Odds-n-Ends

Recently, members of Laborers’ Local #1086 Retirees Council met for a day in the sun, spending the afternoon aboard the Pioneer Princess cruising the waterways of Lake Winnebago and the Fox River while learning the history of the City of Oshkosh.

Local #1086 Retirees Council is a very active retiree’s group. In September, they planned to meet for a steak fry and pot luck dinner — along with bingo. In November, they are planning on touring the Kohler Company in Kohler, Wisconsin — a Union shop specializing in bathroom fixtures.

We have all learned to look for the union label on our clothes, cars and other consumer goods. Now the AFL-CIO is looking for the union label on office holders.

According to the AFL-CIO, too many elected officials favor corporate issues over those of working families.

The national labor organization wants to identify union members who are elected officials because they are better equipped to represent and understand the issues working families face each day.

If you are a mayor, school board member, village president, county commissioner or hold any other local or state elected office, the AFL-CIO would like to know. The AFL-CIO is compiling a list of Union members who hold elected office and is planning a conference in early November in Washington, D.C. of Union public officials.

If you are a Union member and hold public office, please contact
Linda Miller at 1-888-3AFL-CIO for further information
about the listing and
about the Conference for Union public officials this November.

The Laborers' District Council and affiliated Local Unions wish to thank the 112 members from around the state who have joined the Laborers' Political and Legislative Action Network (PLAN).

If you would like more information or would like to join Laborers' PLAN call your Local Union or the District Council at 1-800-782-4634.

Plans are underway for a second laborers Unity Conference to be held March 20-22, 1998 at the Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.

Like the 1st Unity Conference, which was held in Stevens Point in the Spring of 1996, next year's event will feature sessions and workshops on a number of Laborers programs, including skill improvement, legislative and political action, market recovery, fair contracting and labor/management cooperatin.

Invited speakers include LIUNA General President Arthur A. Coia, LIUNA Regional manager Terry Healy, state Senator and 2nd Congressiional Candidate Joe Wineke, and United States Senator Russ Feingold.

In addition to workshops and guest speakers, the Conference will feature a session on financial and retirement planning.

Running concurrent with the conference will be a Health Fair Hosted by the Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America, to provide members and their families with on the spot preventive health screenings and other informational services.

The Conference is designed to increase members understanding of the programs and services at work for them as members of the Laborers, while inviting them to become more directly involved in their Local Union.

A brochure formally announcing the 1998 Laborers' Unity Conference will be mailed to all members in October.