Dr. Beatrice Tucker: Home Birth for Chicago’s Working Class
Filed under: Race and gender, Society and Economy
“In the hospital you’re on duty for 8 hours and if you get into trouble they’ll come and help you out. If you’re out in the district, you know, you sit there for 24 hours if they’re in labor and you really learn about labor. You learn all the physiology of childbirth and you have to know that and know it well before you can really apply your obstetrical knowledge and manage and deliver a baby properly.”—Dr. Beatrice Tucker 1897-1984.
It’s a shame there isn’t a Nobel Prize for Obstetrics. What could be more important than bringing new life into the world? Without new life, there would be no humanity. None of our human accomplishments, whether for good or for ill would be possible.
But if there were a Nobel Prize for Obstetrics, Dr. Beatrice “Tucks” Tucker (photo on right) and her longtime partner Dr. Harry “Bennie” Benaron would have won one as leaders of the Chicago Maternity Center.
The Chicago Maternity Center grew out of the Maxwell Street Dispensary founded in 1895 by Dr. Joseph DeLee to provide free obstetrical care for indigent women while training doctors in the latest methods of safe delivery. Financial problems caused to DeLee to reorganize the Dispensary in 1931 and rename it the Chicago Maternity Center. From 1932 until its doors closed in 1973, the Chicago Maternity Center was one of finest obstetrical facilities on the planet.
Specializing in home births, its record of live births and live moms set a standard for delivering babies that can still surprise those unfamiliar with its work. Given that the USA now has one of the worst infant and maternal death rates in the developed world, maybe it’s time to step into the WayBack Machine and see how Drs. Tucker and Benaron got the job done. Read more
America’s Ports: The Place Where Old Trucks Go To Die- Updated
Filed under: Society and Economy, Unions
Quick Update I have to go to court because an Occupy Chicago arrest: Seattle Port truckers ended a two week walkout as talks continue. According to the Seattle Times:
“Port leaders will continue to meet with the drivers to grapple with safety issues, said Port spokesman Peter McGraw. Issues include overweight loads and worn or flawed truck chassis that are owned by freight companies and used and returned by drivers each day.
In addition, several trucking firms have agreed to boost the pay per load to $44 from $40 a trip; to compensate drivers stuck in line more than an hour; and to pay for some trips drivers make when they have no load, according to Paul Marvy, a labor-union researcher advising the truckers.”
There is a bill before the state legislature to turn the drivers into actual employees with labor rights including the ability to have a union. The Teamsters’ hope to organize them.
Truck driver Demeke Meconnen, one of the leaders of the walkout, said the group saw that employers were starting to lose their accounts, so drivers wanted to move cargo again while continuing to push for changes.
The trucking firms, except one, recently joined in talks with the drivers, he said.
“This is not only about the money. We’re talking about safety, respect, dignity and fairness,” Meconnen said.
Truckers seethed about derogatory or racist terms directed at them on the job, but they have begun to win community support, he said. “All the drivers are very happy for what they have done.”
This is great news. Solidarity Forever!
Back to the original diary below:
Aynalem Moba doesn’t want to kill anyone. He doesn’t want to injure anyone. He certainly doesn’t want to poison anyone. No, he is not a draftee in a horrible war he doesn’t believe in. He is an American truck driver who drives loads at the Port of Seattle.
“Every day, I haul two or three loads that are overweight, possibly putting myself and others at risk. The truck could tip over. I’m afraid I might kill myself or someone else. Sometimes we’re carrying hazardous materials, and we don’t know it.”— Aynalem Moba, a 14-year port veteran.
Port of Seattle with trucks waiting for containers
Aynalem Moba is not the only one speaking out.
“The shipping and rail lines force us to use faulty equipment. One time I got a load that was 4-5,000 pounds overweight, and it was on a chassis that was insufficient for carrying heavy loads. The company told me to take it anyway. I was really nervous about it. All that extra weight puts a lot of wear and tear on the truck. It blew my wheel seal…It cost me $450. My truck is my livelihood. If it doesn’t work, I don’t work.” —Calvin Borders, a 13-year driver.
Alice Peurala: A Woman Of Steel
Filed under: Society and Economy, Unions
“They’re telling workers they’ve got to step back and do with less. What does that mean? Not having a car? Not being able to make the payments on their house? Not being able to send their kids to college? Not having any money for recreation? I thought that what’s it all about–to make the life of the worker decent and with dignity and the ability to enjoy the things of society like culture and recreation. Now they’re saying we’ve taken too much from the corporations.” —Alice Peurala 1928-1986.
The fires of steelmaking burned all along the southern shores of Lake Michigan when Alice Peurala entered US Steel’s South Works in 1953. Today most of those fires have gone out and with them the thousands of jobs that were once the economic support system for the Southeast Chicago–Gary region, a region that has still not recovered in 2012.
Contrary to what you may have read, this was not a “loss” of manufacturing, like dropping one’s car keys in a parking lot or having a few coins slip between your couch cushions. This was deliberate theft and vandalism by what we now call the 1%. By failing to properly invest in modernization, failing to see the impact of globalization, failing to see the importance of a national industrial policy as their foreign rivals did, and turning a deaf ear to their own workers, the steel company owners helped create the economic disaster that we have today. The United Steel Workers(USW), the union that represented most of the steel mills, was trapped in an organizational structure and bargaining model that was unprepared for the employer onslaught.
