You..ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Monday June 8, 1903
Chicago, Illinois - More waitresses join the strike.
About a week ago, the girls at the Fair restaurant filed their demands with Manager Strikland giving him one week to reply. When they returned at the appointed time, they were told that their demands would not be considered. "Then we can have this agreement back," said a member of the committee. "I believe you can," replied Strikland, "it is of no further use to me."
The next day the girls returned just as the dinning room was beginning to fill up. They called out the other waitresses who stopped their work immediately. Altogether, the strikers marched down the street to the union headquarters at 122 La Salle Street.
SOURCE
Chicago Daily Tribune
-of June 7, 1903
Sunday June 8, 1913
New York City, New York - The Pageant of the Paterson Strike
Nothing like this Pageant has ever been seen before. This is a new form of working class art. 1200 Paterson Silk Strikers told their story to a packed audience who were truly moved by the performance. In scene one we hear the cry, "Strike!Strike!" The workers pour out of the mill.
Scene two shows the strikers out on the picket line all around the mill, singing and shouting. The police appear and begin to arrest and beat the strikers. They fire into the ranks of the strikers, and there lies a worker dead. In scene three the coffin is carried down the middle aisle. Behind the coffin come the strikers singing the "Funeral March of the Workers." Red carnations are piled upon the casket. Speeches are made, the same as those made at the actual graveside.
Scene four shows the children of Paterson leaving their parents to live with sympathizers in other cities so that they can have adequate food and warm shelter until the strike is over. Scene five is a strike meeting at Turner Hall. A speech is given by Big Bill Haywood on the history of the struggle and the reasons for this long and bitter strike. The Pageant ends with everyone, performers and audience alike, singing "The Internationale."
SOURCE
The Rebel Girl
My First Life (1906-1926)
-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
International Pub, 1979
Saturday June 8, 2013
Bentonville, Arkansas - Kalpona Akter speaks at Walmart Shareholder Meeting
Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity spoke at the Walmart Shareholder Meeting yesterday. She presented James McRitchie's Proposal on Special Shareholder Meetings. Here is the text of her speech:
Good morning, I am Kalpona Akter, and I have traveled to be here today from my country, Bangladesh. It is my honor to present Proposal number 5.
RESOLVED: Shareowners ask our board to take the steps necessary to amend our bylaws to give holders of 10% of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareowner meeting. This includes that such amendments will not have any exclusionary or prohibitive language in regard to calling a special meeting that apply only to shareowners but not to management and/or the board.
This proposal does not impact our board’s current power to call a special meeting. Special meetings allow shareowners to vote on important matters, such as electing new directors that can arise between annual meetings. Shareowner input on the timing of shareowner meetings is especially important when events unfold quickly and issues may become moot by the next annual meeting. This proposal topic won more than 60% support at CVS, Sprint and Safeway.
This proposal should also be evaluated in the context of our Company’s clearly improvable corporate governance climate including recent events in my country:
Two years ago I had the honor of standing here on behalf of the New York City Pension Funds and asking the board of directors to require that the Company‘s suppliers publish an annual, independently verifiable sustainability report, including a specific assessment of the suppliers’ performance on workplace safety and worker rights. Unfortunately, our company was against that proposal.
Now here we are today: The last six months have seen two of the worst disasters in the entire history of the garment industry, killing 1,239 workers. Both occurred in Bangladesh, where Wal-Mart is the second largest buyer of apparel. Both occurred because of unsafe practices by factory owners, operating under intense price and delivery pressure from customers. Both occurred in buildings where Wal-Mart goods were produced.
Wal-Mart executives say its production was placed in these buildings by unscrupulous suppliers, claims that strain credulity. Even if true, this only proves that Wal-Mart’s supply chain is out of control.
Worse, Wal-Mart commissioned labor rights audits at one of these factories, yet the hazards that ultimately killed workers were never addressed. Now Wal-Mart executives have stated the repairs needed to make our factories safe are too expensive, yet the costs would be just two tenths of 1 percent of the company’s profit last year, and just 1% of the dividends paid out last year to the Walton family heirs. I would like to direct this to the chairman of the board, Mr. Rob Walton: I am sure you are aware that fixing these buildings would cost just a tiny fraction of your family’s wealth, so I implore you to please help us. You have the power to do this very easily. Don’t you agree that the factories where Wal-Mart products are made should be safe for the workers?
Wal-Mart would not have to bear the costs of these safety improvements alone. In the past few weeks 41 companies that have already signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety which represents a real commitment to worker safety, yet Wal-Mart is one of only a few major importers refusing to sign. Instead, Wal-Mart’s public relations officials have announced plans for an alternative to this landmark agreement, but so far not a single meaningful detail has been provided. Forgive me, but for years every time there’s a tragedy Wal-Mart officials have made promises to improve the terrible conditions in my country’s garment factories, yet the tragedies continue. With all due respect, the time for empty promises is over.
We have a supply chain out of control, and a failed safety inspection system, in a country where apparel workers are dying by the hundreds: Could there be any more pressing case for a special meeting of shareholders?
In the context of this clearly improvable corporate governance climate, please vote to protect shareholder value: Proposal 5 – Special Shareowner Meeting Right
Making Change at Walmart
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WE NEVER FORGET
"The Internationale" in Italian
in honor of Modestino Valentino,
martyr of the Paterson Silk Strike.
Solidarity,
JayRaye