Forward to a friend:
[link removed]

City "playing Russian Roulette" at St Elizabeth's?

Solidarity Center Report: Unions Around the Globe Take Action on COVID-19

Union Voice/Readers Write: Time to establish a Health Care Workers Holiday?

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

[link removed] LABOR CALENDAR

Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; [link removed] click here to hear today's report

Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, April 15, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
via Zoom

Metro Washington Council and Community Services Agency staff are all teleworking and can be reached at the contact [link removed] numbers and email addresses here.

[link removed] Latest DC-area labor news, delivered daily: tell a friend and help build our Union City!

City "playing Russian Roulette" at St Elizabeth's?
"It almost appears D.C. government is playing Russian Roulette with the nurses and other health care workers at St. Elizabeth's," said District of Columbia Nurses Association Executive Director Edward Smith yesterday. With four patient deaths in the last three weeks, 30 nurses out on quarantine and coronavirus cases expected to spike in the next few weeks, DCNA wants changes in protocols to guarantee nurses will be tested immediately if they treat a COVID-19 patient. DCNA is also concerned about the lack of negative pressure rooms at St. Elizabeths as well as the availability of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). "We simply need more N-95 masks at St. Elizabeths and other health care facilities in D.C.," said Smith. "It's all about safety first, saving nurses' lives, protecting their families, and administering the care required by corona virus patients."
See also: [link removed] Nurses Strain Under Extra Work Because Of COVID-19 Testing Protocols (WAMU)
photo: Nurse Susan Nelson Pierre (l) works at Saint Elizabeths Hospital; photo courtesy DCNA

Solidarity Center Report: Unions Around the Globe Take Action on COVID-19
Unions are elevating the rights of migrant workers during COVID-19, providing direct assistance, pushing for government recognition and support for those without jobs and negotiating with employers to provide masks, gloves and other safety gear. In Thailand, unions are fighting employers who are using the coronavirus crisis to bust unions, while in Liberia, unions are warning that government cutbacks in health care staffing endanger patients and workers. Find out more at [link removed] Solidarity Center.

Union Voice/Readers Write: Time to establish a Health Care Workers Holiday?
"Are nursing homes fast becoming the nexus for COVID19 transmissions in the DMV?" writes Terry Cavanagh at the SEIU MD&DC State Council. "(Are they) properly caring for their under-paid workforce with testing, safety equipment and procedures, etc.? These workers are on the front lines in our battle against the virus that threatens us all, but they are often invisible. Maybe an emergency government expenditure to treat all of their working hours as overtime would be a good start. Establishing a Health Care Workers Holiday (November 11?) to honor all those who are giving so much would be in order."

Today's Labor Quote: A. Philip Randolph

"Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted."

A. Philip Randolph, civil rights leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was born in Crescent City, Fla. on this date in 1889.

Today's Labor History

This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: Organizing during historic crises
On this week's show, labor historians Dorothy Sue Cobble and Michael Merrill talk with the NoVA Coalition to Repeal Right to Work about how workers engaged in mass uprisings and organizing during previous historical crises. Plus American Prospect Editor at Large Harold Meyerson, on The Return of the Breadline and retired nurse and novelist Tim Sheard visits a New York City hospital during the pandemic.
Last week's show: [link removed] Coronavirus essential workers' rights

IWW union Agricultural Workers Organization formed in Kansas City, Mo. - 1915

Teacher unionists gather at the City Club on Plymouth Court in Chicago to form a new national union: the American Federation of Teachers - 1916

Start of ultimately successful six-day strike across New England by what has been described as the first women-led American union, the Telephone Operators Department of IBEW - 1919

The first McDonald's Restaurant opens, in Des Plaines, Ill., setting the stage years later for sociologist Amitai Etzioni to coin the term "McJob." As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, a McJob is "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector." - 1955

- David Prosten; photo: telephone switchboard 1914; source Library of Congress

Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by any recipient; please credit Union City as the source.

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.

Story suggestions, event announcements, campaign reports, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space; just click on the mail icon below. You can also reach us on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on those icons.

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

mailto:[email protected]

[link removed]


You are receiving this email because our records indicate that [link removed] [email protected] signed up to receive this newsletter. Click here to [link removed] edit your subscription preferences
To view our Privacy Policy: [link removed]