USW Local 2-232
formerly PACE 7-232
Membership Meeting
Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.
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USW Local 2-232 formerly PACE 7-232
Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.
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5,000 Working Women attend AFL-CIO Conference in Chicago (from Local 7-232 Reporter) More than 5,000 working women met in Chicago on the weekend or March 11th & 12th at the AFL-CIO Working Women Confernce 2000 to share experiences and outline an action agenda on equal pay, the global economy and other crucial issues. This included three members of Local 7232, Carol Aumann, Candy Schultz and Kathy Duchac. Highlights of the conference included speeches by Vice President Al Gore and Gerald McEntee, President of AFSCME International Union. Gore’s message highlighted his support for equal pay, expanded family leave and the right to organize. Gore’s Message "I am the son of a working woman," Gore told the cheering conference-goers on March 11. "My mother was born at a time when poor girls weren't supposed to dream." Working nights as a waitress, she became one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School. Gore said he also will fight to strengthen Social Security, add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, pass a Patients' Bill of Rights, enforce equal pay laws and increase respect for teachers. "This agenda is not just good for working women-it's good for working families," he said. "We will put the concerns of working women at the top of America's agenda." "Not so long ago you couldn't even get time off to have a baby without fear of losing your job," Gore said, reminding the audience that President Bush vetoed the Family and Medical Leave Act before it became the first law that President Clinton signed. "Now we need to expand it." The following quote from McEntee’s speech reflects the tone of opportunity and urgency we face in the upcoming elections. “The year 2000 offers significant opportunities... and we must seize the advantage in order to make progress for working families. “Sisters and brothers, the atmosphere is ripe to promote our agenda. Consider that the healthy economy has created huge surpluses that can now be used to help shore up Social Security and Medicare and make these programs solvent for all our futures. Also, the improved labor market has reduced the fear and resistance to organizing unions that is rampant when jobs are scarce and workers are less likely to take what they perceive as the risk to organize. So, now is the time to organize new units wherever targets can be identified. “But these changes will not take place on their own. We must actively push our agenda in order to make progress.” The conference also included workshops on mobilizing, organizing, bargaining and political action. |
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