Visitors to Ithaca

Health Care Is A Human Right: Visit to Tompkins County from the Vermont Workers’ Center: Wednesday, February 23rd @ 7 p.m.

Our sister workers’ center, The Vermont Workers’ Center, has inspired us in many ways. Now, they are involved in a pitched battle: Health Care is a Human Right, the fight for a single payer system in their state.  On Wednesday, February 23rd, at 7 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church Annex in downtown Ithaca (close to the corner of Buffalo and Aurora Sts), two of the lead organizers for the Vermont Workers’ Center single-payer health care campaign, will be speaking about the importance of their campaign, and what we can do to support it. 

Vermont is on the cusp of winning universal healthcare. They need our help to overcome an onslaught of industry money. They have entered the final stage in their fight to make the human right to health care a reality in Vermont. Everything is in place for a progressive policy victory that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Vermonters, and kick off a nationwide shift towards a single-payer healthcare system, spreading to other states, and eventually the country as a whole.

And on March 16,  at 4:30pm, the Cornell Law School’s National Lawyers Guild Student Chapter presents Bill Quigley, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Director of the Law Clinic at Loyola Law School in New Orleans. Bill will be speaking about Social Justice Lawyering: Lessons in Working for Change. The author of Ending Poverty As We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage and Storms Still Raging: Katrina, New Orleans and Social Justice, Bill has devoted his life to social justice issues including voting rights, death penalty, economic rights, civil liberties, constitutional rights, civil disobedience, post-Katrina legal advocacy and pro bono work with the NAACP and ACLU.

And he’s a fun guy, too. Check out his presentation. Bill is a great speaker with contagious ideas and experiences.

Centennial of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

You may have already seen references to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Centennial Commemoration. It was one hundred tears ago, March 25, 1911, that 146 garment workers died in a New York City sweatshop fire. Fire doors were bolted shut; the inadequate fire escape buckled and twisted when some workers tried to flee the building that way. The building was ten stories tall; the fire broke out on the top floors. The fire ladders reached only six floors. Many workers died as they leapt to their death to escape the heat and flames. The dead were mostly women, mostly immigrants and outrage was intense throughout the country.

From this tragedy was born the modern movement for safety regulations. The fire will be a year-long theme for many workers advocacy groups.

Here in Ithaca there will be several opportunities to mourn and then to join in the struggle for safety and health advances for workers today.

On Wednesday March 23 at 7pm, the Tompkins County Workers’ Center, the Labor Religion Coalition of the Finger Lakes (the recently renamed Religious Task Force), and the Kheel Center of the ILR School at Cornell University are cosponsoring a film and discussion on the Triangle fire and workers’ issues today. This event will take place at the Unitarian Church, 306 N. Aurora Street in Ithaca.

On Friday March 25, 4pm, an interfaith vigil to remember the victims of workers’ abuses everywhere will be held at the Bernie Milton Pavillion on the Commons.

Also, The Kheel Center has an excellent website dedicated to the fire, its survivors, the funeral and everything related to the tragedy which killed 146 people within 18 minutes.

All photos on this page are from the Kheel Center’s Triangle Shirtwaist Fire archives.

New Assembly Labor Chair Named

Keith Wright, Assemblyperson for District 70 (Harlem) in New York City, has been named by Sheldon Silver to chair the Labor Committee. Mr. Wright has been a true friend to low wage workers, fighting for the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights and opposing the death penalty and the Rockefeller Drug Laws. I hope that his commitment to civil rights extends to the targets of workplace bullying! Photo from Mr. Wright’s website.