Articles, Poetry and Stuff
Copyright 2010 Pride and A Paycheck
SUPPORT OUR SUPPORTERS!!
Rosies Wear for Women's President Sharon Moore donated
work clothes to Pride and a Paycheck to be used for fund raising purposes. Thank you Sharon and Rosies Wear. To see her line of great work clothes (that fit us!!!) go to
Click here for NEW WEBSITE for tradeswoman artist Vicky Hamlin. The site full of her beautiful, strong and inspiring paintings, photographs and other kinds of media. Vicky has allowed Pride and a Paycheck to use her work for many years, free of charge. Her generosity has filled Pride's pages with pictures "that say a 1000 words". Than you Vicky!
Click here for ordering the 2012 Ironworker Women calendar! Go to http://ironworkergear.com Also know that all irnoworker woman get a free calendar for the asking. Contact the calendar's producer, Ironworker Jeanny Park at Jeanne@ironworking.com Go to the Ironworker Gear site to see a lot of other neat tradeswomen stuff to order!
The 2012 Women Building CA and the Nation conference has been scheduled for May 19-20 in Sacramento CA at the Sheraton Grand. Contact Host Committee: Tradeswomen Inc. at http://www.tradeswomen.org or phone 510-891-8773, Ext. 315. SAVE THIS DATE...SEE YOU THERE!!!
Click here www.partisanpress.org to get info on a great working class quarterly journal of poetry and prose called Blue Collar Review. Its mission is to expand and promote a progressive working class vision of culture that inspires us and that moves us forward as a class. The work presented on the site is only a sampling from the magazine. Sub info is available on the site.
Rebuilding Together Oakland (part of a national organization in many cities) that helps repair homes for low-income seniors and disabled individuals has for the last 8 years had a team of all-women volunteers fix a house in April. In Oakland, contact Christine Johnson doghous2@pacbell.net to be part of this incredible group! Find out more about Rebuildinging Together Oakland on its website
A Rosie Named Laura
For Laura Schultz 1922 - 2011
Richmond CA
She traveled with a friend to California in 1942
Riding on a troop train with a girl friend for company
Looking for a life outside her family’s farm
Back in the day when most Wisconsin girls didn’t leave
Laura didn’t take an easy route
Born the fourth of nine children,
She was twenty when she arrived
And you have to know that back then
Wisconsin to California was an even bigger deal
‘Cause Midwest folks always say (of those that leave):
“You’ll be back. People leave. But they always come back.”
Laura didn’t go back
She dived into California like a dolphin in the waves
Becoming another proud “Rosie the Riveter”
And taking her place in our country’s history
Her work was welding slabs of steel
To help create the ships that won the Second World War
“Skid welding” it was called
Hot, dangerous and heavy
Paying a dollar an hour
(Which was fifty cents more
Than her travel friend’s office job
At the same company)
Laura never took the easy route
But this was only a portion of her life in the sunshine state
Laura raised a family and bought a house
With her blue collar jobs and white
Claiming her much loved was at the Public Library
You could tell these twenty-nine years were her favorite
Because their recollection made her face light up
No matter the glory of those Rosie days
Laura had to be true to her memories
And we can honor Laura’s life
By telling it like it is
She was a true "Rosie"
Laura never took the easy route
Sue Doro
For Pride and a Paycheck News
www.prideandapaycheck.com
March 25th 2011 is the 100th Anniversary of the Trangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 workers, mostly women and girls. They died in the fire at the non-union company located in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Because one stairway was in flames, the other exit door locked, and the fire escape collapsed when used, many workers jumped from the ninth floor to their deaths. The ILGWU was alrready fighting for safer conditions in the swseatshops. For more information on this tragic event and how the shocking deaths along with demonstrations and union organizing led to changes in building codes and labor legislation in New York, go to http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Click here to see article by Ron Kaminkow, general secretary of Railroad Workers United and member of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Div. #51. Ron was at the throttle of the CA Zephyr train when it was struck by a tandem gondola truck at a Neveda crossing. Worker safety is an issue everyone should be concerned about. The train's conductor and 4 passengers were killed. http://labornotes.org/blogs/2011/07/engineer-truck-train-collision-raises-fundamental-safety-questions
Click here for Women Bringing New Strength To Unions by Dick Meister, a SF based journalist who has covered labor issues for a half century. Contact him through his website www.clickmeister.com
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