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Excluded worker tweetstorm today

The Post's union shows the best of journalism

DC Primary Election Update

Union Voice/Readers Write: Appreciating John Sayles

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

Coalition to Repeal Right to Work (NoVA Labor): Fri, May 29, 7pm - 8pm (Via Zoom)

National Writers Union Open Meeting: Sun, May 31, 1pm - 2pm (Via Zoom)

DC "Workers First Caravan" (Two staging locations!)
Wed, June 3, 11:00am
Arlington, VA and Silver Spring, MD; [link removed] click here for details and click here to [link removed] RSVP

Metro Washington Council and Community Services Agency staff are teleworking; reach them at the contact numbers and email addresses [link removed] here.

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

Excluded worker tweetstorm today
DC Jobs with Justice is coordinating a tweetstorm today from 9am to 12 noon to lift up the needs of excluded workers. These are folks like care workers for both children and the elderly, restaurant workers and street vendors. Without cash assistance, excluded workers are at risk of homelessness and the devastating impacts of deepened poverty. Jobs with Justice and their allies are calling on the DC City Council to expand funds to support excluded workers' economic security. Retweet them [link removed] @DCJWJ and use the hashtags #dontexcludeme, #NoMeExcluyas and #JustRecoveryDC

The Post's union shows the best of journalism
Last week, the union at the Washington Post signed a contract extension. With a pandemic raging and the president ranting and the boss, Jeff Bezos, on track to become a trillionaire, why should readers care about the union? Because it protects one of America's best newsrooms from being torn apart by some powerful egos.
- Hamilton Nolan in the Columbia Journalism Review; [link removed] read more here.

DC Primary Election Update
The DC Primary Election is next Tuesday, June 2, from 7:00 am - 8:00 pm. In response to the spread of COVID-19, the District of Columbia Board of Elections developed the Vote Safe DC campaign to ensure that every vote is counted and voters and election workers are safe. ALL residents are encouraged to request an absentee (mail-in) ballot for the June Primary and Ward 2 Special Elections (June 16). Applications for absentee ballot requests can be obtained by calling 202-741-5283 or the DC Board of Elections [link removed] main website. See below or [link removed] click here for the MWC-endorsed candidates.

Union Voice/Readers Write: Appreciating John Sayles
"Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to John Sayles and to see Eight Men Out," writes Linda St.Clair from Austin, TX. "I have been a fan since the `80s (and) admire him greatly." Sue Bachner adds "This was great! I've seen that movie before but it was great to see it again, especially with the live introduction and interview with John Sayles, who is one of my favorite filmmakers. Thanks so much for setting that up!" The DC LaborFest Tuesday night screenings continue next week with "Pride" on June 2 at 7p EDT; click here to [link removed] RSVP.

Today's Labor Quote: Cesar Chavez

"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."

Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers of America, which on this date in 1996 reached agreement with Bruce Church, Inc. on a contract for 450 lettuce harvesters, ending a 17-year-long boycott. The pact raised wages, provided company-paid health benefits to workers and their families, created a seniority system to deal with seasonal layoffs and recalls, and established a pesticide monitoring system.

Today's Labor History

This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: "Politics of the Pantry"; "We Just Come to Work Here"
"This period of time in the Thirties struck me as a period of great innovation and resilience that women organized around the need to provide certain services. And I see that happening in my community today around the pandemic." Emily Twarog, author of "Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth Century America." Her study of how women used institutions built on patriarchy and consumer capitalism to cultivate a political voice resonates strongly today in the midst of both the COVID-19 pandemic and an election year. Joyce McCawley talked with Twarog on the Heartland Labor Forum, the labor radio show airing weekly in Kansas City on KKFI.
Plus: Ben Grosscup with a new version of "We Just Come to Work Here" and Joe Glazer on the Memorial Day Massacre.
[link removed] Last week's show: "The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland"

May 29
Animators working for Walt Disney begin what was to become a successful five-week strike for recognition of their union, the Screen Cartoonists' Guild. The animated feature "Dumbo" was being created at the time and, according to Wikipedia, a number of strikers are caricatured in the feature as clowns who go to "hit the big boss for a raise" - 1941

A contract between the United Mine Workers and the U.S. government establishes one of the nation's first union medical and pension plans, the multi-employer UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund - 1946

May 30
The Ford Motor Company signs a "Technical Assistance" contract to produce cars in the Soviet Union, and Ford workers were sent to the Soviet Union to train the labor force in the use of its parts. Many American workers who made the trip, including Walter Reuther, a tool and die maker who later was to become the UAW's president. Reuther returned home with a different view of the duties and privileges of the industrial laborer - 1929

In what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre (photo), police open fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing ten and wounding more than 160 - 1937

The Ground Zero cleanup at the site of the World Trade Center is completed 3 months ahead of schedule due to the heroic efforts of more than 3,000 building tradesmen & women who had worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for the previous 8 months - 2002

May 31
Rose Will Monroe, popularly known as Rosie the Riveter, dies in Clarksville, Ind. During WWII she helped bring women into the labor force - 1997

- 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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