Forward to a friend:
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Friends of the Earth staff organize

To UI hell and back: one claimant's story

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

[link removed] Virtual May Day 2020 (LabourStart): Fri, May 1, 3am - 7pm

WPFW/WBAI collaborative May Day program "Which Side Are You On": Fri, May 1, 9am - 7pm
[link removed] WPFW FM 89.3

Rent strike car rally: Fri, May 1, 10am - 12pm
4949 Seminary Rd, Alexandria, VA

System In Crisis: A Working-Class Vision For The Future: Fri, May 1, 5pm - 7pm
Via Zoom (map)

Union City Radio's May Day Show: Labor in the time of pandemic: Fri, May 1, 5pm - 7pm
[link removed] WPFW FM 89.3
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
Guests include John Boardman, UNITE HERE Local 25; Liz Davis, Washington Teachers Union Local 6; Joseph Papariello, DC Firefighters Association Local 36; Ed Malaga, DC Musicians Union; Elizabeth Falcon, DC Jobs with Justice; Freddy Kunkle, Baltimore-Washington NewsGuild Local 32035; Tom Killeen, SMART Local 100; Alvina Yeh, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance;
Yanira Merino, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; Andrew Washington, AFSCME Council 20 Executive Director, Metro Washington Council Acting President.
PLUS: Labor Music Call-In Free-For-All from 6-7p! Chris and Elise play their favorite labor music; call in - 202-588-0893-- with your suggestions!

Mother Jones May Day Celebration: Fri, May 1, 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Via Zoom

NoVA Coalition to Repeal RTW: Harold Meyerson: Fri, May 1, 7pm - 8pm
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!

Friends of the Earth staff organize
A supermajority of staff members at Friends of the Earth US [link removed] announced on Wednesday that they've "joined together to form a union in the pursuit of fighting for a more healthy and just world." The union, Friends of the Earth United, has asked for voluntary recognition and is represented by the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU). "Our organization has been guided by speaking uncomfortable truths, building long-term power, fighting for justice, and holding people and institutions accountable," said the new union. "Our union is guided by these same principles, which are more important than ever during the current pandemic crisis."

To UI hell and back: one claimant's story
Thirty million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits over the last six weeks. This is the story of one of those Americans.
On February 27, fifty-two-year-old Hans Theyer applied for unemployment insurance benefits for the first time in his working life. "I found the process on the website rather simple, which I appreciated," Theyer - who had been working for an NGO in Washington, DC -- told Union City. But no benefits arrived. "I thought, okay, they're doing paperwork, they're overwhelmed because of the virus." Logging onto the Department of Employment Services website yielded no answers. When he called, he waited in vain for hours for a live response. Finally, more than a month later, Theyer was notified that he was ineligible for benefits because he'd failed to verify his identity. He'd never received an email from DOES, which never bothered to follow up. "And together with that notification came a sheet that said if you need help, please contact" the Metro Washington Council's Claimant Advocacy Program. [link removed] Click here to find out what happened next...

Today's Labor Quote: The Internationale

And so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields
We stand unbowed before their armor
We defy their guns and shields
When we fight provoked by their aggression
Let us be inspired by life and love
For though they offer us concessions
Change will not come from above

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Today's Labor History

[link removed] Special May Day edition of Labor History Today: Virtual May Day rally builds on the militancy of the past to inspire workers today. Live coverage as hundreds of thousands attend 2020 Virtual May Day Rally in the Nation's Capital. Partial list of speakers includes John L Lewis, A. Phillip Randolph, Paul Robeson, Dolores Huerta, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Eugene Victor Debs.

Nineteen machinists working for the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad gather in a locomotive pit to decide what to do about a wage cut. They vote to form a union, which later became the International Association of Machinists - 1888

The Cooks' and Waiters' Union strikes in San Francisco, demanding one day of rest per week, a ten-hour work day and a union shop for all restaurants in the city - 1901

Mother Jones' 100th birthday celebrated at the Burgess Farm in Adelphi, Md. She died six months later - 1930

New York City's Empire State Building officially opens. Construction involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, and hundreds of Mohawk iron workers. Five workers died during construction - 1931

Congress enacts amendments to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, extending protections to the employees of state and local governments - protections which didn't take effect until 1985 because of court challenges and regulation-writing problems - 1974

Rallies in cities across the U.S. for what organizers call "A Day Without Immigrants." An estimated 100,000 immigrants and sympathizers gathered in San Jose, Calif., 200,000 in New York, 400,000 each in Chicago and Los Angeles. In all, there were demonstrations in at least 50 cities - 2006

- 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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