by Dick Meister
Baseball season again. Time to re-enter the temples of baseball. Temples? Yes, temples. To most people, baseball is merely a game. But to some others, it’s virtually a religion, a game played in temples — the temples of baseball, be they Major League stadiums or any other baseball park at any level from the Major [...]
by Dick Meister
I hope we can all pause and reflect on the extraordinary life of a true American hero on Saturday (March 31). It’s Cesar Chavez Day, proclaimed by President Obama and observed throughout the country on the 85th birth date of the late founder of the United Farm Workers union. In California, it’s an official state [...]
by Dick Meister
The Occupy Wall Street Movement and the other anti-capitalist forces of today could find no greater inspiration than the Industrial Workers of the World – the IWW, one of the most influential organizations in U.S. history, that was founded in Chicago in 1905 by a band of fiercely dedicated idealists. The Wobblies, as they were [...]
by Dick Meister
I spotted a forgotten hero at the memorial service for the nationally prominent San Francisco labor leader Walter Johnson recently, a true but largely unacknowledged hero of the anti-Vietnam War movement — Art Carter, former head of an AFL-CIO labor council in the San Francisco Bay Area. The AFL-CIO, you might recall, was a major [...]
by Dick Meister
Unions? Organized labor? The AFL-CIO? Those words were nowhere to be heard in President Obama’s State of the Union address, despite labor’s vital role in the economy and strong support for Obama. The continued support of the labor movement is essential if the president is to carry out the bold plans he outlined and if [...]
by Dick Meister
Finding a job is hard enough for the many millions of unemployed American workers. But, believe it or not, the fact that they are jobless keeps many employers from hiring them. That’s right, being jobless keeps many workers from being hired for many of the jobs that are available. It’s crazy, sure. But once they’re [...]
by Dick Meister
It’s gone forever, my beloved Triumph Spitfire, that classic, marvelous looking British sports car that never ran anywhere near as well as it looked. Pearl white it was, with black trim. Pretty. But noisy, roaring sports-car-like down streets and highways to disturb my neighbors and who knows how many others. For more than 30 years [...]
by Dick Meister
It’s one of the toughest yet most vital jobs of all — caring for the millions of elderly Americans who, though infirm, remain in their homes. There are an estimated 1.7 million of the Home Health Care workers across the US to assist the elderly, but that’s far from enough workers. There’s already a shortage [...]
by Dick Meister
Let’s pause for a moment this Labor Day to recognize some of our most important, yet most maligned workers. They’re teachers and librarians, police officers and firefighters. They’re bus drivers, doctors and nurses. Judges and lawyers, landscape gardeners and arborists. They’re laborers and other maintenance and construction workers. They are, of course, public employees. There [...]
by Dick Meister
It was an unusually hot July day in San Francisco. There was a parade on that day in 1916 — a “Preparedness Day” parade organized by local Republican businessmen. It was intended to drum up support for U.S. entry into World War I and embarrass Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, who was running for re-election on [...]
