|
So, on Friday of last week I was honored to be part of a panel at the 33rd Annual Metro Labor Communicatons Council. I was walking up 43rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, where the event was being held when something caught my eye.
A worker came off a construction site and began walking toward a deli. He pulled his hardhat off and stuck it under his arm ... As he was doing that, I was checking out the stickers on the hat and smiled big and proud to see the brother had a Union Review sticker.
I ran up to him and introduced myself. He told me that he goes to the site all the time and, though he couldn't remember where he got the sticker from, it most likely came from Joe638, who covered the City with them when they first came in.
It is Sunday and I am feeling terribly sick with a cold. While laying down and thinking of the events I participated in over the last thirty days, I came to Friday and thought of this guy wearing the sticker on his hardhat. It felt good, again ... and I wanted to share that.
Other stuff I feel good about while being under the weather include: The MYSPACE version of Union Review now has more than 600 friends and the traffic at the main site continues to skyrocket week after week. Recently someone wrote to me (at the Teamsters, where I work) and quoted "Union Review' not knowing that I run the site (the reader wanted to verify something) -- and I thought, shit, we are really being read ... I am forever thankful to everyone who has believed in the mission to write, post, and send out labor related news and views online.
There is still a tremendous void in getting our voices heard, but slowly we are making a dent -- and there is no way one person could have done this alone ... it takes us all to step up and speak out -- and we are.
So, to all the dad's out there, Happy Father's Day ... to all the workers getting ready for another week, and for all the new and old friends ... I say: thanks for everything ... it is great to think of you all when I am feeling a bit under the weather as knowing you are all there (and here) has lifted me up a bit to come and write.
In Solidarity,
-Richard
AFGE Gets MYSPACE and FACEBOOK Sites
information
WASHINGTON, June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In order to get voter
protection information to a younger demographic the American Federation of
Government Employees today launched MySpace and Facebook pages. The MySpace page can be found at http://www.myspace.com/afgevoterprotection and the Facebook
page is titled "Voter Protection" (you must be registered to view the
page). Both pages include voting tips for students, links to related movie
trailers, a slideshow of different voter coalitions, and links to student
groups in the swing states.
"AFGE sees college students as a driving force in this year's
presidential race, which makes it important that they understand their
rights and responsibilities as voters," said John Gage, President of AFGE.
AFGE recognized the need for a medium that would appeal to a younger
audience, while still getting the intended messages across. MySpace and
Facebook are social utilities used by a majority of the targeted
demographic as ways to keep in touch with friends, blog, network, and stay
abreast of the latest trends.
The most important aspect of AFGE's MySpace and Facebook pages is
"Student Voting Tips." The tips created by two of AFGE's own student
interns, are meant to inform students about the voting process, the variety
of voting options, and encourage participation this November. There have
been past incidents where students were turned away from the polls by
people of higher authority and because these students were newer to the
voting process they did not fully understand their rights.
"College students will account for a large portion of the voting
population this election year. Most of them are new voters, making them
easy to deceive," said Andrea E. Brooks, National Vice President of Women's
and Fair Practices. "It is our objective to have more of these students
successfully cast a ballot."
In addition to voting tips there are links to other resources,
including different ways to access the different state's board of elections
and information for students in the major swing states.
"The hope is that both the Facebook and MySpace pages will capture
students' attention and successfully inform them about possible voting
situations," said Brittany Ellis who, along with Yasmin Fletcher, is an
intern at AFGE and creator of the pages. "We want students to be prepared
when it's their time to vote."
For more information on voter protection, please visit http://www.afge.org or
http://wfp.afge.org.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest
federal employees union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal
government and the government of the District of Columbia.