CELEBRATING WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH 2016

 

WE CAN DO IT!

 

March is Women's History Month.  It's almost impossible today to imagine that, just a couple of generations ago, a woman who worked fulltime was more the exception than the norm.  Minnesota has the 2nd highest female workforce in the nation.  According to the Forbes list of "The Best Cities for Working Women in 2015," Minneapolis is 2nd and Saint Paul is 4th.  We must be doing something right!  So, how did we get here?  Local 638's women's committee believes that working women and Teamster women had a lot to do with it!  Women work every day.  No matter where they live, their economic activity is vital to the economy and society, their communities, their families and their personal autonomy and growth as human beings.  Here's how we have been celebrating!

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After attending a Teamster Women's conference in 2009, Peggy Vanhese wanted to share what she had learned and inspire others to get involved in our union, especially women, because the "union difference" for women isn't just about dollars and sense, when women succeed American families succeed. Building on Peggy's creative poster project, that inspired Teamster women to make and share women's history in our local, later displayed at the Teamster Women's conference in 2012, this year our women's committee focused on sharing working women and Teamster women's stories.  We also wanted to highlight that "A Woman's Place is in Her Union!"

 

 

We started by sharing and displaying Teamster women's stories on our lockers at work.

 

 

 

To honor, celebrate and have some fun, we asked our sisters to come to work dressed like "Rosie the Riveters" the last work day of every week in March.

 

 

 

 

 

We are sharing the stories of extraordinary Teamsters Clara Day and Regina V. Polk as they fought for workers rights, civil rights and women's rights.  Did you know more than 15,000 Teamster women traveled to Washington, D.C. between 1962 and 1968?  The women who joined the DRIVE motorcades traveled by bus to meet Senators and Congressmen to discuss labor related issues.  They hosted the well publicized "Scoring Banquets" where they would get up and rate politicians' voting records, often with the spotlighted Senator or Congressman seated at the table.  Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey said he had never seen a more effective political action program than the Teamster women's motorcades.

 

 

 

 

 

We made a "Rosie the Riveter" photo back drop and took some fun pictures!

 

 

With our brothers and sisters, we are sharing stories of our working mothers and grandmothers, it's exciting to find out that some were "Rosie's" themselves!  We are sharing a bit of history with those who were not taught in school much about women's history or the progress, contributions and sacrifices that our labor movement has made in social progress. 

 

The AFL-CIO conducted a national survey of working women last year and the results are in! Today, more and more women are the primary breadwinners and financial decision-makers in their households.  Women overall still earn 79 cents for every dollar a man earns. For women of color, the gap is even larger, African-American (60 cents) and Latino (55 cents).  A report last year said that American men will likely earn more than women until 2058.   For families to thrive working women must have equal pay and equal say today! 

The truth is, in most cases, in order to be paid the same as men, women need to have a union agreement. Unions have taken major steps forward when it comes to furthering women’s rights in the workplace and Teamster contracts have historically lead the way when it comes to gender equality.  Why is a woman's place in her union?  For women and families it's common sense!  As Susan B. Anthony said so many years ago,

                  "Join the union, girls, and together
                     say Equal Pay for Equal Work!"




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MEET LIFESAVER FRANCES PERKINS!

 

MEET LIFESAVER FRANCES PERKINS!

 

While the Teamster Women's Committee of local 638, our Executive Board, the IBT and members of CHSP committees ("Lifesavers!") are busy organizing for the upcoming SAFETY SEMINAR on Feb. 20, 2016 (find out how you can attend below) , we thought we would share with you how women have pioneered and paved the road for better & safer working conditions.

How did one woman, against all odds, make so many lives better? What do you do if you're in the depths of a Great Depression? What happened during her encounter with IBT General President James R. Hoffa in 1963? Why didn't we learn about her in history class?

Fannie Coralie Perkins was born in Boston Massachusetts,1880. She spent her childhood summers with her grandmother on the farm in Newcastle. Frances later explained. "I am extraordinarily the product of my grandmother," whose wisdom guided her throughout her life. She attended Mount Holyoke College at a time when it was uncommon for women to do so. "Perk," nicknamed by her classmates, majored in physics, with minors in chemistry and biology. In her final semester, she took a course in American economic history which required her to visit the mills along the Connecticut River and observe working conditions that would set her on the path to making so many lives better.

"From the time I was in college I was horrified at the work that many women and children had to do in factories. There were absolutely no effective laws that regulated the number of hours they were permitted to work. There were no provisions which guarded their health nor adequately looked after their compensation in case of injury. Those things seemed very wrong. I was young and was inspired with the idea of reforming, or at least doing what I could, to help change those abuses." she recalled later.

After graduation, she took a teaching job in Illinois. She volunteered her free time and vacations to work at Chicago Commons and Hull House working with the poor and unemployed. Determined and convinced she said "I had to do something about unnecessary hazards to life, unnecessary poverty. It was sort of up to me."

As general secretary of the Philadelphia Research and Protective Association, in 1907, she worked to keep young immigrant girls and black women from the south from prostitution. She investigated childhood malnutrition among school children in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, and enrolled as a Master’s Degree candidate in sociology and economics at Columbia University. Her research project, entitled "A Study of Malnutrition in 107 Children from Public School 51," became her Master’s thesis.

In 1910 she became Executive Secretary of the New York City Consumers League, working directly with Florence Kelley, focusing on the need for sanitary regulations for bakeries, fire protection for factories, and legislation to limit the working hours for women and children in factories to 54 hours per week. In the halls and committee rooms of the state capitol she learned the skills to be an effective lobbyist for labor and social reforms.

On March 25, 1911, she witnessed the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which young women jumped from the eighth and ninth floors of the building to their deaths on the street below. She later proclaimed, it was "the day the New Deal was born." Recognized as an expert in the field of worker health and safety and recommended by Theodore Roosevelt, she is hired as executive secretary of the citizen's Committee on Safety that was established to recommend practices to prevent a further tragedy in the city’s factories. Their work resulted in the most comprehensive set of laws governing workplace health and safety in the nation.

Reflecting on her years as lobbyist, investigator and researcher, Frances Perkins later said, "The extent to which this legislation in New York marked a change in American political attitudes and policies toward social responsibility can scarcely be overrated. It was, I am convinced, a turning point."

She continued to work with labor and allies to build on the legislative accomplishments in New York. She was the first woman to be appointed to an administrative position in New York state government and, with an annual salary of $8000, the highest paid woman ever to hold public office in the United States. Newly elected governor Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Frances to become the state’s Industrial Commissioner, with oversight responsibilities for the entire labor department. Soon, she became the most prominent state labor official in the nation, as she and Roosevelt searched for new ways to deal with rising unemployment. Increasingly she became focused on devising a program of unemployment insurance. With her encouragement, Roosevelt became the first public official in the country to commit himself to unemployment insurance.

In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt successfully defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover to win the presidency of the United Staes. In 1933, President-elect Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor, she outlined for him a set of policy priorities she would pursue: a 40-hour work week; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance. She made it clear to Roosevelt that his agreement with these priorities was a condition of her joining his cabinet. Roosevelt said he endorsed them all, and Frances Perkins became the first woman in the nation to serve in a Presidential cabinet.

 "I promise to use what brains I have to meet problems with intelligence and courage."

 In 1934, Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins to head a Committee on Economic Security, where she forged the blueprint of legislation finally enacted as the Social Security Act. Signed into law by the President on August 14, 1935, the Act included a system of old age pensions, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation and aid to the needy and disabled.

In 1938, Congress enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act, also crafted with the support of Perkins, establishing a minimum wage and maximum work hours and banning child labor.

As secretary of labor during the 1930s and early 1940s, Perkins played a crucial role in the outcome of the dramatic labor uprisings that marked the era. She consistently supported the rights of workers to organize unions of their own choosing and to pressure employers through economic action. In one famous incident captured in a widely circulated newspaper photo, an indomitable Perkins strides toward the U.S. post office in Homestead with thousands of steelworkers training behind her. Denied a meeting hall by the mayor and steel executives, Perkins found an alternative site where she could inform the workers directly of their collective bargaining rights. It was also the unflappable Perkins who advised President Roosevelt to ignore the pleadings of state and local officials for federal troops to quell the 1934 San Francisco General Strike. The successful resolution of that strike as well as countless others during her tenure as labor secretary laid the foundation for the rebirth of American labor.

Before leaving the Department of Labor in June of 1945, Frances Perkins stood in the department’s auditorium, and while a full orchestra played, she shook the hands, and personally thanked every one, of the department’s 1800 employees. The months that followed were busy, as she began writing The Roosevelt I Knew, a best-selling biography of FDR published in 1946, and serving as head of the American delegation to the International Labor Organization in Paris.

The following year, President Truman appointed her to the United States Civil Service Commission, a position she held until 1953. She then began a new career of teaching, writing and public lectures, ultimately serving until her death as a lecturer at Cornell University’s new School of Industrial Relations.

In early 1963, she met IBT General President James R. Hoffa after a lecture he gave at Cornell at a Telluride reception. With an outstretched hand he said, "I always wanted to meet you Madame Perkins to tell you how good you done in ending unemployment." From underneath her tri-corn hat she smilingly rejected his compliment. "Come now, Mr. Hoffa, you know as well as I do that the war and not the New Deal overcame unemployment."

Frances Perkins suffered a stroke and died at Midtown Hospital in New York City on May 14, 1965, at the age of 85.


"There is always a large horizon... There is much to be done...
I am not going to be doing it! It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time." 

 

 

JOIN THE LIFESAVERS!


Teamsters Local 638 will be hosting a free full day workshop to better equip members to setting safety standards, knowing your rights and how working together we make work better.

Date:  Saturday February 20, 2016
Time: 8:00 A.M. Please arrive early for registration
Place: Teamster Building 3rd Floor
            3001 University Ave SE
            Minneapolis MN 55414

Please contact Teamster office at 612-379-1533 in order that we may properly prepare for all attendees. Lunch is on us!


RESOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Perkins

http://francesperkinscenter.org/?page_id=574

http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-People-in-Labor-History/Frances-Perkins-1880-1965

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/why-frances-perkins-so-important-us-history

THE FRANCES PERKINS I KNEW MEETING WITH HOFFA PG 7
http://blog.francesperkinscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/The-Frances-Perkins-I-Knew-by-Christopher-Breiseth.pdf



  

 

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO A SAFE WORKPLACE!

          THE RIGHT TO A SAFE WORKPLACE!

Under federal law, you are entitled to a safe workplace. Your employer must provide a workplace free of known health and safety hazards. If you have concerns, you have the right to speak up about them without fear of retaliation. You also have the right to: Training, safe machines, safety gear,  to be protected from toxic chemicals, request an inspection, report injury or illness, see copies of workplace injury and illness log, review records of work-related injuries and illnesses and get copies of test results done to find hazards in the workplace.


As union women we know that many have fought and died in the struggle to achieve better working conditions for us all. With the passing of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, these rights become the minimum standard for working people in the US.

While the Teamster Women's Committee of local 638, our Executive Board, the IBT and members of CHSP committees ("Lifesavers!") are busy organizing for the upcoming SAFETY SEMINAR on Feb. 20, 2016 (find out how you can attend below) , we thought we would share with you how women have pioneered and paved the road for better & safer working conditions.

How did one woman make a difference in the lives of working Americans? Why did she crawl over open coal pits, ride down mine shafts in open cages, and climb up ladders? How did she connect the dots for workers getting poisoned at work? She was named Time Woman of the Year in 1956 so why in the 1960's, when she was in her 90's, was the FBI still keeping tabs on her?
  
Meet Lifesaver Alice Hamilton! (1869-1970)

Alice Hamilton was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1869 to a prominent family. In 1893, she graduated from medical school at the University of Michigan. In 1897, she started teaching at the Women’s Medical School of Northwestern University and she moved into Hull House.

While at Hull House, Hamilton operated a well-baby clinic for neighborhood residents. Under the direction of the State of Illinois and later the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, she began to investigate occupational illnesses (also called industrial medicine) and soon became a pioneer in the field. Her most well-know investigations were her studies of carbon monoxide poisoning in steelworkers, mercury poisoning in hatters, and a debilitating hand condition developed by workers using jackhammers.

It was common in many dangerous trades at the turn of the twentieth century, the risk of taking an industrial job. There were no laws to protect workers in factories, no OSHA, no workers’ compensation. Dr. Alice Hamilton wanted to take on the problem of industrial poisoning. When Alice Hamilton began her work in the new field of industrial toxicology, few worried about chemical hazards at work. Many victims were recent immigrants afraid to complain. Most did not know the risks. "The poor must take dangerous jobs, or have no jobs at all," she wrote.

Part of a generation of progressive women who took active roles in changing society for the better she got involved in the labor movement, working with the Factory Girls. With Florence Kelley in the 1920’s she worked with the Consumers’ League to help the "Radium Girls" who were dying from their work with radium-laden paint. These women asked for the League’s help when state health departments refused to do anything. They fought for compensation and safety regulations

Her first article on occupational disease was published in 1908. Dr. Hamilton was appointed in 1910 by the governor to a commission to investigate occupational diseases in Illinois. When she began her work with a small group of physicians and student assistants, she called it a journey of exploration.


She went to watch workers sand-papering the lead painted ceilings of Pullman cars. In smelters on the south side laborers shoveled white lead from the drying pans and breathed the deadly dust. To prove these toxins killed employees, she visited 300 workplaces, interviewed workers, and went to their homes to speak to them or to surviving relatives. She researched death records. She found Cook County Hospital filled with victims of industrial poisoning. The American Federation of Labor helped pressure for safety and compensation laws.

American medical authorities had never taken this type of health problem seriously before. Employers too were ignorant and indifferent. Dr. Hamilton recalled the manager of a lead plant who was shocked when she suggested that he was responsible when workers got lead poisoning there. He thought of himself as an enlightened, caring employer.

In 1911 Illinois passed a first attempt at compensation for industrial diseases caused by poisonous gases, fumes, and dust. It required safer workplaces and monthly medical exams for lead and arsenic workers. The law was overturned by the Supreme Court and not replaced until 1936. The National Association of Manufacturers opposed safety legislation as they opposed shorter hours and ending child labor.

During World War I she investigated munitions plants and found them in constant danger of exploding. She discussed this with then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Roosevelt. Munitions workers’ health became a matter of national concern.

Dr. Hamilton became a committed New Dealer, serving as consultant to the United States Division of Labor Standards. Her work contributed to reforms in industrial hygiene laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act. Dr. Hamilton said she was most pleased that laborers were no longer submissive or ignorant about workplace hazards. They became willing to demand better conditions for themselves. She felt this attitude was critical in maintaining safety gains.


"I began to see the working world through the workers’ eyes."

Dr. Alice Hamilton is considered a lifesaver and the mother of Occupational Health and Safety.
  

 

 

JOIN THE LIFESAVERS!

Teamsters Local 638 will be hosting a free full day workshop to better equip members to setting safety standards, knowing your rights and how working together we make work better.

 

     Date: Saturday February 20, 2016

     Time: 8:00 A.M. Please arrive early for registration

     Place: Teamster Building 3rd Floor

                3001 University Ave SE

                Minneapolis MN 55414

Please contact Teamster office at 612-379-1533 in order that we may properly prepare for all attendees.  Lunch is on us!

 

Resources:

 

https://www.osha.gov/workers/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Hamilton

https://teamster.org/about/review-safety-and-health-fact-sheet-archive