Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Class Four - Labor Unions and Fair Pay for Workers

There are a dizzying number of websites and organizations that represent labor unions and workers' rights. Your mission is to find and share at least one!

I'll give you one to prime the pump:

Bread and Roses Cultural Project at http://www.bread-and-roses.com/


Bread and Roses is the not-for-profit cultural arm of New York's Health and Human Service Union, 1199/SEIU. Its 220,000 predominantly Latina and African American women members are employed in all job categories in health care institutions throughout the metropolitan area, New Jersey and Florida.

Bread and Roses was founded in 1979 as a cultural resource for union members and students in New York City who would otherwise have little access to the arts. Special emphasis is given to programs that signify and interpret their history while generating new artistic expression.


Now, go forth and explore. Come back and tell us what you've found.

And, of course, being me, I also have to ask you a few discussion questions:

Are workers' rights and fair pay important?
Should workers organize?
Are labor unions the best way to assure workers' rights?
What negatives are associated with labor unions?

Feel free to offer your own questions related to this as well.

No comments: