acquitted. However, this tragedy led to mass sympathy to the labor movement, and unions spurred on safety regulations that passed in New York state and eventually the entire country, and activists were able to reduce child labor in the process.

This tragedy is a reminder that has been forgotten in the 110 years since: every safety regulation-- every scrap of paperwork contributing to the hundreds of pages of red tape people like to complain about--every word of it was written in the blood of a laborer.

[cafterdark]

Doing hot girl shit*

*reading my shop's CBA