LABOR CALENDAR
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report, NSO musicians fight off furlough
Labor and COVID 19: An International Perspective: Thu, April 9, 10:00am – 11:45am
Via Zoom Video Conference
Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, April 9, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online
This week's guests: @hardballpress Tim Sheard, Steve Fraser on “Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property” & “The Elevator Man” from SpudWrench! Plus labor news headlines and listener calls
DC COPE meeting: CANCELED: Thu, April 9, 4pm – 6pm
Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, April 9, 6pm – 7pm
Via Zoom
The MWC and CSA virtual offices will be closed Friday in observance of the holidays. Staff can still be reached at the contact info below, but response may be delayed.
How to Help: AFGE 14’s “Helping Labor During COVID-19 Pandemic” fund
In addition to the various federal, state and local financial assistance programs available to workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (click here for latest details), labor or labor-friendly organizations are also setting up financial support vehicles. If you know of one, please let us know at [email protected]
Fund Name: Helping Labor During COVID-19 Pandemic
Organized by: AFGE District 14 and Y.O.U.N.G. (Young Organizing Unionists for the Next Generation)
Benefits: Metro Washington Council’s Community Services Agency
About the fund: “I remember not so long ago, our union brothers and sisters stood by us with support when our jobs were shut down,” said District 14’s Eric Bunn, AFGE National Vice President. “Some of us were even required to work with no pay. AFGE District 14 just wanted to make sure that we join in solidarity to help our industry workers and front line soldiers during this time of emergency. After all, isn’t this what unionism is all about?”
MWC COVID-19 UPDATES
Legislative updates: click here for the latest updates, including Washington Dc: The Covid-19 Response Supplemental Emergency Amendment Act Of 2020.
Unemployment Insurance: click here for the latest helpful information.
CSA: latest resource updates posted here.
Union Voice/Readers Write: Time to make shopping safer
"Have you looked into the safety procedures of our essential grocery stores?" writes Terry Cavanagh at the SEIU MD&DC State Council. "For example, why haven’t they all switched to one-way shopping a la Aldi and IKEA? This would make it much easier to maintain social distancing. Also, Trader’s Joe’s, owned by the same Germany-based, multi-national corporation that owns Aldi, is responding to safety concerns by staff by running an aggressive anti-union campaign. If the NLRB is postponing all union elections, why not have a moratorium on such (anti-union) campaigns?"
In terms of enhanced safety policies in stores staffed by UFCW Local 400 members, click here for a rundown of all four of their major grocery employers; Giant & Kroger have recently announced plans to implement one-way aisles in stores along with limits on the number of customers. Local 400 (and UFCW more broadly) are continuing to push their employers, policymakers and elected officials to implement a suite of new policies, including declaring grocery store workers “first responders” or emergency personnel so they have access to the benefits and protections others in those categories receive, especially access to testing, treatment, and personal protective equipment, limiting the number of customers in a store to 10 people per 10,000 square feet and a maximum of 50 people in a store at a given time to be enforced by additional security staff as well as a host of other safety measures, including mandatory wiping down of grocery carts, self-scan screens, and credit card touch screens after each use and public address announcements at regular intervals reminding people to maintain a 6-foot distance from employees and other customers. Read more here.
- Jonathan Williams, UFCW 400; Graphic by visual journalist Sara Mirk, from "COMIC: Grocery Workers Are Essential, And Feeling The Strain"
Got a question or comment? Email us at [email protected]!
Today's Labor Quote: John Costa
“We are prepared to take whatever aggressive action is necessary in order to protect our members and their families. Nothing is off the table. Dying is no way to make a living.”
Costa is president of the Amalgamated Transit Union. The ATU and the Transport Workers Union represent members who operate the majority of bus, subway and streetcar systems across the country, and the two unions earlier this week vowed to take action if system operators don’t better protect their members from COVID-19.
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Coronavirus essential workers’ rights
On this week’s show, organizer and union rep John Barry on “Coronavirus ‘essential workers’ have rights too;” ethnographer Candacy Taylor on "Beauty Shop Culture and the Labor of Hairdressing" and Tales from the Reuther Library podcast host Dan Goldner celebrates Frances Perkins’ birthday.
Last week’s show: Socialists, suffragettes and fear at work
IWW organizes the 1,700 member crew of the Leviathan, then the world’s largest vessel - 1930
- 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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