Page 4 - Worker Dignity News Today

Plans for a Woodbine Community Garden Fall Flat for Immigrant Community A ‘difference in vision’ leads working-class neighbors to seek greener pastures Tweet Arnaldo Tun (center) works in the garden When members of the labor-organizing nonprofit Workers’ Dignity came together to discuss why it’s so difficult to organize and demand better working conditions in Tennessee, one answer stood out above the rest: Your food and shelter are strongly tied to yo...

May 1, 2021 Gustavo ‘Kike’ Ramirez would have turned 17 this year. He died when his employer failed to provide him with a safety harness at a Nashville, Tennessee construction site on June 23, 2020. “It was ten months ago, and I still think about him every day,” said Jenifer Enamorado Ayala, recalling her brother’s preventable fall that ended his life at age 16. She is one of the family members and co-workers remembering those who lost their lives on the job for Workers’ Memorial W...

A 24-hour demonstration to celebrate community and peaceful coexistence, and gather against violence kicked off Friday in Nashville. The effort, "24 Hour Display of Power: 24 Hours of Complete Peace," will focus on  solidarity and building power amongst community members in an effort to take back the city, community organizer Gicola Lane said Friday. A rally and march in connection with the demonstration are slated for Saturday. "The goal is to really just call for absolute peace acros...

Tweet Share Vonda McDaniel Vonda McDaniel has seen a lot of changes in her nearly 30 years of labor organizing. McDaniel first joined a union in 1992, at the Firestone-Bridgestone tire factory in La Vergne where she worked. In a matter of months, she was elected as the shop steward, and that kicked off a lifetime of workers’ rights advocacy. In 2013, McDaniel was elected president of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, an affiliation of mor...

Tweet Share A Workers Dignity representative talks with a worker at a construction site in NashvillePhoto: Eric England After the frantic first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee set out to reopen Tennessee businesses — a task he entrusted to a new economic recovery group. The group included lawmakers and members of Lee’s administration, plus the heads of several industry lobbies representing companies around the state — the Tennessee Retail A...

COVID economy measures perpetuate feelings of unrest A recent protest at the Metro Courthouse suggests city officials and community groups are no closer to aligning than they were a year ago, when we all entered the COVID economy. Grievances at Friday’s budget rally echoed those of June last year when several of the same organizations came to the same spot and demanded, among other things, that Metro Government cut police funding, restore dwindling social services and dole out goods according...

Can a teens on-site death change Nashvilles construction standards? Some councilmembers hope so Cassandra Stephenson, Nashville Tennessean © Cassandra Stephenson Jennifer Enamorado talks about her brother, Gustavo Enrique Ramirez, who died at 16 after falling 11 stories while working at a Nashville construction site. Enamorado helped introduce the "Get It Right" bill to raise construction standards at Metro projects in Nashvilles Public Square on Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Metro...

The Nation, check out our latest issue. Subscribe to Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Tennessee lawmakers are threatening to defund schools that refuse to return to in-person learning. The pressure campaign is aimed squarely at Memphis and Nashville, which serve mostly Black and Latino stu...