April 22 Songwriter, musician and activist Hazel Dickens dies at age 75. Among her songs: “They’ll Never Keep Us Down” and “Working Girl Blues.” Cultural blogger John Pietaro: "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them. Her place on many a picket...
This Week in Labor History: 4/15 – 4/21
April 15 Philip Randolph, civil rights leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, born in Crescent City, Fla. - 1889 Eight members of the Musicians union die in the sinking of the Titanic. According to survivors, they played their instruments until...
May Day Event – Save the Date!
Dear Colleagues, This year your AFT Guild will be joining the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council’s May Day March on Wednesday, May 1st at 3:30 outside the Thomas Jefferson School of Law at 701 B Street. We hope you can come out and celebrate the power of...
Students for Economic Justice Spring Fundraiser!
Dear Colleagues, Please come on out to the annual SEJ Happy Hour fundraiser on Friday, April 26th from 5:30-8 at Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew’s house! Click here to purchase tickets The Students for Economic Justice (SEJ) fellowship trains college...
This Week in Labor History: 4/8 – 4/14
April 08 A total of 128 convict miners, leased to a coal company under the state’s shameful convict lease system, are killed in an explosion at the Banner coal mine outside Birmingham, Ala. The miners were mostly African-Americans jailed for minor offenses - 1911...
AFT Guild Union Meeting this Thursday, April 4th – City College
Dear AFT Guild Members, Our next AFT Guild Union Meeting will be held this Thursday, April 4th beginning at 3:00pm at City College, in the MS building which is on the corner of 16th and C Streets downtown. There is a parking structure in the building. We will meet...
AFT Guild “Get Active” Website
Dear AFT Guild Members, This is a reminder of our new “Get Active” site which is replacing our old paper and electronic newsletters with what we hope is a better format. Included in our second installment is: The latest “In Focus,”AFT’s Ian Duckles and...
This Week in Labor History: 4/1 – 4/7
April 01 Many believe that Cincinnati on this day became the first U.S. city to pay fire fighters a regular salary. Others say no, it was Boston, back in 1678, exact date unknown - 1853 United Mine Workers of America win 8-hour day - 1898 San Francisco laundry workers...
This Week in Labor History: 3/25 – 3/31
March 25 Toronto printers strike for the 9-hour day in what is believed to be Canada’s first major strike - 1872 First “Poor People’s March” on Washington, in which jobless workers demanded creation of a public works program. Led by populist Jacob Coxey, the 500 to...
This Week in Labor History: 3/18 – 3/24
March 18 Six laborers in Dorset, England—the “Tolpuddle Martyrs”—are banished to the Australian penal colony for seven years for forming a union, the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Some 800,000 residents of the United Kingdom signed petitions calling for...