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State workers plan Annapolis caravan today to protest budget cuts

Record turnout for Labor Town Hall with DC CM Robert White

Pride Month Profiles: Aimee Stephens, Gerald Lynn Bostock and Donald Zarda

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

[link removed] LABOR CALENDAR

Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
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2020 AFL-CIO George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award Ceremony: Tue, June 30, 10:30am - 11:30am
[link removed] Register here
Honors the Civil Human Rights Front of Hong Kong for its inspiring efforts to organize a powerful movement for democracy and human rights.

Caravan to "Fund The Frontlines": Tue, June 30, 1:30pm - 3:00pm
190 W Ostend St, Baltimore, MD 21230

DC LaborFest screening: BLOOD FRUIT: Tue, June 30, 7pm - 9pm
Free via Zoom; [link removed] RSVP here

Know Your Rights in a ReOpened DC!: Wed, July 1, 4pm - 5pm
Webinar; [link removed] RSVP here

Excluded workers and their allies rallied yesterday to demand that DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson include $30 million in the city's budget for excluded workers. photo by Susan Saudek

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This week's [link removed] Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly: Post, Coast To Coast; Thoroughbred Teamsters; Stronger Together; Unify: A Young Workers Podcast; The Break Time Breakdown; The UnionWorking Podcast

State workers plan Annapolis caravan today to protest budget cuts
Proposed budget cuts would be "absolutely devastating to the people of Maryland," says AFSCME Maryland president Patrick Moran. Multiple unions are planning a car caravan and rally tonight in Annapolis (see Calendar above), on the eve of the next Board of Public Works meeting, to show their opposition to the proposed cuts. Many of the state's departments have been short staffed for quite a while, according to AFSCME. Ashley Watson, an AFSCME union member and case management specialist for the Department of Juvenile Services, said that her department was understaffed before the pandemic. Jason Suggs, a claims associate for unemployment at the state Department of Labor in Prince George's County warns that pay cuts may drive people out of the profession. "It's hard to find people who are qualified who would want to take this job for the pay when you look at the amount of stress," said Suggs, who is president of an AFSCME local. [link removed] Read more here.

Record turnout for Labor Town Hall with DC CM Robert White
At-Large DC City Councilmember Robert White fielded a wide range of questions at Monday's Labor Town Hall, the fifth in a series organized by the Metro Washington Council's COPE. A record crowd of 40 turned out to discuss education, health, re-opening DC, policing and other issues affecting DC residents and workers. "As a parent, I'm very concerned about sending my child back into a DC school building," White said, "but as a Councilmember, I understand the urgency of re-opening our institutions and businesses."

Pride Month Profiles: Aimee Stephens, Gerald Lynn Bostock and Donald Zarda
For Pride Month, which wraps up today, the AFL-CIO has been spotlighting various LGBTQ Americans who have worked -- and continue to work -- at the intersection of civil and labor rights.
Earlier this month, they profiled Aimee Stephens, Gerald Lynn Bostock and Donald Zarda, the three plaintiffs in the 2020 Supreme Court cases that led to the landmark decision protecting the workplace rights of LGBTQ Americans. All three sued, claiming they were fired because of their sexuality; the cases were combined and earlier this month the Supreme Court sided with the LGBTQ workers, saying that firing them because of their sexuality was a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Supreme Court extended protections to millions of LGBTQ Americans because three individuals⁠--Aimee Stephens, Gerald Lynn Bostock and Donald Zarda⁠--faced discrimination and refused to accept it. That's the type of courage that Pride Month celebrates.
[link removed] Read more here.

Today's Labor Quote: the Industrial Workers of the World

"The boss needs you, you don't need him."

Founded in Chicago on this date in 1905, the IWW envisioned "a world without bosses."

Today's Labor History

This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: Why America's most radical union shut down ports on Juneteenth. Plus, Arlo Guthrie sings "The Ballad of Harry Bridges" and Elise Bryant reads "Ready To Kill," Carl Sandburg's poem about who should be memorialized in our statues.
[link removed] Last week's show: SCOTUS bans LGBTQ workplace discrimination; Queer history of the UAW.

Alabama outlaws the leasing of convicts to mine coal, a practice that had been in place since 1848. In 1898, 73 percent of the state's total revenue came from this source. 25 percent of all black leased convicts died - 1928

The Walsh-Healey Act took effect today. It requires companies that supply goods to the government to pay wages according to a schedule set by the Secretary of Labor - 1936

The storied Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, a union whose roots traced back to the militant Western Federation of Miners, and which helped found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), merges into the United Steelworkers of America - 1967

Up to 40,000 New York construction workers demonstrated in midtown Manhattan, protesting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's awarding of a $33 million contract to a nonunion company. Eighteen police and three demonstrators were injured. "There were some scattered incidents and some minor violence," Police Commissioner Howard Safir told the New York Post. "Generally, it was a pretty well-behaved crowd." - 1998

- 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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