Labor Union Blog

If you’re reading this on Black Friday morning that probably means you didn’t spend the night on a lawn chair outside a big box store waiting for a deal of a lifetime—until the next deal of lifetime comes along.

Good for you, because you can sit at home in your robe and slippers and get started on your holiday shopping without fear of being trampled and find a wide variety of great Union-Made-in-the-USA gifts from these online union and union-related websites.

Let’s start with the AFL-CIO Online Store—Union Made^TM where you’ll find union/worker themed T-shirts (including my favorite above), sweatshirts, caps, buttons, bumper stickers and more. Don’t forget the cards.

Today also starts the AFL-CIO’s Union Label and Trades Department’s (UL&STD) Buy Union Week. Click on the yellow “Search for Union Products” box on the right side of the UL&STD home page here.

You can also click on the unions below to visit their online gift shops.

AFSCME, AFT, Postal Workers (APWU), Railway Signalmen (BRS), Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers (GMP), Iron Workers, Fire Fighters (IAFF), Machinists (IAM), Electrical Workers (IBEW), Marine Engineers (MEBA), Letter Carriers (NALC), National Nurses United (NNU), Cement Masons, (OPCMIA), Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), Seafarers (SIU), Transport Workers (TWU), Transport Communications Union\IAM (TCU\IAM), UNITE HERE, Mine Workers (UMWA), Steelworkers (USW), United Transportation Union (UTU), Utility Workers (UWUA).

Visit the Labor Heritage Foundation’s online gift shop here and Union Boot Pro here. Other shopping links include: Union Made Goods, Justice Clothing and Union-Made Clothing Discounts from Union Plus.

AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.

Two thousand working Hoosiers occupied the Indiana Capitol this week, sending a strong message of unity to politicians including House Speaker Brian
Bosma and Senate Pro Tem David Long. Bosma and Long have announced that a
so-called right to work bill is their top 2012 legislative priority, ignoring the jobs crisis and instead pandering to shady special interest groups and CEOs. In response, workers from all walks of life–steelworkers, teachers, jobless workers and retirees–packed the statehouse, demanding that Indiana elected officials start representing their constituents.

Many workers wore stickers and buttons reading, “We are the 99%,” while many more chanted that message while rallying outside. Many carried signs, including a banner that read “Shame on You” and called out Indiana politicians for pushing policies that support only the 1 percent.

This is just the beginning of a renewed battle against this divisive and politically motivated power grab. Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott said after the rally that

like our neighbors in Ohio, Hoosiers know that this is just another attack on working families.

The News and Tribune has a poll on their homepage that asks, “Do you think making Indiana a “right to work” state should be the top legislative priority for the 2012 session as GOP leaders announced Monday?” (Click here to vote NO.)

Indiana politicians should focus on jobs, not attacks on middle class Hoosiers. Vote, “No” in the  survey, and look for updates on Twitter: #StateSOS and #InUnion.

Michael J. Smith, AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison in Monroe, Mich., sends us this report.  

For the past 20 years, Monroe (Mich.) Fire Fighters Local 326 (IAFF) has held an annual holiday dinner serving those in need in the City of Monroe. Says Sgt. Rob Wight of the Monroe Fire Department:

This year has been a little different. Our local union treasury has been depleted and we reached out to other unions, businesses and anyone willing to help us continue this tradition. We are grateful to those who stepped up and helped us make this happen.

The dinner was again successfully held on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 23 at St. Joseph Hall.  More than 800 dinners were served. Santa Clause also made an appearance and he distributed gifts to all the children in attendance putting smiles on all of their faces.

Local 326 President Derek Whittaker says:

Many long hours go into organizing this event and the preparation of all the food that is to be served by the Fire Fighters, retirees, their families and supporters. I am proud to be a part of an organization that wants nothing more than to serve this community.

Thanksgiving is a good time to give thanks for union members who engage in good works throughout the year. In Seattle, Iron Workers Local 86 members have been putting smiles on the faces of some very sick children since they began painting young patients’ names and messages on the beams of a new wing at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

The new building project faces a hospital wing where many young boys and girls are being treated for cancer and other serious illnesses. In this video, Local 86 member John Ford says:

Every day we get up on that iron and we see them wave at us. They’re so excited. Just to bring a smile to their faces, it’s rewarding. It almost brings a tear to your eye.

On one beam, Ironworkers painted “HI ZAC” for Zac Graling, a 16-year-old being treated for leukemia. He told the Seattle Times:

It’s fun to think they put up your name on a building and it will be there forever.

Hospital spokesperson Laura Tufts says,

The nurses have been telling us that it is great therapy. It gets the kids up and out of bed and gives them something to look forward to, a nice distraction.

As the project reached the topping out point earlier this month, the workers joined in a ceremony with the children and presented then with shirts that read, “I’m On the Beam, Helping Build Children’s Hospital in Seattle.”

Todd Johnson, vice president of facilities at the hospital says:

We’re grateful to the ironworkers for helping make our patients’ and families’ lives just a little bit better and their stays at the hospital a little bit more fun.