Events

Green Mountain Labor Council meeting Wed. Mar. 15th

March 15, 2017
6:00PM - 7:30PM
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Please join us for a very important Green Mountain Labor Council meeting Wednesday, 6 pm March 15th at the unionized Hunger Mountain cafe. We have some very important decisions to make. This is not an ordinary moment, nor will this be an ordinary meeting.

Many Working Vermonters, and our allies in the social movements, look to our small Green Mountain Labor Council to speak out on burning economic, social, racial and environmental justice issues. Trump and his allies in Congress are driving tax, budget, healthcare, and social welfare policies that would impoverish most workers.  We must face the reality that his policies and likely Supreme Court appointments point towards catastrophic restrictions on organized labor. His Cabinet nominees are proven enemies of organized labor and the rights of workers. They have whipped up dangerous divisions within the 99%, including within our union membership, scapegoating the most vulnerable among us - first of all our immigrant brothers and sisters, including the hard working migrants who keep Vermont’s dairy farms going.  The survival of the labor movement depends on denying Trump the power to implement his agenda. It is my view that we must redefine our identities as union members more broadly as movement builders to prevent things from getting worse. Our "big tent" needs to include unions that are not part of the AFL-CIO as well as our social movement allies.  So we have some proposals to vote and act on:

  • As early supporters of Bernie Sanders presidential bid, we have been asked to join Our Revolution. This would give us tools that would greatly add to our capacity to communicate with more working people. I believe that our history shows that we are in sync with the issues that Our Revolution focuses on. The challenge for us is to hold Vermont politicians accountable to that platform - something that is not easy as we see Vermont's Democratic leadership failing to lead on the fight for a $15 minimum wage.
  • The Vermont Human Rights Council, a coalition of Vermont’s social and economic justice organizations, is hiring a coordinator to help our organizations build the kind of unified movement that all of us need. I propose that we contribute $50 a month for the next 6 months to make that possible. Both the Green Mountain Labor Council and Vermont AFL-CIO have been members of the Human Rights Council.
  • Union affiliates and allies are asking us to host educational workshops on union issues as well as an educational project on Runaway Inequality
  • We take the lead on initiating and organizing a cross union Labor Climate Action Committee for Jobs, Justice & Climate.

If you are not able to attend the Labor Council meeting Wednesday, 6 pm March 15th, please weigh on these proposals via email (Traven.L@gmail.com) or call me at 522-3484 with your views.