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Waterbury, VT – Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents 1.2 million essential workers in grocery, meatpacking, food processing, retail, and other essential industries across North America, released a statement following Ben & Jerry’s ice crea

VT AFL-CIO President Katie Maurice spoke at the Vermont Progressive Party Convention yesterday to dozens of party members across VT about the need to working together to build a working-class party! Full speech posted below: 
 

BARRE CITY, VT: This week, Barre City Council officially adopted the Community Investment Ordinance,

-Self Determination For Black People In The U.S.; -Free All Black Political Prisoners; -The Murders Must Be Stopped; -Black Lives Matter. Vermont AFL-CIO Position Statement On The Fight Against Racism: Now Is The Time For Unity & Action! June 28, 2020, Montpelier, VT - Black Lives Matter. The Vermont AFL-CIO understands and recognizes that the United States of America is a nation which has long been governed by a ruling class whose power (social and economic) is rooted in slavery, racism, inequity, and oppression. We further see with clear eyes that Black people, whose ancestors were brought to this country in chains, have suffered (and continue to suffer) oppression on a massive and inexcusable scale. Such facts are made plain by not only looking at history, but also by looking at contemporary unemployment figures, poverty rates, average household income, incarceration rates, and through policing data. People who are Black are also murdered by American police officers with sickening regularity. George Floyd was not an exception. He, like Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray (to name but a few), was one of the latest in a long line of martyrs going back hundreds of years (and accounting for thousands of taken lives). We must not become numb to these murders. We cannot accept that Black families must educate their children on how to not become the target of unprovoked police violence. We cannot allow systematic racism and police violence against Black people to continue as the regularity that it has always been. Rather, we must resist.

Registered apprenticeships are the gold standard of job training programs. They provide workers with life-changing skills and a pathway to good jobs that support families and lift communities.