Published 19 Jul, 2011
Over 30 women from TWU Air and Transit Division locals are attending the three-day Working Women’s Committee meeting this week in Cocoa Beach, Florida hosted by TWU Local 525.
Participants are discussing issues facing women on the job and working families as well as getting a tour of the Cape Canaveral base and launch pads thanks to Local 525 officers and President Kevin Smith who invited the WWC to Florida.
On Tuesday, July 19, 2011 guest speakers Roger Toussaint, International Director Strategic Planning, and Alex Garcia, International Director COPE and Political Field, explained the seriousness of the anti-worker legislation blossoming across the country and called on TWU members to be involved at all levels to fight back against the organized decimation of the working class. Toussaint stressed the important time line labor faces moving towards the 2012 elections and told the audience, “this assault is well planned and the other side has done their homework.”
Legislative Field Representatives Terry Daniels and Gwen Dunivent explained TWU’s State Conferences program. The conferences have been a success among TWU members across the country and continue to grow in popularity in all divisions. Select geographic locations focus our member’s strengths to effectively lobby and fight back against the legislative attacks against middle class workers. In Florida for example, Andrew Rangolan, Vice President for Local 570 in Miami, is working with Daniels and Garcia to stem the constant stream of legislative attacks taking place in Florida.
Local 525 was chartered in June 1957 and is referred to as the “guided missile” local because of their lengthy history with the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. Pan Am workers were the first to gain government contracts working at the military base and space center that developed submarine launched guided missiles and eventually communications satellites for the U.S. government and private telecommunications companies.