Teens Choose Justice Over Prom Plans (teens raise $3,000 to not cross picket line!)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/04/10/teens-choose-justice-over-prom-plans/#more-12642

by James Parks, Apr 10, 2009

When Samuel Hamer, a senior at Chicago’s elite Northside Prep learned his senior prom was going to be held at the Congress Plaza Hotel, he moved into action. Workers at the Plaza have been out on strike for almost six years fighting for wages comparable to other hotel workers. Hamer knew firsthand what the workers were going through, having been involved in social justice issues, including the Congress strike, through his synagogue and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

Writing on Shalom Rav, a website run by his rabbi, Brant Rosen, Hamer says he immediately went to the school’s principal who set up an emergency meeting where he convinced the committee to move the prom, even though it meant giving up a $3,000 deposit. The students are making up the $3,000 through fundraisers. Hamer writes:

I proceeded to relay some facts: i.e. that Congress workers made $8.80 an hour with minimal benefits while the standard is now $13.20 with significant benefits. Also, I made it clear to the committee members that having prom at the Congress would misrepresent Northside as a place where liberal thinking and cultured morals abound.


And there was the practical matter that supporters of the workers might put up a big picket line at the hotel and that the pool of teacher chaperons would immediately diminish since the teachers, who belong to the largest union in the city, probably would not cross the picket line.

FULL story and photo at link.

[pleah]

1. K&R

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Bozita]

2. *standing and applauding wildly*

[dcsmart]

3. if only more teens were like this, they really would be our hope for the future K & R

[pepperbear]

4. this sentence doesn't seem right....

Also, I made it clear to the committee members that having prom at the Congress would misrepresent Northside as a place where liberal thinking and cultured morals abound.


does he really mean "I do NOT wish to represent northside as a place where liberal thinking and cultured morals abound"? It would seem to me that he would want his school to be tought of in that way.

:shrug:



in any event, that's a great thing he's doing.