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Grocery store employee working during COVID-19 crisis: 'I'm going to say my prayers'

MWC COPE hosts MD legislator briefing; DC City Council Town Halls launch Wednesday

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

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

DC Labor FilmFest: The Moment Was Now: Tue, May 12, 7pm - 9pm
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The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It: Wed, May 13, 4pm - 5pm
[link removed] Via Zoom

MWC Candidate Town Hall: Trayon White (Ward 8): Wed, May 13, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Via Zoom; [link removed] Registration required

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.

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Grocery store employee working during COVID-19 crisis: 'I'm going to say my prayers'
When his alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m., 54-year-old Jeff Reid knows it's time to begin his day and prepare for an eight-hour shift on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. As a grocery store worker, Reid never imagined he'd find himself in this position. "You go from being just the everyday hardworking guy -- get up in the morning, take a shower, say my prayers and put on a happy face and go to work -- whereas now, you know, basically I'm putting my life on the line every day," he [link removed] told ABC News. Reid works in the meat department at a Giant Food grocery store in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. He's also the shop steward at the store for the UFCW Local 400 union. ABC News; [link removed] click here for the full report.

MWC COPE hosts MD legislator briefing; DC City Council Town Halls launch Wednesday
The Metro Washington Council's Montgomery/Prince George's County Committee on Political Education (COPE) hosted a lively and informative discussion last Friday with elected officials from throughout the state of Maryland. Legislators in attendance at the briefing included Congressman Anthony Brown (photo), Maryland House Economic Matters Committee Chairman Derek E. Davis, Montgomery County Council Member At-Large Will Jawando, and Prince George's County Council Member At-Large Calvin Hawkins. Each took questions from the nearly two dozen labor activists and leaders on Zoom. Questions ranged from safety to education to the state budget and how it will affect workers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Metro Council is hosting a series of town halls with MWC-endorsed DC Council candidates beginning this week. The candidates will discuss issues in their wards and their plans for DC workers. The first town hall will be this Wednesday with Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White. [link removed] Click here to register or [link removed] click here for links to the rest of the town halls.
- David Stephen, MWC Political and Legislative Director

Today's Labor Quote: Eugene Victor Debs

"If it is a fact that after working for George M. Pullman for many years you appear two weeks after your work stops, ragged and hungry, it only emphasizes that the charge I made before this community, and Pullman stands before you a self-confessed robber....The paternalism of Pullman is the same as the self-interest of a slave-holder in his human chattels. You are striking to avert slavery and degradation."

Today's Labor History

This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: "Strike for Your Life!"; labor history's lessons for the COVID-19 crisis
Peter Rachleff, co-director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, Minnesota, on how "Lessons from labor history can inform our labor movement during the COVID-19 crisis." "As a labor historian, the closest thing I can think of to the spread of coronavirus strikes is the epidemic of sitdown strikes to spread across the country in the mid-1930s." Historian and writer Jeremy Brecher, from "Strike for Your Life!" Also this week, we preview Debs In Canton, a new audio/radio drama from the filmmakers of American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs.
[link removed] Last week's show: Jack Kelly's "The Edge of Anarchy"; "Union Maids" director Julia Reichert (Part 2)

Nationwide railway strike begins at Pullman, Ill. 260,000 railroad workers ultimately joined the strike to protest wage cuts by the Pullman Palace Car Co. - 1894

- 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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