News
Representing; Clerical, Office, Fleet & Passenger Service Employees, Equipment Service, Stock Clerks and Leads in Seattle, Spokane & Boise
 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers - AFL-CIO

NEWS!

 

Home
Who We Are
Meeting Place
News
Calendar
Committees
Communications
Community Service
Executive Board
Legislative
Retirees
Cascade Flyer
Contracts
Copyright
Feedback Page

Links
Union   Information
IAMAW
IAM 143, Minneapolis
Labor Union Women
Intl' LabourOrganization
AFL/CIO                             

Airline   Links
Alaska Airlines
Continental Airlines
Delta Airlines
Southwest Airlines
United Airlines

Government   Links
The Whitehouse
House of Representatives
US Congress
Congress Voting Records
US Senate
US Customs
Library of Congress
Congressional Email
OSHA
EEOC
DOT
DOL

Search for:

 

   

Transportation NewsWire

IAM Transportation Department

General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr.

9000 Machinists Place

Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

www.goiam.org/transportation

 

Congressional leaders unveiled a pair of plaques honoring African-American slaves who helped build the U.S. Capitol.

African-American slaves who worked 12-hour days, six days a week between 1793 and 1800 to help build the U.S. Capitol building, were honored this week with a pair of commemorative plaques that will be permanently displayed inside the Capitol building.

“This is a long overdue recognition of a sad and largely unknown chapter in our nation’s history,” said IAM Executive Assistant Diane Babineaux, who attended the ceremonial unveiling of the plaques.

The federal government rented the slaves from local slave owners at a rate of $5 per person per month. In addition to working on the building, slaves worked in quarries extracting the stone for the Capitol. Other slaves worked as carpenters, while others worked at sawing stone and timber.

“Just imagine, the United States government paying your owner, not you, but your owner $5 a month for your labor,” said Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis. “This Capitol, the most recognizable symbol of our democracy, was not built overnight, it was not built by machines. It was built through the backbreaking work of laborers and slave laborers."