With the AFL-CIO headquarters building currently shut down, all Metro Washington Council and Community Services Agency staff are now teleworking and can be reached at the contact numbers and email addresses here.
Amidst pandemic, labor authority moves union-busting rule
The Federal Labor Relations Authority on Wednesday formally proposed a rule AFGE President Everett Kelley called “just another in a series of activist steps the FLRA has taken to advance this administration’s goal of busting unions and making it even harder for rank-and-file federal employees to speak up, defend their rights, and serve the American people." Kelley said the proposed rule -- which would make it easier for federal employees to cancel their union dues -- is contrary to both settled law and Congressional intent. Read more here
CSA Releases “Resources to Help Survive Economic Impact of Coronavirus”
The Metro Washington Council's Community Services Agency has just released “Resources To Help Survive Economic Impact Of Coronavirus,” which includes links on where to file for unemployment throughout the metro area, details on the limited financial assistance available from CSA, mortgage & rental assistance, pharmacy, legal and emergency shelter, healthcare and food, as well as help working with creditors and other hardship benefits.
DC unemployment insurance explainer
Click here for useful info for those seeking UI in the District of Columbia due to layoffs and/or reduction of hours.
Tonya Love, Claimant Advocacy Program
Today's Labor Quote: Mark Federici
“You are not alone. We are one union family, and we are in this together.”
Federici is president of UFCW Local 400; read more here
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Great Postal Strike, Watergate and “Casey Jones, the Union Scab” ; Longtime labor lawyer Jules Bernstein on the 1970 postal strike, AFL-CIO president George Meany on the Watergate scandal, and Pete Seeger on “Casey Jones, the Union Scab.
Last week’s show: Neutron Jack, Joker and Parasite
March 20
Michigan authorizes formation of workers’ cooperatives. Thirteen are formed in the state over a 25-year period. Labor reform organizations were advocating "cooperation" over "competitive" capitalism following the Civil War and several thousand cooperatives opened for business across the country during this era. Participants envisioned a world free from conflict where workers would receive the full value of their labor and freely exercise democratic citizenship in the political and economic realms - 1865
The American Federation of Labor issues a charter to a new Building Trades Dept. Trades unions had formed a Structural Building Trades Alliance several years earlier to work out jurisdictional conflicts, but lacked the power to enforce Alliance rulings - 1908
Members of the International Union of Electrical Workers reach agreement with Westinghouse Electric Corp., end a 156-day strike - 1956
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that employers could not exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage a fetus - 1991
Three hundred family farmers at a National Pork Producers Council meeting in Iowa protest factory-style hog farms - 1997
March 21
American Labor Union founded - 1853
March 22
Mark Twain, a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union (now part of CWA), speaks in Hartford, Conn., extolling the Knights of Labor’s commitment to fair treatment of all workers, regardless of race or gender - 1886
The Grand Coulee Dam on Washington state’s Columbia River begins operation after a decade of construction. 8,000 workers labored on the project; 77 died - 1941
800 striking workers at Brown & Sharpe in Kingstown, R.I., are tear-gassed by state and local police in what was to become a losing 17-year-long fight by the Machinists union - 1982
A 32-day lockout of Major League Baseball players ends with an agreement to raise the minimum league salary from $68,000 to $100,000 and to study revenue-sharing between owners and players - 1990
A bitter six and one-half year UAW strike at Caterpillar Inc. ends. The strike and settlement, which included a two-tier wage system and other concessions, deeply divided the union - 1998
- David Prosten
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