AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day
On April 28, Wisconsin workers will join together with communities across the globe to pay tribute to workers killed on the job. In cities, towns, union halls, at worksites and memorials, in community after community, workers will commemorate those we lost and press forward for stronger protections for safer workplaces.
Each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more injured or diseased because of their jobs. Many job hazards are unregulated and uncontrolled. Some employers cut corners and violate the law, putting workers in serious danger and costing ...
Making Money From Medicare
Medicare was created in 1965 to provide affordable basic healthcare for senior citizens. At the time half of seniors did not have any hospitalization insurance. One third of seniors lived in poverty and couldn't afford any medical care. Given the obvious need and the fact that the private insurance companies were not interested in sick, old people (unless they had money) Medicare became a vital government program for seniors.
Medicare has been successful in improving the health and well-being of seniors. It has been extremely popular with the public, despite its faults ...
Statement on the Ukraine War Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace (BACP)
Statement on the Ukraine War
Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace (BACP)
BACP supports an armistice halting the fighting in Ukraine. BACP supports a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine ending the war.
BACP opposes the U.S. arming Ukraine, training Ukrainian soldiers, imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, or sending U.S. troops to Ukraine. These actions prolong the Ukraine War and risk a war between the United States and Russia. Instead of taking measures which prolong the war or risk a war between the United States and Russia, the U.S. should ...
Shout Out to Jeff
We have to give a shout out to one of our own once in a while. Jeff Starr is the former Vice President of the Marathon County Central Labor Council and a lifetime union member, IBEW 388. Jeff received the Ralph A. Jirikowik award for outstanding service to his community. Sadly, Covid delayed his award until now. Each year Jeff puts on the Labor History in Films in north central Wisconsin, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin. The event is a day of films mixed with a few brief lectures explaining how unionization began in the United States. Films shown are ...
Local Elections Matter
I am sending you a little last-minute reminder if you have not already voted early or voted by mail, Tuesday, April 5, is your day to get out there and vote. Local elections are so important. Often our local elections are won by a small margin. Local elections can affect us more so than a larger race, such as a presidential election.
Something equally important I want to share with you is trusting in our elections. Anyone who has worked the polls before knows that people of all political persuasions participate as election workers. Each of Wisconsin’s 1,850 municipa...
AB963 Parental Bill of Rights
In March, AB 963 known as the "Parental Bill of Rights" passed our state Republican led legislature. One of its Senate co-sponsors, Senator Stephen Nass, praised the bill saying many public-school teachers and administrators are making children "endure their efforts at political indoctrination."
Along with this unfair claim and others, he says our educators are carrying out an agenda "to change the country by convincing children to hate America, its culture, traditions and constitutional form of government."
This characterization of our educators contradicts the ...
Women for Women Presents: What’s Hiding in Big Ag and Some of Our Alternatives
What’s Hiding in Big Ag and Some of Our Alternatives
Please join Women for Women on Thursday, April 7 at 6 PM on Zoom for the following event. Zoom link is listed below.
Our water and soil resources are stressed. The world is facing food shortages. Join Women for Women this Thursday, April 7 at 6:00. Our speakers are Sarah Lloyd, who hold a B.A. from Brown University in Environmental Studies and the President of the Columbia County Farmers’ Union. She is also a dairy farmer. Along with Stacey Botsford, who along with her husband Tenzin own Red Door Farms, a ...
Our Shaky Tower of Environmental Sustainability
With one eye focused on the tragedy in Ukraine and the other on the rising price at the gas pump, we run the risk of missing an even greater crisis quietly bearing down on us. The stability of our lives depends on a bewildering multitude of interdependent elements, something like a complex Jenga Tower. Keep all the blocks in place and the tower stands solid enough to plan our futures upon. Start pulling out the supporting blocks and things get wobbly. Pull out enough blocks and everything collapses. Of course, I am talking about the environmental sustainability of life on ...
Inflation Isn’t Biden’s Fault
"Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair." Sam Ewing
Sam Ewing is a former baseball player and not an economist. But he provided a good definition of inflation. Inflation is the overall increase in prices for goods and services over time. We don't need economists to tell us inflation is occurring. It is pretty obvious when you go to the grocery store.
Why pieces are going up is a more complicated story. Despite inflation being a well defined phenomenon with known basic causes, economist ...
March Forth to Earth Day
We are halfway through our eight-weeks of March Forth to Earth Day. For four straight Fridays, our little rally in Wausau is one of over eighteen communities across Wisconsin marching. We have been out in very cold, wet, and windy weather each Friday, committed to sounding the alarm to everyone that we are in a climate emergency. Please join us each Friday from noon-1PM. Come for part or the whole event. We rally on Wausau’s 400 Block and bring a sign! Here is a schedule of other events statewide: https://tinyurl.com/MF2EDSchedule
It is time for all leaders; local, ...