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07 September
2009
"Union gives strength."
- Aesop
Tonight
we honor and thank our fellow past and present union
leaders and members, who have stood up and demanded
fairness for our profession. Due to a lot of hard work, guts, and
sacrifice by fellow flight attendants over sixty
years, Northwest flight attendants have shared the benefits of
collective bargaining and unionisn. This merger brings exciting opportunities,
but we risk losing what we often considered
inalienable rights - a legal contract and our legal voice at
work. Now, the
majority of Northwest and Delta flight attendants must vote
to win back these valuable rights. Fortunately we
have thousands of union supporters at Delta who are standing
beside us to make sure we can do just that.
Today President
Obama gave a speech in Cincinnati at the AFL-CIO Labor Day
picnic, where he spent a good deal of his time talking about the
virtues of the union movement. "We remember that the rights and
benefits we enjoy today were not simply handed out to America's
working men and women. They had to be won," he said. "They
had to be fought for, by men and women of courage and
conviction, from the factory floors of the Industrial Revolution
to the shopping aisles of today's superstores. They stood up and
spoke out to demand a fair shake, an honest day's pay for an
honest day's work.
Many risked their lives. Some gave their lives. Some made
it a cause of their lives, like Sen. Ted Kennedy, who we
remember today."
The workplace
rights and protections we enjoy today were won for us by
generations of America's working heroes. Please join us in
honoring these inspiring men and women, who shaped
America’s Labor Movement and didn’t give in, though
times were often much tougher that we are now
experiencing. When we are united, we are strong.
César Estrada
Chávez Folk hero
and symbol of hope who organized a union of farm
workers
Nelson Hale Cruikshank Helped create Social Security and
Medicare
Eugene Victor Debs Apostle of industrial
unionism
Thomas Reilly Donahue Champion of labor renewal and former AFL-CIO
president
Arthur Joseph Goldberg Legal strategist for the union movement and former
Secretary of Labor
Samuel Gompers First and longest-serving president of the American
Federation of Labor (AFL)
William Green Former AFL president, moved the federation toward
"social reform unionism"
Joe Hill Songwriter, itinerant laborer, union organizer - and
martyr
Sidney Hillman Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America founder
invented trade unionism as we know it
today
Mother Jones "The most dangerous woman in
America"
Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.
Living his dream
Lane Kirkland Former AFL-CIO president had a profound effect on
world affairs
John L. Lewis President of the United Mine Workers of America
(UMWA) and founding president of the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO)
Lucy Randolph Mason Social reformer dedicated to workers' rights and
racial justice
Peter J. McGuire The "father" of Labor Day and of May Day championed
the need for a national labor
federation
George Meany The builder of the modern
AFL-CIO
Philip Murray CIO president who helped transform industrial union
movement into a stable and powerful
organization
Frances Perkins Committed labor secretary and first woman in a
presidential cabinet position
Esther Eggersten Peterson Eloquent and effective advocate for the rights of
workers, women and consumers
A. Philip Randolph Organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
and fought discrimination in national
defense
Walter Reuther Long-time president of the United Automobile Workers
(UAW) considered the model of a reform-minded, liberal trade
unionist
Bayard Rustin Brilliant theorist, tactician and organizer and
first head of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
These biographies are based on
background information supplied to AFSME/AFL-CIO by Dorothy Sue
Cobble, professor of History and Labor Studies at Rutgers, The
State University of New Jersey, and Michael Merrill, director of
the George Meany Memorial Archives and editor of Labor's
Heritage.
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