| From: NAME: SIMONE CASALE
FUNC: EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
TEL: 297-2561 <CASALE.SIMONE AT A1 at MCIS2 at MRO>
To: See Below
CC: See Below
+---------------------------+ TM
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| d | i | g | i | t | a | l |
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TO: DISTRIBUTION DATE: 3/5/90
FROM: DIANA MACY
DEPT.: ER/EEO/AA/VAL DIFF/
ES/HS/BENEFITS
DTN: 297-5672
M/S: MRO2-2/4D
SUBJECT: JOHN SIMS PRESENTS
The Greater Marlboro Area Valuing Differences Committee is
pleased to have John Sims, Vice President, Personnel/
Strategic Resources presenting on Wednesday, March 14th. in
honor of International Women's month. His topic will be:
"Women in Digital: Changes and Challenges in the 90's".
The presentation will be from 8:30 - 9:30 A.M. in the MRO3-3
Amphitheater. Please help us to ensure that this event is
communicated throughout your organizations. We are looking
forward to seeing you there.
To Distribution List:
JULIA MICHAELSON @MRO,
HAL KRAUSE @MRO,
MABBETT @HYEND@VAXMAIL,
L_ABERDALE @DELNI@VAXMAIL,
DONNA BLANEY @MRO,
BETSY FITTER @MRO,
ED HURLEY @IND,
FRED JOHNSON @WJO,
PIERRETTE KELLY @MLO,
PAT LEE @MRO,
KATY LINEHAN @OGO,
CHIP PARISI @BPO,
ANDREA PETERSON @UFO,
LEE PLEDGER @WFR,
DICK RICHARD @MLO,
LINDA STCLAIR @MLO,
JACQUELINE VIAU @CFO,
STEVE WENTZELL @UPO,
HGREENFIELD @CURIE@VAXMAIL,
BETTY BAILEY @WJO,
MICHELLE BARRETT @WFR,
LERTEL @USMRM2@VAXMAIL,
AKOMINS @HYPER@VAXMAIL,
GERRY KOSS @UPO,
JULIA LEONARD @BPO,
LLEWIS @HYEND@VAXMAIL,
MLOMBARDO @HYEND@VAXMAIL,
PETE MAGUIRE @MRO,
MCNEAL @CURIE@VAXMAIL,
MOORE @CSGDEC@VAXMAIL,
AUSTIN MOSS @MET,
PATRNCHAK @CARTUN@VAXMAIL,
BARCY PROCTOR @MRO,
SCHUIT @AIADM@VAXMAIL,
JOHN SCORZONI @MRO,
TARBI @LDP@VAXMAIL,
MARSHA CORMIER @MRO,
ANITA LOGAN @MRO,
JANICE BRUNO @MRO,
MORRISON BUMP @UPO,
PETER HEARD @NRO,
DAN KILGORE @MRO,
DIANA MACY @MRO,
RON PLUMHOFF @MRO,
ROGER RACINE @MRO,
PETER SILVA @MRO,
RTAYLER @HYEND@VAXMAIL,
JERRY WEST @MRO,
AUREA CASIANO @NRO,
RCEPEDA @USCTR1@VAXMAIL,
NELL LAGERQUIST @MRO,
MARTIS @MCIS2@VAXMAIL,
NANCY BONAZZOLI MARTIN @MRO,
FRANK FALLON @MRO,
S_FORREST @BPOV06@VAXMAIL,
BERT HEINZ @MRO,
PETER HOWATT @WFR,
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LEBLANC @AIPERS@VAXMAIL,
MLETENDRE @HYEND@VAXMAIL,
ELLEN MCCARTHY @AET,
MCCARTHY @CIMNET@VAXMAIL,
MANN @BETTER@VAXMAIL,
MARSHALL MILLS @BUO,
LMULA @USCTR1@VAXMAIL,
APUGSLEY @USMRM2@VAXMAIL,
LOIS SCHIAPPA @IND,
SSHANNON @HYEND@VAXMAIL,
FRED ZERGER @YWO
CC Distribution List:
SIMONE CASALE @MRO
|
| March 8 is International Women's Day, a celebration of struggles in the past and
solidarity in the present. Although it is more recognized in Europe, with events
and the giving of flowers (usually from one woman to another), the date was
chosen because of actions in the US.
On this day in 1857, NYC needleworkers marched from their sweatshops to a
middle-class neighborhood, to ask for support for better wages and working
conditions from the women who bought the clothes they made. In 1908, NYC
suffragettes chose March 8 as the date for its march for women's rights.
In 1909 about 25,000 garment workers fought for better pay and working
conditions in a strike known as the "Uprising of the 20,000". (This is
described in more detail below.) At the Second International Conference of
Socialist Women in Helsinki in 1910, Clara Zetkin proposed that March 8 become
International Women's Day. (In the recent film by Maria von Trottenheim, ROSA
LUXEMBURG, Clara and Rosa are shown struggling to keep the German Socialist
Party from supporting World War I.)
The "Bread and Roses" strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Mass. won victory
on March 10, 1912. This struggle against paycuts (that followed a state law
limiting the work week) drew it's energy mainly from the lower-paid immigrant
women (Italian, Jewish, Slavic) reaching-out to each other and breaking with
traditions that confined them to the home. The movement was organized by the
International Workers of the World (Wobblies) with leaders such as Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn and Big Bill Haywood.
*******************************************************************************
The first International Women's Day - known as "Working Women's Day" - was
celebrated on the heels of one of the most massive and militant struggles of
women workers in US history: the uprising of 20,000 NYC garment workers in the
winter of 1909 - 1910.
Moreover, "Working Women's Day" was organized by the garment workers as a
break from the middle-class suffragists who had abandoned them towards the
course of that strike. The strike was nothing less that an explosion that swept
overnight though the entire NY garment district, drawing over 20K workers from
500 shops into struggle against the starvation wages, the long hours and the
brutal treatment in the sweat shops and the factories.
75% of the strikers were women - many of them tanagers - which gave lie
to the dominant assumption in the labor movement that women workers were
unorganizable. In the words of Clara Lemlich, a 19-year-old woman who became
one of the strike leaders: "They used to say that you couldn't even organize
women. They wouldn't come to union meetings. They were 'temporary workers'.
Well we showed them!"
The AFL leadership was hesitant to lead a general strike in the garment trades,
even when mandated to do so by a crowd of several thousand workers packed into
the Cooper Union auditorium on the eve of the strike. But the crowd grew tried
of hearing speaker after speaker, including AFL leader Samuel Gompers, urging
caution and moderation. Finally Clara Lemlich - who, even at the age of 19, was
already a veteran labor militant, having been arrested 17 times in a
previous strike - stood up to address the workers in her native Yiddish: "I
have listened to all the speakers, and I have no further patience for talk. I
am one who feels and suffers from the things pictured. I move we go on general
strike!"
The workers were instantly on their feet, shouting their approval and chanting
strike slogans. And the next morning - Nov 23, 1909 - with equal enthusiasm,
they formed picket lines. By the day's end, some 20K workers were on strike,
virtually all of them brand new members of Local 25 of the International Ladies
Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).
Despite the fact that the pickets were mostly women, the police and courts
unleashed a wave of repression - during the 13-week strike, over 600 strikers
were arrested, many of whom were beaten by the police. Police taunted the women
strikers by calling them "whores" for their "unladylike" behavior and by making
lewd approaches to imprisoned strikers. They beat the young women, then charged
the strikers with assault. Some strikers were arrested simply for using the word
"scab" or for exercising their lawful right to picket. Manufactures hired pimps
and prostitutes to beat strikers.
At first, the strike appeared to show women factory workers that they could
count on the support of the middle-class suffragists and the high society
"ladies" who took pity on them. In fact the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL),
an organization of middle class reformers, actually showed more enthusiasm
toward the strike than the leadership of the AFL - who doggedly pursued a
strategy of compromise with the employers. And it was the WTUL, not the AFL,
which set up a strike headquarters.
The League members used all their connections to get sympathetic coverage in
the newspapers. The media took delight in descriptions of the fashionable
socialites, dressed in fur coats, picketing side by side with the young,
under-fed strikers, holding picket signs demanding higher wages, or
transporting the strikers in limousines. Meanwhile the media virtually ignored
the role played by socialists who ended up being the major supporters of the
strike. (The US Socialist Party was a major 3rd party in US politics at that
time under the leadership of Eugene Debs. The party was destroyed during and
after World War I - Debs ran for president while in jail for speaking-out
against the draft.)
But, while the rich women had taken pity on the garment worker, as time wore on
their interest began to wane. The "allies" - as the uppers class women were
called - began withdrawing their support even as the strikers' determination
strengthened and they began moving toward socialist ideas. One angry member of
the WTUL, Eva McDonald Valesh, proposed to "start a campaign against
socialism", because "socialism is a menace ...It just makes those ignorant
foreigners discontent, sets them against the government, makes them want to
tear down".
The Manufactures' Association, representing the larger shops, made a negotiated
settlement with the union in late Dec. While making minor concessions on
other fronts, they rejected the workers' main demand for a union shop. The
strikers overwhelmingly rejected the contract - which bewildered the "allies".
In the month that followed, funds began to run very low; poverty and hunger
became urgent problems. The employers took advantage of the strikers' increasing
desperation; and by the second week in Feb, the union began signing individual
contracts with the bigger shops - none of which granted union recognition. Work
hours were reduced to 52 1/2 hours per week. Wages were still to be negotiated.
Finally on Feb 15, 1910, the union officials declared the strike over, even
though workers at 13 shops were still on strike and were forced to return to
work with no gains whatsoever.
Even in the face of defeat, thousands of the women garment workers were moved to
organize their own demonstration. Thus when the Socialist Party called for
a "Working Women's Day" march in 1910, the demonstration in NYC was a massive
display of solidarity among women workers - putting forward demands for higher
wages, better working conditions, along with the right to vote for women
workers.
Tragically, one demand that the strike had not won, was for adequate fire
escapes and doors. The foremen used to lock workers in so that they couldn't
sneak out.
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirt Waist Co., one of
the larger shops. One door was locked, the other was blocked by fire. Fire
ladders were too short to reach the upper floors. Of the 500 workers, over 100
were trapped inside and burned to death. Others tried to climb down fire
escapes which broke under their weight. Some jumped but broke firemen's nets or
impaled themselves on the iron-spike fence beneath. All told, 154 workers were
killed in the blaze.
-This is mainly from an article by Sharon Smith.
Meredith Tax's THE RISING OF THE WOMEN is an interesting discussion of how the
of the women's and labor movements drew strength from each other.
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