LABOR CALENDAR
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report
MWC MoCo/PGCo COPE Legislative Briefing: Fri, May 8, 10am – 12pm
Via Zoom; register here
Latin American Workers and COVID 19: An International Webinar: Fri, May 8, 1pm – 3pm
Via Zoom; register here
VEC officials answer UI questions: Fri, May 8, 1pm – 2pm
Via Zoom
Bhaskar Sunkara at Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, May 8, 7pm – 8pm
Via Zoom
May 4-10 is the #LaborCounts Census Week of Action: today's theme: Millennials and Young Workers. Please share on social!
Nurses’ silent WH protest honors their dead
If President Trump looked out his front window Thursday morning, he would have seen eighty-eight pairs of white nurses’ shoes lined up on the sidewalk in front of the White House. They represented each nurse killed so far by the coronavirus pandemic. They were also a message from National Nurses United that nurses need personal protective equipment (PPE) – especially N95 masks and respirators – to help protect themselves, their colleagues and loved ones while they treat coronavirus sufferers. "We stand here today with heavy hearts but with fierce determination," said Stephanie Simms, an RN from MedStar Washington Hospital Center. "Every nurse, on every shift, in every hospital is putting themselves on the line during this pandemic. It is time for the country to step up and protect them as they fight to protect us." The NNU members, in town for National Nurses Week, said they aren’t getting the help they need from the GOP Trump administration’s inept – or worse – response to the pandemic. The 88 nurses are among the 73,275 people the coronavirus has killed nationwide. Read more here.
- Mark Gruenberg, PAI News; photo Rick Reinhard/NNU
Anthony Lorenzo Green added to MWC Candidate Town HallsA town Hall with Anthony Lorenzo Green (Ward 7) has been added to the series of DC City Council Candidate Town Halls being organized by the Metro Washington Labor Council, featuring candidates endorsed by the MWC and enabling the labor community to meet the candidates, submit questions, and learn more about their stands on labor issues. Here's the updated schedule and links to register: Wednesday, May 13: 7:30p: Trayon White (Ward 8) Thursday, May 14: 7:30p: Anthony Lorenzo Green (Ward 7) Thursday, May 21: 7:30p: Jordan Grossman (Ward 2) Wednesday, May 20: 7:30p: Janesse Lewis-George (Ward 4)
Today's Labor Quote: Jerry Wurf
“Government workers have proved that when they are not dealt with justly, they will defy the law. And they have proved that, in such situations, government is powerless.”
Jerry Wurf (right, with Martin Luther King, Jr.) was born in New York City on this date in 1919. Wurf was to serve as president of AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, from 1964 to his death in 1981. The union grew from about 220,000 members to more than 1 million during his presidency.
Today's Labor History
This week's Labor History Today podcast: Jack Kelly’s "The Edge of Anarchy”; “Union Maids” director Julia Reichert (Part 2)
Last week’s show: Julia Reichert: ‘We Don’t Just Interview People Once’; Montgomery Ward busted; May Day and Mother Jones
May 8
The constitution of the Brotherhood of the Footboard was ratified by engineers in Detroit, Mich. Later became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers - 1863
12,000 Steelworker-represented workers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber win an 18-day strike for improved wages and job security - 1997
May 9
Legendary Western Federation of Miners leader William “Big Bill” Haywood goes on trial for murder in the bombing death of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg, who had brutally suppressed the state’s miners. Haywood ultimately was declared innocent - 1907
Hollywood studio mogul Louis B. Mayer recognizes the Screen Actors Guild. SAG leaders reportedly were bluffing when they told Mayer that 99 percent of all actors would walk out the next morning unless he dealt with the union. Some 5,000 actors attended a victory gathering the following day at Hollywood Legion Stadium; a day later, SAG membership increased 400 percent - 1937
4,000 garment workers, mostly Hispanic, strike for union recognition at the Farah Mfg. Co. in El Paso, Tex. - 1972
May 10
Thanks to an army of thousands of Chinese and Irish immigrants, who laid 2,000 miles of track, the nation’s first transcontinental railway line was finished by the joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines at Promontory Point, Utah – 1869
U.S. & Canadian workers form Western Labor Union. It favors industrial organization and independent labor party politics - 1898
A federal bankruptcy judge frees United Airlines from responsibility for pensions covering 120,000 employees - 2005
- David Prosten; photo: The first board meeting of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933
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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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