Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Mollie Lowery, 70, longtime angel of Skid Row

Mollie Lowery, 70, longtime angel of Skid Row: Steve Lopez has written a lovely column on his friend, the Skid Row organizer and housing advocate and co-founder of the LAMP Community.

How It's Made - Newspapers



Los Angeles Times Retirees Breakfast

Calling all former/current Los Angeles Times employees for breakfast tomorrow morning.













Where: Marie Calender's Restaurant
3117 E. Garvey Ave.
West Covina, CA. 91791
626-339-5491

When: July 28th, 2016 9:30 am

Cost: $12.99 per person



Today in Labor History

July 27  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

William Sylvis, founder of the National Labor Union, died - 1869

July 28
Women shoemakers in Lynn, Mass., create Daughters of St. Crispin, demand pay equal to that of men - 1869

Harry Bridges is born in Australia. He came to America as a sailor at age 19 and went on to help form and lead the militant Int’l Longshore and Warehouse Union for more than 40 years - 1901

A strike by Paterson, N.J., silk workers for an 8-hour day, improved working conditions ends after six months, with the workers’ demands unmet. During the course of the strike, approximately 1,800 strikers were arrested, including Wobbly leaders Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - 1913

Federal troops burn the shantytown built near the U.S. Capitol by thousands of unemployed WWI veterans, camping there to demand a bonus they had been promised but never received - 1932

Nine miners are rescued in Sommerset, Pa., after being trapped for 77 hours 240 feet underground in the flooded Quecreek Mine - 2002


July 26
In Chicago, 30 workers are killed by federal troops, more than 100 wounded at the "Battle of the Viaduct" during the Great Railroad Strike - 1877

President Grover Cleveland appoints a United States Strike Committee to investigate the causes of the Pullman strike and the subsequent strike by the American Railway Union. Later that year the commission issues its report, absolving the strikers and blaming Pullman and the railroads for the conflict - 1894

Battle of Mucklow, W.Va., in coal strike. An estimated 100,000 shots were fired; 12 miners and four guards were killed - 1912

President Truman issues Executive Order 9981, directing equality of opportunity in armed forces - 1948

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect today. It requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities and bans discrimination against such workers - 1992

Santa Barbara News-Press class of 2006

Santa Barbara News-Press class of 2006: It has been 10 years since the owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press declared war on her own newsroom staff.

Wednesday Night in the Blogosphere

Josie and Joe Delmendo visiting from the Philippines. 
Joe is a retired Los Angeles Times crew foreman.



If You Laughed At The Tronc Job Ad, Read This - Medium

Patch Rebounds After Split From AOL - The Wall Street Journal

Guardian loses big names as it braces for a leaner future - Politico

THE CASE AGAINST THE MEDIA.BY THE MEDIA. - NY Mag

Gannett Reports Second Quarter 2016 Results of Operations - Gannett

Sudanese security seizes print runs of two newspapers - Sudan Tribune

Community newspapers: The seven commandments - Media Life Magazine

tronc, Inc. Schedules Second Quarter 2016 Earnings on August 3 - Business Wire

Gannett’s expansion strategy runs into bad news on the advertising front - Poynter

With Yahoo Acquisition, Verizon Hopes To Grow Its New Media Empire - Fast Company


Monday, July 25, 2016

WSJ reporter detained at LAX, asked for her phones

WSJ reporter detained at LAX, asked for her phones: Homeland Security agents demanded that Maria Abi-Habib, who covers the Middle East, surrender her cellphones. She details the encounter on Facebook.

Today in Labor History

July 25  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

Workers stage a general strike—believed to be the nation’s first—in St. Louis, in support of striking railroad workers. The successful strike was ended when some 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized special police killed at least eighteen people in skirmishes around the city - 1877

New York garment workers win closed shop and firing of scabs after 7-month strike – 1890
(No Contract, No Peace: A Legal Guide to Contract Campaigns, Strikes, and Lockouts: This book is a must-have for any union or activist considering aggressive action to combat management’s growing economic war against workers. No Contract, No Peace! references recent union activities and NLRB decisions that have affected the labor relations environment. Schwartz’s familiarity with labor and employment law combines with his activist spirit to provide innovative yet practical tips for mounting and maintaining meaningful campaigns designed to build union and workers’ power.)

Fifteen “living dead women” testify before the Illinois Industrial Commission.  They were “Radium Girls,” women who died prematurely after working at clock and watch factories, where they were told to wet small paintbrushes in their mouths so they could dip them in radium to paint dials.  A Geiger counter passed over graves in a cemetery near Ottawa, Illinois still registers the presence of radium - 1937

The Teamsters and Service Employees unions break from the AFL-CIO during the federation's 50th convention to begin the Change to Win coalition, ultimately comprised of seven unions (4 by 2011: SEIU, Teamsters, UFCW and the UFW). They say they want more emphasis on organizing and less on electoral politics - 2005

LA Times staff told to keep political opinions off social media

LA Times staff told to keep political opinions off social media

Thursday, July 14, 2016

NYT's Michael Cieply named editor of Deadline

NYT's Michael Cieply named editor of Deadline: Michael Cieply, the longtime anchor of New York Times Hollywood coverage in the Los Angeles bureau, is joining Deadline as the executive editor.

Today in Labor History

July 14  --  Union Communications Services, Inc.

The Great Uprising nationwide railway strike begins in Martinsburg, W.Va., after railroad workers are hit with their second pay cut in a year. In the following days, strike riots spread through 17 states. The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the strike - 1877
 
Woody Guthrie, writer of "This Land is Your Land" and "Union Maid," born in Okemah, Okla. - 1912
(Woody Guthrie: A Life: Folksinger and political activist Woody Guthrie contributed much to the American labor movement, not the least of which are his classic anthems "Union Maid" and "This Land Is Your Land." This is perhaps his best-ever biography, written by bestselling author Joe Klein (Primary Colors, The Running Mate). It is an easy-to-read, honest description of Guthrie’s life, from a childhood of poverty to a youth spent "bummin’ around" to an adulthood of music and organizing—and a life cut short by incurable disease.)
 
Italian immigrants and anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted in Massachusetts of murder and payroll robbery—unfairly, most historians agree—after a 2-month trial, and are eventually executed. Fifty years after their deaths the state's governor issued a proclamation saying they had been treated unfairly and that "any disgrace should be forever removed from their names." - 1921



July 13
Southern Tenant Farmers' Union organized in Tyronza, Ark. - 1934
 
Detroit newspaper workers begin 19-month strike against Gannett, Knight-Ridder. The strike was to become a lockout, which lasted four years more - 1995








July 12
Bisbee, Ariz., deports Wobblies; 1,186 miners sent into desert in manure-laden boxcars. They had been fighting for improved safety and working conditions - 1917
 
The Screen Actors Guild holds its first meeting. Among those attending: future horror movie star (Frankenstein’s Monster) and union activist Boris Karloff - 1933



July 11
Striking coal miners in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, dynamite barracks housing Pinkerton management thugs - 1892
 
After seven years of labor by as many as 2,800 construction workers, the Triborough Bridge opens in New York.  Actually a complex of three bridges, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens.  Construction began on Black Friday, 1929, and New Deal money turned it into one of the largest public works projects of the Great Depression - 1936
 
A nine-year strike begins at the Ohio Crankshaft Division of Park-Ohio Industries in Cleveland. Overcoming scabs, arrests and firings, UAW Local 91 members hung on and approved a contract in 1992 with the company—now under new management—that included company-funded health and retirement benefits, as well as pay increases – 1983

Nick Ut announces his (2017) retirement from AP Photo*

Nick Ut announces his (2017) retirement from AP Photo*: He joined the Saigon bureau of Associated Press in 1965, and has been a fixture in the LA bureau.

Thursday Afternoon in the Blogosphere


Photo credit Omar Bárcena/Flickr



The Dolan family buys back Newsday - Politico

LAT alum gets promoted at the NYT - LAObserved

The Life and Death of Phil Anschutz's Examiner.com - WestWord

How (Not) To Name A Company In The Digital Era - Value Walk

Bluefield Daily Telegraph to decommission press operations - BDT

Why Tronc's ridiculous plan to produce 2,000 videos a day is doomed - Vox

Books, newspapers deemed 'privilege' at academic conference - Campus Reform

Can Publishers Step Away From the Brink of Peak Content? - Editor and Publisher

Some Are Aghast That a Los Angeles Times Building Could Be Razed - LA Weekly

Young and old news consumers want to get their news in very different ways - Nieman Lab


Sunday, July 10, 2016

More details on mixed use plan for LA Times buildings

More details on mixed use plan for LA Times buildings: Offices and retail in the older buildings, while it looks like the 1970s corporate side will be razed for apartments.

Today in Labor History


Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and civil rights activist, born - 1875

Some 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeed in putting down the strike against the Pullman Palace Car Co., which had been peaceful until July 5, when federal troops intervened in Chicago, against the repeated protests of the governor and Chicago’s mayor. A total of 34 American Railway Union members were killed by troops over the course of the strike - 1894

A powerful explosion rips through the Rolling Mill coal mine in Johnstown, Pa., killing 112 miners, 83 of whom were immigrants from Poland and Slovakia - 1902

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce holds a mass meeting of more than 2,000 merchants to organize what was to become a frontal assault on union strength and the closed shop. The failure of wages to keep up with inflation after the 1906 earthquake had spurred multiple strikes in the city - 1916
Sidney Hillman dies at age 59. He led the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and was a close advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt - 1946

Boyarsky, Olney, Baum, Moxley win at Press Club awards

Boyarsky, Olney, Baum, Moxley win at Press Club awards: The annual Los Angeles Press Club awards were handed out Sunday night. Here are the winners.