Labor & Employment Law

Netroots Nation 2010: Labor, Online Progressives and Union Beer

By Tula Connell

Union activists are joining a couple thousand online progressives this week for the annual Netroots Nation conference. The July 22?25 event in Las Vegas brings political powerhouses like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) together with progressives from across the nation for workshops, panels and speaking events like the dynamic full-conference lunch session July 24 with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Along with Harvard legal professor Elizabeth Warren, Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and others, Trumka will take part in the panel, “Building a Progressive Economic Vision,” where he will focus on the key steps the nation needs to take to rebuild our nation’s economy (hint: Trumka’s proposals don’t include slashing the deficit at the expense of jobs).

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will moderate the July 23 panel, “Young Workers: Taking Charge of Our Future,” following up on the AFL-CIO’s successful, first-ever Young Workers Summit last month.

There’s lots more, including the ever-popular “Raise a Glass for the Working Class” AFL-CIO/Working America beer booth. After visitors take an action on behalf of working families?sending an e-mail to lawmakers about aid to states to save jobs, texting JOBS to 225568 to join the AFL-CIO Good Jobs Now mobile alerts team, taking the Working America Ask a Working Woman survey or joining Working America?they can attend a union beer tasting.

In between beer tastings, we’ll be blogging the Trumka and Shuler events, as well as the following panels and events from Netroots Nation.

• “Freelancers of the World, Unite! Unions for Permatemps and Independent Workers,” sponsored by the Writers Guild of America, East, July 22.
• “The 2010 Elections: Channeling the Power of Jobs, Populism and the Angry Voter,” sponsored by our friends at the Alliance for American Manufacturing, July 22.
• “Obama’s Social Security ‘Death Panel’: Engaging Activists to Defeat the Drive to Cut Critical Social Programs,” with Working America’s Laura Clawson on the panel, July 22.
• “Immigration Reform’s Strange Bedfellows: The Surprising Consensus that Reform Will Improve American Jobs and Bolster Our Economy,” sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers, July 22.
• Labor Caucus, July 24. Thanks to everyone who sent in their suggestions for discussion!
• “Civil Rights in the Modern Era,” sponsored by SEIU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Hip-Hop Caucus.
• AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson, Blue-Green Alliance President Chuck Rocha, Franken and others in the closing night event, July 24. Chavez-Thompson is running for lieutenant governor of Texas and will join us throughout the conference. 

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).