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UFCW
Weekender
Following
is a brief roundup of important articles and information for
your weekend reading:
- UFCW marches in inaugural
parade
For the first time in living
memory, members of America's labor movement marched in the
official Inaugural Parade. Representing America's workers were
265 union members from the UFCW and other labor unions, along
with a 17-by-24 foot float built entirely by union workers. The
float featured the "faces of labor" - a tribute to every
hard-working man and woman who gets up every day and goes to
work. You can see photos from the inauguration at the UFCW
Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28492187@N07/sets/72157612871246074/
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UFCW members answer the call to
service
As the country celebrated the
Dr. Martin Luther King’s 80th birthday on Monday, UFCW
members around the United States gathered with others in their
communities to answer President-elect Obama’s call for a
National Day of Service. The inaugural team suggested in a
recent email that January 19th is just the start of a series of
calls to service that Obama will ask of the nation in the years
ahead.
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Immigration reform advocates call for an
end to worksite raids
Several hundred
immigration reform advocates marched on the headquarters of the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on Wednesday,
according to a recent article in the Washington Post.
Advocates are calling for an end to worksite raids. For
more information about the impact of ICE raids on communities,
go to www.icemisconduct.org.
- Does
your elected representative know what you
want?
Change doesn't happen on it's own. When was the
last time you wrote to your elected representative? Electing
Obama was a big first step to the change we need in this
country, but if we want to pass Employee Free Choice or get
health care that covers all Americans, we need to let our
representatives know. You can find out if your representatives
support health care for all at: http://www.healthcareforamericanow.com/.
Send letters directly from the UFCW website at: http://ufcwaction.org/ufcwvoiceactivated/leg-lookup/search.tcl
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Set the record straight on Employee Free
Choice
A
new sham website, "Save Our Secret Ballot," is spreading lies
about Employee Free Choice, saying it is a threat to "workplace
democracy" and will end secret ballot. But the poll on
their website reveals that real workers know Employee Free
Choice is about protecting workers from being bullied by their
employers. As of 4:20pm EST, 1476 people voted in support of the
Employee Free Choice Act, over twice as many as had voted
against. That's unsurprising since more than 60%
of workers say they would join a union if they
could. Let the anti-worker special interests know
you aren't buying their lies. Visit the site and vote
"no."
This Week's
Video
If you missed President Obama's
inaugural speech earlier in the week, you can view it online at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4.
"Our challenges may be
new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But
those values upon which our success depends — hard work
and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity,
loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These
things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress
throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to
these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of
responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every
American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the
world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize
gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so
satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than
giving our all to a difficult task." -from President Barack
Obama's Inaugural
Address
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