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Victory! PRO Act passes the House

DC & fed workers to "Stand Up, Stand In" Tuesday

Town Hall Tuesday on threats to VA health care

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

Union City Radio: Weekdays, 7:15am - 7:20am
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AFGE "Stand Up! Stand In!" Protest: Tue, February 11, 12pm - 1pm
Hart Senate building Atrium 120 Constitution Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20002
[link removed] RSVP here

LCLAA DC Metro Chapter Meeting: Tue, February 11, 6pm - 8pm
Grand Lodge of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 9000 Machinists Pl, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

Save the VA, DC Town Hall: Tue, February 11, 6pm - 8pm
Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, 201 4th St SE, Washington, DC 20003
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Victory! PRO Act passes the House
Late last week, Congress took the most significant step toward strengthening labor laws in the United States in more than 85 years. The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday night voted on the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. "The PRO Act is the labor movement's number one legislative priority this year for a reason," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "Working people are hungry for a bill that will ensure a process for reaching a first contract once a union is recognized, prevent the misclassification of employees, protect the right to strike and so much else. America is ready for more unions; and a happier, healthier and upwardly mobile workforce will help reverse the inequality of income, opportunity and power that is threatening our families, our communities and our democracy." In the coming weeks the AFL-CIO "will be rolling out additional components of a long-term campaign to fix our economy by fixing our labor laws, including a website, a Common Sense Economics issue education module, and other materials helpful to organizing and mobilizing around this issue."

DC & fed workers to "Stand Up, Stand In" Tuesday
Hundreds of federal and D.C. government workers from across the country will stage a silent vigil on Capitol Hill Tuesday (see Calendar) to highlight the Trump administration's attacks on their jobs and union rights. AFGE members, in Washington for AFGE's annual legislative conference, are holding the "Stand Up, Stand In" action "to raise awareness of how this administration is hurting federal employees, federal agencies, and the American public by systematically stripping workers of their collective bargaining rights, politicizing the work of non-partisan civil servants, and understaffing agencies to justify further cuts and outsourcing," said the union.

Town Hall Tuesday on threats to VA health care
Veterans and RNs are hosting a town hall in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Feb. 11 (see Calendar) to educate the public on the current threats to the VA health care system and to share their concerns about the lack of oversight in the implementation of the MISSION Act. Nurses and veterans are calling on Congress to protect the VA from privatization efforts and to fully staff and fund the VA so it can continue to provide the highest quality of care to our nation's veterans, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU). "As a veteran and a nurse who cares for veterans, I am determined to see that the VA is made whole and is fully funded and fully staffed," said Elaine Sherman, RN and a chief steward with NNOC/NNU. "We are seeing veterans being sent into the private sector without the necessary safeguards to ensure they are getting care that is equal to the superior care available at the VA. It is a travesty, that taxpayers' dollars are being used to line the pockets of wealthy health care executives instead of being invested into strengthening the VA."

Today's Labor Quote: George Meany

"As long as there are such trade unionists, labor will be opposed by those who seek to portray workers and their unions as separate entities-referring to unions as an unneeded 'third force,' just as the diehard segregationists falsely labeled civil rights organizations as 'outside agitators.'"

George Meany by Richard Avedon, from the National Portrait Gallery

Today's Labor History

On this week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: John Sayles on "Matewan," "Yellow Earth" and more
Writer, actor, and filmmaker John Sayles talks about his latest novel, "Yellow Earth," and about his classic labor films Matewan and Eight Men Out. Plus, a reading from "Yellow Earth." Also this week, Saul Schniderman on the arrest of Mother Jones while leading a protest of conditions in West Virginia mines, and Jacob Feinspan remembers the 1926 general strike by New York furriers.
Last week's show: [link removed] Sisters, rebels and social justice in the Jim Crow South. photo by [link removed] Bruce Guthrie

February 10

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) founds the Building and Construction Trades Department as a way to overcome the jurisdictional conflicts occurring in the building and construction unions - 1908

Forty workers are killed on Staten Island, NY when a huge storage tank filled with liquefied gas explodes - 1974

February 11

The Seattle General Strike ends after six days. Some 65,000 workers struck for higher pay after two years of World War I wage controls - 1919

"White Shirt Day" at UAW-represented GM plants. Union members are encouraged to wear white shirts, marking the anniversary of the 1937 sitdown strike that gave the union bargaining rights at the automaker. The mission: send a message that "blue collar" workers deserve the same respect as their management counterparts. One of the day's traditional rules: Don't get your shirt any dirtier than the boss gets his. The 44-day strike was won in 1937 but the tradition didn't begin until 1948, at the suggestion of Local 598 member Bert Christenson - 1948

Some 1,300 sanitation workers begin what is to become a 64-day strike in Memphis, ultimately win union recognition and wage increases. The April 4 assassination in Memphis of Martin Luther King Jr., who had been taking an active role in mass meetings and street actions, brought pressure on the city to settle the strike - 1968

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announces he will call out the National Guard, if necessary, to deal with any "unrest" among state employees in the wake of his decision take unilaterally end nearly all collective bargaining rights for the workers - 2011

- David Prosten

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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members.

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