Labor Day Events Were Outstanding
North Texas Jobs with Justice did well during this Labor Day, 2011.
We had several responses to our "Labor in the Pulpit" effort to get the union message into church services. Reverend Ed Middleton was outstanding at Northaven United Methodist on September 6th, for example. As usual, a number of religious leaders agreed to attend the Dallas AFL-CIO Labor Day breakfast. It was held in the beautiful Infomart this year.
Reverend Charles Stovall attended again, but this time he brought his good friend Reverend Holsey Hickman. The two are civil rights legends in Dallas. Both have been very helpful to JwJ over the years, and completely agree with us that labor must embrace and be embraced by the larger progressive movement.
Getting a farmer to come to the city and join labor's big event was a special pleasure for Jobs with Justice this year. Gordie Twerberg, who raises wheat around Cleburne and sees most issues the same way that union leaders do, brought his wife Deb. He posed for a photo with Dallas AFL-CIO Principal Officer Jim McCasland. Prior to the breakfast, he was the featured guest on radio KNON's "Workers Beat" radio talk show.
The main speaker for the breakfast was County Judge Clay Jenkins. He said that labor was at an important crossroads in history.
On the Saturday before Labor Day, our Workers Rights Board held hearings on the unemployment crisis.
Reverend Dr Joerg Rieger presided over a panel that included union organizer Elaine Lantz, scientist Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger, and State Representative Roberto Alonzo. They presented the ins and outs of the jobs crisis. Alonzo gave the group the benefit of his long political experience because they wanted to organize delegates to visit congresspersons during the next recess, September 29-October 5. The delegations will ask congresspersons to pass legislation to alleviate the jobs crisis.
A few days earlier, on October 1, many area labor leaders attended a special meeting to hear National AFL-CIO President Rich Trumpka speak. Like all responsible union leaders, he made the jobs crisis his main topic.
Trumka is pictured with Elaine Lantz of UAW 2320 and Becky Moeller, President of the Texas AFL-CIO. It was a heck of a Labor Day week!
--Gene
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