Monday, Sept. 14, 2009
Photos by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor
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| The AFL-CIO’s incoming leadership team spoke at a news conference along with outgoing president John Sweeney. Left to right: Richard Trumka, incoming president; John Sweeney, current president; Arlene Holt-Baker, executive vice president; Elizabeth Shuler, incoming secretary-treasurer. |
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| Trumka and Sweeney at the news conference. Richard Trumka: “We see the future as two things, being able to create green jobs, jobs that are union jobs.” |
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| The mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, welcomed delegates to the second day of the AFL-CIO convention: “Much of the story of organized labor was written right here in Pittsburgh in the blood, sweat and tears of the Pittsburgh worker,” he said. “Our history is the history of the American union.” |
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| Hilda Solis, President Obama’s Secretary of Labor, addressed the convention. “It’s more important now than ever that we have an active Department of Labor that advocates for working people,” she said. “The Department of Labor will once again be back in the enforcement business.” And, she pledged, “we will make the strongest case possible for the Employee Free Choice Act.” |
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| Michelle Sommers, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 in Minneapolis, was attending the convention as a delegate representing her international union. She also was a first-time delegate to the national AFL-CIO convention. “I’m looking forward to hearing Barack Obama speak,” she said. “The Secretary of Labor was great.” | The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s alternate delegate to the convention: Lisa Stager, legislative director for District 143 of the Machinists union. This was her first time attending a national AFL-CIO convention, she said. “I asked and pushed,” she added. At the convention, she said, she was looking forward “to get the whole broader perspective of all unions.” |
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| Linda Hamilton, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association from Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, was among a group of union members from across the nation who were honored on the stage as a “political hero” for her work in the Labor 2008 political effort. Hamilton’s son and daughter, both union members, also came to the convention to see their mother honored. |
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| Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, spoke at a news conference organized by unions who support single payer health care legislation. | "We need to fight to make sure every American gets high quality health care,” said Leo Girard, president of the United Steelworkers, speaking at the Single Payer rally. Addressing Obama’s plan, he said keeping the proposed public option was important, noting “we’ve got some good public options. We’ve got the V.A. We’ve got Medicare." |
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| Filmmaker Michael Moore, speaking at the news conference in support of single payer, recounted how he grew up in Flint, Michigan, the son of a United Auto Workers member. “Thanks to the UAW, our family had free health care,” he said. His uncle had participated in the sit-down strikes in 1937 that led to the creation of the UAW. “Everyone’s standard of living rose because of organized labor in this country,” Moore said. He then led union members in a march that culminated in a free screening of his new documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story." |
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Monday, Sept. 14, 2009
Photos by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor
|
| The AFL-CIO’s incoming leadership team spoke at a news conference along with outgoing president John Sweeney. Left to right: Richard Trumka, incoming president; John Sweeney, current president; Arlene Holt-Baker, executive vice president; Elizabeth Shuler, incoming secretary-treasurer. |
|
| Trumka and Sweeney at the news conference. Richard Trumka: “We see the future as two things, being able to create green jobs, jobs that are union jobs.” |
|
| The mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, welcomed delegates to the second day of the AFL-CIO convention: “Much of the story of organized labor was written right here in Pittsburgh in the blood, sweat and tears of the Pittsburgh worker,” he said. “Our history is the history of the American union.” |
|
| Hilda Solis, President Obama’s Secretary of Labor, addressed the convention. “It’s more important now than ever that we have an active Department of Labor that advocates for working people,” she said. “The Department of Labor will once again be back in the enforcement business.” And, she pledged, “we will make the strongest case possible for the Employee Free Choice Act.” |
|
|
| Michelle Sommers, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 in Minneapolis, was attending the convention as a delegate representing her international union. She also was a first-time delegate to the national AFL-CIO convention. “I’m looking forward to hearing Barack Obama speak,” she said. “The Secretary of Labor was great.” | The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s alternate delegate to the convention: Lisa Stager, legislative director for District 143 of the Machinists union. This was her first time attending a national AFL-CIO convention, she said. “I asked and pushed,” she added. At the convention, she said, she was looking forward “to get the whole broader perspective of all unions.” |
|
| Linda Hamilton, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association from Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, was among a group of union members from across the nation who were honored on the stage as a “political hero” for her work in the Labor 2008 political effort. Hamilton’s son and daughter, both union members, also came to the convention to see their mother honored. |
|
|
| Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, spoke at a news conference organized by unions who support single payer health care legislation. | "We need to fight to make sure every American gets high quality health care,” said Leo Girard, president of the United Steelworkers, speaking at the Single Payer rally. Addressing Obama’s plan, he said keeping the proposed public option was important, noting “we’ve got some good public options. We’ve got the V.A. We’ve got Medicare." |
|
| Filmmaker Michael Moore, speaking at the news conference in support of single payer, recounted how he grew up in Flint, Michigan, the son of a United Auto Workers member. “Thanks to the UAW, our family had free health care,” he said. His uncle had participated in the sit-down strikes in 1937 that led to the creation of the UAW. “Everyone’s standard of living rose because of organized labor in this country,” Moore said. He then led union members in a march that culminated in a free screening of his new documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story." |