Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. TitleWith Eleanor Roosevelts Union Card The union card is an effective handout. It can be printed separately on heavy stock and used handout with quotes on the back or as a postcard. 2. Workshop Agenda 3. Eleanor Roosevelt: Union Leader 4. Resources: Eleanor Roosevelt and Berger Marks Reports 5. The Union Advantage Fact SheetUpdate if possible 6. Mentors and Friends: Photographs of Eleanor Roosevelt and Rose Schneiderman 7. My Day Column, March 13, 1941 8. Current Opinion Piece, May 3, 2011 9. Human Rights and Workers Rights in Multiple Languages 10. Lessons Learned from Eleanor Roosevelt 11. Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes (2 pages)
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4. Resources
Labor Articles by Brigid OFarrell The Right To Join A Union: From Eleanor Roosevelt to John Kasich, The Review, East Liverpool, Ohio, and
American Rights at Work: www.americanrightsatwork.org, April 6, 2011. We Are One Solidarity Rally: Lessons from Eleanor Roosevelt, www.bofarrell.net/teachingtools , April 4, 2011. From The Triangle Fire to Wisconsin, Rights for Women Workers, Huffington Post, www.huffingtonpost.com, March 22, 2011. What do Natalie Portman, Aaron Rodgers, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Wisconsin Workers have in common? Roosevelt Institute Blog, www.rooseveltinstitute.org, February 21, 2011. Eleanor Roosevelt, Workers Rights, Human Rights, Journal of Workplace Rights, October 2010.
5. Union Advantage THE UNION DIFFERENCE UNION ADVANTAGE BY THE NUMBERS Union workers earn higher wags and more benefits than workers who dont have a voice on the job. ______________________________________________________________________________ Union Workers median weekly earnings $833 Nonunion workers median weekly earnings $642 Union wage advantage 30% ______________________________________________________________________________ Union womens median weekly earnings $758 Nonunion womens median weekly earnings $579 Union wage advantage for women 31% ______________________________________________________________________________ African American union workers median weekly earnings $707 African American nonunion workers median weekly earnings $520 Union wage advantage for African Americans 36% ______________________________________________________________________________ Latino union workers median weekly earnings $686 Latino nonunion workers median weekly earnings $469 Union advantage for Latinos 46% ______________________________________________________________________________ Asian American union workers median weekly earnings $843 Asian American nonunion workers median weekly earnings $774 Union advantage for Asian Americans 8% ______________________________________________________________________________ Union workers with employer-provided health insurance 80% Nonunion workers with employer-provided health insurance 49% Union health insurance advantage 63% ______________________________________________________________________________ Union workers without health insurance coverage 2.5% Non union workers without health insurance coverage 15% Nonunion workers are five times more likely to lack health insurance coverage ______________________________________________________________________________ Union workers with guaranteed (defined-benefit) pensions 68% Nonunion workers with guaranteed (defined-benefit) pensions 14% Union pension advantage 386% ______________________________________________________________________________ Union workers with short-term disability benefits 62% Nonunion workers with short-term disability benefits 35% Union short-term disability benefits advantage 77% ______________________________________________________________________________ Union workers average days of paid vacation 15 days Nonunion workers average days of paid vacation 11.75 days Union paid vacation advantage 28% ______________________________________________________________________________
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Union Members in 2006, Jan.25, 2007; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States, March 2006, August 2006; Economic Policy Institute; Employee Benefits Research Institute, May 2005.
7. My Day
Eleanor Roosevelt gave careful consideration to her positions. President Roosevelt was concerned about public employee unions, although not anti-union as some have suggested. His wife struggled with the issue in her newspaper column after his death, My Day. In the 1950s, she finally concluded that unionization was necessary because employers in the public sector were little different from those in the private sector, refusing to listen to workers and treat them fairly. You cannot just refuse to meet with people, she wrote, when they want to talk about their basic human rights. For teachers, police, and fire fighters she said that there was no method of complaint and adjustment that could take the place of collective bargaining with the ultimate possibility of a strike. She told her readers that the striking teachers in 1962 had no other recourse but to strike to draw attention to the legitimate complaints. In 1958, as co-chair of a national council established to defeat right-to-work laws in six states, she called on right-thinking citizens, from all walks of life to challenge the predatory and misleading campaigns. When human rights were invoked she called the argument a calculated and cunning smoke screen to beguile the innocent and unknowing. She took greatest offense when the California ballot language suggested that FDR would support right-to-work laws, responding The American public understands very well that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would never have supported such a reactionary doctrine. When asked Where, after all, do human rights begin? Eleanor Roosevelt answered In small places close to home the neighborhoodthe schoolthe factory, farm or officeunless they have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Her voice resonates today in support of workers in Ohio and across the country. Their voices were heard on April 4th. Workers rights are human rights. Brigid OFarrell is an independent scholar living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her most recent book is She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker, Cornell University Press.
9. Human Rights
11. ER Quotes
When human rights were invoked she took offense saying that the proposal to extend right-to-work laws does not concern itself one iota with human rights or the right to workbut is a calculated and cunning smoke screen to beguile the innocent and unknowing. New York Times, October 6, 1958. When California ballot language suggested FDR would support right-to-work laws, Eleanor Roosevelt responded The American public understands very well that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would never have supported such a reactionary doctrine. AFL-CIO News Service, September 18, 1958 On Women Only where they are organized do women get equal pay for equal work. 1933 I have a firm belief in the ability and power of women to achieve the things they want to achieve. 1941 Remember that girls as well as boys can be fitted for defense work. They, too, must have training in order to earn their livings and live better than they have done in the past. I hope, therefore, that we shall not forget our obligation to girls in any of the government programs. 1941 As each future conference of the nations meets, women should be among the delegates, no matter what the subject under discussion. 1944 Maids should enter a union and make their household work a profession. 1944 In numbers there is strengthen, and we in America must help the women of the world. 1946 The dignity of womens equality when they meet in government, professional and industrial work is important the world over, not just in the U.S. 1962 Personal You can never be made to feel inferior without your consent. 1940 We dont get things unless we plan for them, unless we organize for them and work for them. 1943 You must do the thing you think you cannot do. 1960 Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. 1960 Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says It cant be done. 1960 In Summary When asked where human rights begin, Eleanor Roosevelt answered, In small places close to homethe neighborhoodthe schoolthe factory, farm and officeUnless they have meaning there they will have little meaning any where. Remarks at the United Nations, March 27, 1953 In her closing statement to the CIO she told the delegates, We cant just talk. We have got to act. CIO Convention Proceedings, 1955.