Friday, February 28, 2014
Today in Labor History
February 28
U.S. Supreme Court finds that a Utah state law limiting mine and smelter workers to an 8-hour workday is constitutional - 1898
(Actually Leap Year Feb. 29) The minimum age allowed by law for workers in mills, factories, and mines in South Carolina is raised from 12 to 14 - 1915
Members of the Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in San Francisco’s Chinatown begin what is to be a successful four-month strike for better wages and conditions at the National Dollar Stores factory and three retail outlets - 1938
(Actually leap year Feb. 29) Screen Actors Guild member Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award, honored for her portrayal of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind” - 1940
(Actually leap year Feb. 29) Screen Actors Guild member Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award, honored for her portrayal of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind” - 1940
In response to the layoff of 450 union members at a 3M factory in New Jersey, every worker at a 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, walks off the job in sympathy - 1986
Howard Quinn Printing Company Interviews
Published on Jul 9, 2012
Howard Quinn is unique among the Printing companies I am visiting for this project. It has been in business in the same location for more than 50 years and is one of the last Union shops in the Bay Area. I tend look at the larger effects of printing presses on society but print companies are focused on the job of printing. Howard Quinn takes pride in servicing their customers, meeting deadlines, and providing a superior product. One thing that is hard to convey in pictures is that the printing industry has supported many families and individuals for many years and its decline has a human toll. With job insecurity at an all time high Howard Quinn has been there for its employees over the years, something fewer companies these days can say. Howard Quinn Company is an amazing treasure and a part of San Francisco history. Learn more at the project websitehttp://seandanapress.com/
Friday Morning in the Blogosphere
Have you consumed your daily dose of propaganda today?
Popularity of mobile news-reading explodes - Yle
Turkey passes Internet censorship law - Editors Weblog
Man slain was Wilmington newspaper vendor - Delaware Online
Where New Tech Arrives, Old Tech Once Roared - Mission Local
The Big Shift in Newspaper Revenue - American Journalism Review
Los Angeles Times Business section wins honors - Los Angeles Times
Will City Paper see the same demise as Connecticut alt-weekly? - Bizjournals
The Saturday Paper: who on earth would launch a newspaper today? - Guardian
Dispatch to print ‘USA Today,’ several area Gannett newspapers - Columbus Dispatch
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Today in Labor History
February 27 --
Legendary labor leader and socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs becomes charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Five years later he is leading the 
national union and in 1893 helps found the nation’s first industrial union, the American Railway Union - 1875
national union and in 1893 helps found the nation’s first industrial union, the American Railway Union - 1875(The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene V. : Eugene V. Debs was a labor activist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who captured the heart and soul of the nation’s working people. He was brilliant, sincere, compassionate and scrupulously honest. A founder of one of the nation’s first industrial unions, the American Railway Union, he went on to help launch the Industrial Workers of the World—the Wobblies. A man of firm beliefs and dedication, he ran for President of the United States five times under the banner of the Socialist Party, in 1912 earning 6 percent of the popular vote.)Debs
Birth of John Steinbeck in Salinas, Calif. Steinbeck is best known for writing The Grapes of Wrath, which exposed the mistreatment of migrant farm workers during the Depression and led to some reforms - 1902
Thirty-eight miners die in a coal mine explosion in Boissevain, Va. - 1932
Four hundred fifty Woolworth’s workers and customers occupy store for eight days in support of Waiters and Waitresses Union, Detroit - 1937
The Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes, a major organizing tool for industrial unions, are illegal - 1939
Mine disaster kills 75 at Red Lodge, Mont. - 1943
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
S.C. - "It's Illegal To Be Homeless, Jail Or FEMA Camp?"
It’s now illegal to be homeless, at least in Columbia, South Carolina. Homeless people are set to be shipped off to a camp on the outskirts of town – but the kicker is that the shelter only has 250 beds, which are available on a first come, first serve basis. Once you’re in the camp, there’s no way of leaving, and there’s no room for the other thousand homeless residents left in the city. Sound too crazy to be true? Just wach the video below.
And it’s not just the homeless who will have a tougher time. People and organizations that wish to support or feed the homeless must pay a fee and obtain a permit 15 days in advance. One affected charity, Food Not Bombs, said they now will have to pay at least $120 to host their weekly free meal picnic, in which they offer free food to anyone who needs it. The organization has been holding these free picnics in Finlay Park every Sunday for the last 12 years.
According to the group’s organizer Judith Turnipseed, “We have no formal organization. We don’t have a 501(c)(3). We’re just a group of people who come to the park and bring food and share it with anyone who comes. That includes people who are homeless, and people who have a home but are hungry. It’s a people’s picnic.”
The government of Columbia has even removed several public benches from downtown areas, and have encouraged citizens to be ready to call police if they see anyone suspected of being homeless. Do you think that this is the job of the government, or have they stepped too far?
Read the updated story here.
And it’s not just the homeless who will have a tougher time. People and organizations that wish to support or feed the homeless must pay a fee and obtain a permit 15 days in advance. One affected charity, Food Not Bombs, said they now will have to pay at least $120 to host their weekly free meal picnic, in which they offer free food to anyone who needs it. The organization has been holding these free picnics in Finlay Park every Sunday for the last 12 years.
According to the group’s organizer Judith Turnipseed, “We have no formal organization. We don’t have a 501(c)(3). We’re just a group of people who come to the park and bring food and share it with anyone who comes. That includes people who are homeless, and people who have a home but are hungry. It’s a people’s picnic.”
The government of Columbia has even removed several public benches from downtown areas, and have encouraged citizens to be ready to call police if they see anyone suspected of being homeless. Do you think that this is the job of the government, or have they stepped too far?
Read the updated story here.
Today in Labor History
February 26 --
Congress OKs the Contract Labor Law, designed to clamp down on "business agents" who contracted abroad for immigrant labor. One of the reasons unions supported the measure: employers were using foreign workers to fight against the growing U.S. labor movement, primarily by deploying immigrant labor to break strikes - 1885
A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapsed, flooding the 17-mile long valley. 118 died, 5,000 were left homeless. The Pittston Coal Co. said it was "an act of God" - 1972
A 20-week strike by 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers ends, with both sides claiming victory - 2004
The strike of 1941 was the culmination of years of labor strife between Bethlehem Steel and its industrial work force. Labor disputes at the company were not uncommon even in the 19th century, when it was known as the Bethlehem Iron Co. But they were largely confined to the local area and had little national impact. Also, when police were called out they sympathized with the strikers, many of whom were relatives, and tried to go easy on them.
Bethlehem Steel's stormy history of labor relations began in 1910. Company President
Charles Schwab, declaring, "I will not be in the position of having management dictated to by labor," brought in mounted state police to crush strikers seeking the right to form a union. There was bloodshed and one death. Killed was Hungarian steelworker Joseph Szabo. After a futile struggle of several months' duration, the workers, denied even a hall to meet in, gave up.
Bethlehem Steel's stormy history of labor relations began in 1910. Company President
Charles Schwab, declaring, "I will not be in the position of having management dictated to by labor," brought in mounted state police to crush strikers seeking the right to form a union. There was bloodshed and one death. Killed was Hungarian steelworker Joseph Szabo. After a futile struggle of several months' duration, the workers, denied even a hall to meet in, gave up.
In 1919, the workers tried again. But they got even less sympathy from Bethlehem Steel's new head, Schwab protege Eugene Grace. Former President William Howard Taft, head of the War Labor Board during World War I, asked Grace, "If 99 percent of your men were in a union, would you deal with them?" "Not as union men," Grace snapped back.
"I went to work there in the late 1930s swinging a 20-pound sledgehammer to break iron billets," says the 81-year-old. "I got 40 cents an hour, six days a week, no vacations," he recalls.
It was bad enough for younger men, but Scheffer also saw what happened to the older workers, many of them with Italian, Hungarian and Slovak backgrounds: "When they couldn't do the work they were taken off their job and given a broom. When they went to get a pension, there was no pension there."
Scheffer, who had been a member of the International Seaman's Union in New York, quickly decided he was not going to take it. "It didn't take me long to realize we were being discriminated against." So he contacted the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). "I was the first one to sign a union card at Bethlehem Steel," he says.
Since 1919, Steel had had its own company workers' organization, the Employee Representation Plan (ERP). Anyone who refused to belong or tried to join another union was not welcome. When Scheffer tried to sign up his fellow workers for SWOC, he was harassed and intimidated. But more and more men began to join SWOC. "A lot of the Portuguese and Mexicans were the first ones to join up," recalls Scheffer. In August 1939, the union got a leg up thanks to a decision by the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB told the company that ERP was a company union and did not legitimately represent the workers. Bethlehem Steel should "withdraw recognition from and completely disestablish the ERP."
The company quickly disputed the decision. In early 1941, the matter was still before the U.S. Court of Appeals. As World War II began, SWOC continued its organization drive at Bethlehem Steel. Watching Hitler take over Europe, and with an eye on Japan, the federal government had poured billions of dollars into defense contracts. Slowly, a steel industry that had lagged through the Great Depression was being revived. With profits on the increase, the workers felt that they should get a bigger slice of the pie.
In the last week of February 1941, the first strike hit Bethlehem Steel at its Lackawanna plant outside Buffalo, N.Y. It lasted only 38 hours. Settlement was reached on the terms that discharged workers would be rehired, a grievance procedure would be established and an election would be held to allow the employees to vote on their bargaining agent. Although there had been picketing and some conflict, the quick settlement of the strike seemed to bode well for negotiations at the Steel's Bethlehem headquarters.
But any hope in that regard quickly fell through. On March 24, 1941, a Monday, a small article appeared at the bottom of Page 5 in The Morning Call: "SWOC Reiterate Their Bethlehem Walkout Threat," stated the headline. ERP announced it was going to go ahead with its election to choose representatives for collective bargaining "... CIO or no CIO." According to Bethlehem SWOC Director Howard T. Curtiss, if the company union did this, his 18,000 members at the Bethlehem plant would strike. "They are more determined than ever to walk out."
Be sure to find out more of this story via the link.
http://articles.mcall.com/1991-09-02/features/2810498_1_bethlehem-steel-labor-disputes-older-workers
reality check: Black History at Glady's Park - music- fun- love
reality check: Black History at Glady's Park - music- fun- love: The Player Kevin Michael Key usc smoking cessation program Charles Porter OG Elizbeth Huesca ...
Tony Anthony captures Skid Row Los Angeles through his photo blog titled Reality Check, take a look if you dare, as some of the photographs can be disturbing to the faint of heart. Skid Row is avoided by most, Mr. Anthony lives there and is always ready to capture images of life on the streets of Los Angeles.
Tony Anthony captures Skid Row Los Angeles through his photo blog titled Reality Check, take a look if you dare, as some of the photographs can be disturbing to the faint of heart. Skid Row is avoided by most, Mr. Anthony lives there and is always ready to capture images of life on the streets of Los Angeles.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Tuesday Morning in the Blogosphere
New street art at 6th and San Julian
What is Wrong With Todays Newspapers? - WeHo News
Minuteman Newspapers Lays Off Reporters - Westport Now
Print Still Dominates Local Newspaper Reading - Media Daily News
In a social media world, newspapers continue to stand out - The-Dispatch
Children have been learning how the world of newspapers works - The News
Activist fund Blue Harbour Group takes stake in Tribune Co. - Chicago Tribune
Newspapers among organizations exempted from Do Not Call expansion - Statehouse
What Happens When, Instead Of A War On Drugs, There's A Sales Tax On Drugs - AG
Baltimore paper staffers will lose their jobs, but could be rehired by The Sun - Romenesko
Today in Labor History
February 25 --
Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employees of America change name to Amalgamated Transit Union - 1965
The Order of Railroad Telegraphers change name to Transportation-Communication Employees Union - 1965
A crowd estimated to be 100,000 strong rallied at the Wisconsin state Capitol in protest of what was ultimately was to become a successful push by the state’s Republican majority to cripple public employee bargaining rights - 2011
February 24
U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women, justified as necessary to protect their health. A laundry owner was fined $10 for making a female employee work more than 10 hours in a single day - 1908
Women and children textile strikers beaten by Lawrence, Mass., police during a 63-day walkout protesting low wages and work speedups - 1912
Congress passes a federal child labor tax law that imposed a 10 percent tax on companies that employ children, defined as anyone under the age of 16 working in a mine/quarry or under the age 14 in a “mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment.” The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional three years later - 1919
(Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor: Your heart will be broken by this exceptional book’s photographs of children at backbreaking, often life-threatening work, and the accompanying commentary by author Russell Freedman. Photographer Lewis Hine—who himself died in poverty in 1940—did as much, and perhaps more, than any social critic in the early part of the 20th century to expose the abuse of children, as young as three and four, by American capitalism.)
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Editor Martin Beck is leaving the Los Angeles Times -30-
From his Facebook post:
I guess it's time to make it Facebook-status official: After 24 years at the Times, I'm leaving to cover social media for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land.
I owe so much to the Times, and even more to my colleagues, former and current, who provided my real journalism education.
From my first professional bylines as a freelancer (thanks Elliott Almond!), covering high school and college sports, copy editing on the late, great Orange County sports desk, helping to bring the magic of pagination to a hot-wax, paste-up newsroom, trouble-shooting CCI disasters on election nights, smoothing the merge of the web and print newsrooms, fighting the trolls on the comment boards, sharing our great work with new audiences on Twitter and Facebook, playing social media Pied Piper ... it's been a series of dream jobs with some of the smartest people in the business.
And the fact that the Times continues to be an outstanding news organization despite tough cuts over the years is a testament to the stalwart journalists who still prowl Times Mirror Square and outposts beyond.
My last day at the Times is this Friday. I'm leaving for a great gig -- the chance to return to reporting and writing from my home office -- but I'll always consider myself a Timesman at heart.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Today in Labor History
February 21 --
A state law was enacted in California providing the 8-hour day for most workers, but it was not effectively enforced - 1868
Transportation-Communication Employees Union merges with Brotherhood of Railway, Airline & Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employees - 1969
United Farm Workers of America granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1972
Oregon becomes 1st U.S. state to make Labor Day a holiday 1887. ~De
Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday on February 21, 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day. Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; President Grover Cleveland signed it into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date originally chosen by the CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation's trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers' Day because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would be associated with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements that, though distinct from one another, had rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in International Workers' Day. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.
Photo of a 1911 labor day parade in Medford, OR.
Has your Los Angeles Times Newspaper Arrived yet?
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Thursday, February 20, 2014
Burgers and Bibles on Skid Row
Burgers and Bibles on Skid Row, a set on Flickr.
Burgers and Bibles on Skid Row meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month at McDonald's on 7th and Alameda, Los Angeles. Brown bag dinners and prepared before heading to the mean streets of Skid Row Los Angeles to distribute food to the folks who were unable to secure housing for the night. The group was created by Brittney ShaRaun and can be located on Facebook.
Today in Labor History
February 20 --
Rally for unemployed becomes major confrontation in Philadelphia, 18 arrested for demanding jobs - 1908
Thousands of women march to New York’s City Hall demanding relief from exorbitant wartime food prices. Inflation had wiped out any wage gains made by workers, leading to a high level of working class protest during World War I - 1917
United Mine Workers settle 10-month Pittston strike in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia - 1990
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Burgers and Bibles on Skid Row Los Angeles Tonight
Burgers and Bibles on Skid Row can be located on Facebook
Wednesday Morning in the Blogosphere
As the sun sets the fire emitted from the funny cars became visible at the Winter Nationals
Offbeat: A New Kind of Newspaper - Editor and Publisher
The Drug War Is A Cash Cow For Police - Advice Goddess
Jim Hopkins shuts down the Gannett Blog - Talking New Media
John J. Oliver Jr. Speaks on Future of Black Newspapers - BET
BostonGlobe.com is moving to a metered paywall - Nieman Journalism Lab
Civic participation fell in Denver and Seattle after newspapers closed - Poynter
Lee Enterprises outlines digital strategies, improves cost outlook - Daily Journal
Upper Valley Press Becomes 100 Percent Employee Owned - Printing Impressions
Tribune Co. expects $325-million dividend from publishing spinoff - Los Angeles Times
Today in Labor History
February 19 --
American Federation of Labor issues a charter to its new Railroad Employees Department - 1909
A few weeks after workers ask for a 25¢ hourly wage, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit (streetcar) Co. fires 173 union members “for the good of the service” and brings in replacements from New York City. Striker-scab battles and a general strike ensued - 1910
Journeymen Stonecutters Association of North America merges with Laborers’ Int’l Union - 1968
The U.S. Supreme Court decides in favor of sales clerk Leura Collins and her union, the Retail Clerks, in NLRB v. J. Weingarten Inc.—the case establishing that workers have a right to request the presence of their union steward if they believe they are to be disciplined for a workplace infraction - 1975
Int’l Union of Police Associations granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1979
Farm Labor Organizing Committee signs agreement with Campbell Soup Co., ending 7-year boycott - 1986
Winter Nationals Pomona, CA. 2014
Winter Nationals Pomona, CA. 2014, a set on Flickr.
The Winter Nationals which took place February 6th through the 9th, were awesome. But what was the most fun was hanging out with my former colleagues from the Los Angeles Times for several days.