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CSA helps "lift a big burden" off worker's shoulders

AFGE blasts VA for praising union busting

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

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Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
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Crises of the Common Good and Public Health: America's Prison-Industrial Complex and COVID-19: Fri, June 5, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
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Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, June 5, 7pm - 8pm
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Introduced by Seth Cook, Principal tubist for the Washington National Opera and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, member of the DC Musicians Union and a co-owner of the Takoma Beverage Company. [link removed] Click here to order dinner from TBC to enjoy during the screening!

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CSA helps "lift a big burden" off worker's shoulders
AFSCME Local 1207 member Jamie Brown is one of 80 cleaners laid off in early May when the Washington Convention Center was reconfigured into a COVID-19 field hospital. The 32-year-old has three children, aged 2, 8 and 14. "I have been stressing in many ways trying to figure out how to come up with the money during this pandemic," Jamie told Union City. The Metro Council's Community Services Agency and her union helped her pay the rent, and she says "I am thankful for the help. It lifted a big burden off of my shoulders." Through its Emergency Assistance Fund, CSA has been able to help over 100 local workers with rent, utility, food and other basic necessities. "Broad-based support from the Metro Washington labor community, individual donors, the Greater Washington Community Foundation and the United Way National Capital Area made the funding possible to keep Jamie and her family in their home," said CSA Executive Director Sonte DuCote. "Stories like Jamie's show the real impact of these generous contributions, keeping our communities strong throughout the COVID-19 crisis," she added.

AFGE blasts VA for praising union busting
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 260,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, is calling out VA leadership for praising the [link removed] May 2018 executive order which forced unions out of the office spaces, making it harder for front-line VA employees to seek union representation and have their voices heard. "While the VA was busy kicking unionized VA employees out of office space, the agency was ignoring widespread shortages of critical personal protective equipment for front-line workers," said AFGE National President Everett Kelley, "shortages that put veterans' and employees' health at risk."

Today's Labor Quote: Ryan Timlin

"If we feel if something is unjust, then workers should have the right not to support the situation or provide their services."

Timlin (photo) is president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, which represents Minneapolis bus drivers and last week refused to transport George Floyd protesters to jail.

Today's Labor History

This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: Minneapolis general strike; "Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property"
Political scientist and historian Michael Munk connects what's going on in Minneapolis today with the general strike that took place there in 1934. Plus: Steve Fraser, author of the new book "Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American History"; With the AFL-CIO car caravans originally planned for this Wednesday (now postponed) to demand swift action on the pending Heroes bill in Congress to help American workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Meany Archives Ben Blake reveals that the labor movement has used this technique effectively in the past. The latest episode of the "En Masse" podcast takes us inside the New England quarries nearly a century ago, and we celebrate the life of Rosie the Riveter.
[link removed] Last week's show: "Politics of the Pantry"; "We Just Come to Work Here"

June 5
U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization, upholding several lower courts' rulings that Jersey City mayor Frank Hague's ordinance banning labor meetings in public places and prohibiting the distribution of CIO literature violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly and was therefore unconstitutional -1939

June 6
Speculator mine disaster. 164 killed at Butte, Mont. - 1917

A general strike by some 12,000 autoworkers and others in Lansing, Mich. shuts down the city for a month in what was to become known as the city's "Labor Holiday." The strike was precipitated by the arrest of nine workers, including the wife of the auto workers local union president: The arrest left three children in the couple's home unattended - 1937

Labor Party founding convention opens in Cleveland, Ohio - 1996

June 7
Militia sent to Cripple Creek, Colo., to suppress Western Federation of Miners strike - 1904

Sole performance of Pageant of the Paterson (NJ) Strike, created and performed by 1,000 mill workers from the silk industry strike, New York City - 1913

Striking textile workers battle police in Gastonia, N.C. Police Chief O.F. Aderholt is accidentally killed by one of his own officers. Six strike leaders are convicted of "conspiracy to murder" and are sentenced to jail for from 5 to 20 years - 1929

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, later to become the United Steel Workers of America, is formed in Pittsburgh - 1936

Founding convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers. The merger brought together the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen of North America - 1979

The United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club announce the formation of a strategic alliance to pursue a joint public policy agenda under the banner of Good Jobs, A Clean Environment, and A Safer World - 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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