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2019 Working While Black Expo: Aug 24 – 25, 2019
Coppin State University, 2500 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21216, USA (map)
Sponsored by The National Black Worker Center Project
Click here for more information

Maryland state workers demand better pay, more staffing
Dozens of Maryland state workers rallied in Ocean City last Saturday, protesting understaffed and underpaid working conditions throughout government institutions across the state. With their green shirts on and packets of info in hand, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland (AFSCME) Council 3 gathered in the parking lot outside Ocean City's Convention Center, calling on Gov. Larry Hogan to improve conditions. Some say the staffing crisis is a matter of life and death, becoming alarmingly common among many places like correctional facilities and state hospitals. "Tell Governor Hogan to provide us with services, with staffing, and of course, provide state employees with more salary increases," said Flo Jones, AFSCME's Secretary-Treasurer.
- WBOC.com

Solidarity Center Report: Landmark Pact to End Gender Violence at Lesotho Garment Factories
More than 10,000 garment workers who make jeans and knitwear for US corporations will be covered in a landmark program that will address gender-based violence and harassment in factories in Lesotho, a country in southern Africa. Lesotho-based unions and women’s rights groups, Levi Strauss, The Children's Place and Kontoor (Wrangler and Lee), and international worker rights organizations, including the Solidarity Center, negotiated with the factory owner, Nien Hsing Textiles, to mandate education and awareness trainings for all employees and managers, an independent reporting and monitoring system and remedies for abusive behavior.
Find out more at the Solidarity Center.

Today's Labor Quote: Cesar Chavez

“Fighting for social justice, it seems to me, is one of the profoundest ways in which man can say yes to man’s dignity, and that really means sacrifices. There is no way on this earth in which you can say yes to a man’s dignity and know that you’re going to be spared some sacrifice.”

The Farm Workers Organizing Committee (later to become the United Farm Workers of America) was granted a charter by the AFL-CIO on August 23, 1966

Today's Labor History

Labor History Today (8/18): Nat Turner; The Moment Was Now
Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: The R.J. Phillips Band’s "Nat Turner"; Gene Bruskin discusses his new musical play, “The Moment Was Now,” which takes place in post-civil war Baltimore in 1869, when “America almost did the right thing.” Plus an update on the fate of the Victor Arnautoff murals.

August 23
The U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations is formed by Congress, during a period of great labor and social unrest. After three years, and hearing witnesses ranging from Wobblies to capitalists, it issued an 11-volume report frequently critical of capitalism. The New York Herald characterized the Commission's president, Frank P. Walsh, as "a Mother Jones in trousers" - 1912

Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, accused of murder and tried unfairly, were executed on this day. The case became an international cause and sparked demonstrations and strikes throughout the world - 1927

August 24
The Mechanics Gazette, believed to be the first U.S. labor newspaper, is published in Philadelphia, the outgrowth of a strike by Carpenters demanding a shorter, 10-hour day. The strike lost but labor journalism blossomed: within five years there were 68 labor newspapers across the country, many of them dailies - 1827

The Gatling Gun Co. – manufacturers of an early machine gun – writes to B&O Railroad Co. President John W. Garrett during a strike, urging their product be purchased to deal with the "recent riotous disturbances around the country." Says the company: "Four or five men only are required to operate (a gun), and one Gatling ... can clear a street or block and keep it clear" - 1877

United Farm Workers Union begins lettuce strike - 1970

August 25
Birth of Allan Pinkerton, whose strike-breaking detectives ("Pinks") gave us the word "fink" - 1819

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters founded at a meeting in New York City. A. Philip Randolph became the union's first organizer - 1925

Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by any recipient; please credit Union City as the source for all news items and www.unionist.com as the source for Today’s Labor History.

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. JACKIE JETER, PRESIDENT.

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