By LEW MOYE
“We must guard against being fooled by false slogans such as ‘right to work.’ ”
– Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In his commentary “Unions ignore long history of excluding minorities from jobs” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 14), Rep. Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin) highlighted past discriminatory practices in Organized Labor’s history as reason for implementing our state’s currently pending “right-to-work”...
By TIM ROWDEN
Editor
Jefferson City – Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has certified the petitions placing repeal of the so-called “right-to-work” before voters with 250,327 signatures certified as valid in all eight of Missouri’s congressional districts – a first for an initiative petition in the state.
A total of 80.6 percent of the original 310,567 signatures were certified as valid,...
By TIM ROWDEN
Editor
Centreville, IL – Johnny Lee Lovett, Sr., a father and member of Iron Workers Local 392, was nearly home on Friday, Nov. 24, when he stopped to help four strangers and was robbed and fatally shot.
His wife of 25 years, Andrea Lovett, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he was just one turn away from home when he...
By CARL GREEN
Illinois Correspondent
Springfield, IL – Governor Bruce Rauner’s handpicked members of the State Board of Elections have voted to keep Illinois in the controversial Crosscheck System, a key priority of Donald Trump in the GOP’s stealth war against voters.
Despite calls from state and national legislators to withdraw from the program, the Illinois State Board of Elections voted recently...
By ED FINKELSTEIN
Publisher
Now entering its fourth year, the St. Louis Workers’ Education Society (WES), a non-profit, grassroots community-labor worker-education organization, is racking up a record of accomplishments in its support of workers.
WES has been endorsed and embraced by the Greater St. Louis Labor Council for its ongoing support of workers’ issues and training, and chartered WES as an affiliate...
By CARL GREEN
Illinois Correspondent
IBEW 309 held its annual retirees’ luncheon Nov. 4 at Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville, honoring veteran members with 50, 55, 60 and 70-year plaques, plus one more.
Paul Seibert was honored for an amazing 75 years in the union, but he was unable to attend.
Here are some Labor Tribune photos from the event.
By TIM ROWDEN
Editor
Clayton, MO – Graduate student-workers and Missouri citizens rallied outside Senator Roy Blunt’s office recently to protest the GOP tax plan that would dramatically increase the financial burden of millions of Americans, including graduate student-workers.
The tax plan, which Senator Blunt has publicly supported, would count tuition waivers as income, meaning student-workers will have to pay federal...
Bellefontaine Neighbors, MO – A well-known bit of American yesteryear is vanishing this fall as retired IBEW Local 1 electrician, 88-year-old Al Roth, harvests his last crop.
For more than 120 years, the Roth family has operated a truck farm here – so called because the family “trucked” vegetables to Produce Row in Soulard.
The Roth family stopped trucking produce...
By CARL GREEN
Illinois Correspondent
Granite City – Holiday helping is gearing up in Madison County, where hundreds of steel workers remain laid off and benefits are long exhausted.
One event to plan on will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16 at the Labor Temple, 2014 State St. in Granite City, when Santa will bring gifts...
By CARL GREEN
Illinois Correspondent
This Christmas, how about getting someone a kids’ book that will teach them of the good that unions do in the community?
Hardball Press, a union-supporting publisher from Brooklyn, NY, is offering just that in Good Guy Jake, a 56-page, bilingual picture book for ages 4-10 that tells the story of Jake Martin, a New York sanitation...