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DC celebrates launch of Paid Family Leave, $15/hr minimum wage

Labor books: Union Steward's Complete Guide; Organizing in the Time of The Pandemic

Labor On The Move: Tim Schlittner and Carolyn Bobb top comms at AFL-CIO

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

Know Your Rights in a ReOpened DC! Wed, July 1, 4pm - 5pm
[link removed] Watch the livestream here

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, July 2, 1pm - 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online
Guest: Mike Stout, author of the new book, Homestead Steel Mill: The Final Ten Years ― Local 1397 and the Fight for Union Democracy

Metro Washington Council/CSA offices closed for holiday
Friday, Jul 3, 2020

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

Union City Summer Schedule: UC will appear Monday, Wednesday and Friday in July/August, with special editions as necessary. Follow us on [link removed] Twitter andhttps://www.facebook.com/dclabor/ Facebook for latest local labor news updates.  

[link removed] Union City Radio Podcast Extra: Remembering Dr. Howard Croft: The longtime social justice activist (photo above) in Washington DC -- who recently died of COVID-19 -- worked in the labor movement, taught urban studies at the University of the District of Columbia, was a fervent DC statehood advocate and supporter of prisoner rights, a passionate Health Care For All activist and a long-time member of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America. Tribute features former MWC president Jos Williams and others. Originally broadcast on To Heal DC on WPFW 89.3 FM on June 29, 2020; hosted and produced by Joni Eisenberg.

DC celebrates launch of Paid Family Leave, $15/hr minimum wage
Today marks a major milestone for workers in DC. As of July 1, DC is the first `state' in the country to pay workers a $15/hour minimum wage and just the sixth jurisdiction to guarantee workers paid leave from work to care for a new child, an ill family member, or a worker's own serious health condition. Tipped workers' base pay will also increase to $5/hour. DC Jobs with Justice, convener of the Just Pay Coalition, will host a "know your rights" webinar at 4p today (see Calendar above) to help District residents, workers, and employers understand local laws regarding paid leave, paid sick days, a $15/hour wage, wage theft prevention, job protection, and more. "Better pay and leave benefits could not come at a better time for frontline workers who have been risking so much for the District these past few months," said Dyana Forester, President of the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO. "We have been fighting for years for higher wages and better enforcement of our local labor laws to protect vulnerable workers and are proud to see this hard work paying off in ways that will advance a just recovery," said Elizabeth Falcon, Executive Director, DC Jobs With Justice. "Paid leave not only allows you to care for yourself and for those you love, it also strengthens public health and makes our economy more resilient," said Joanna Blotner, Legislative Director for DC Family and Economic Security Campaigns at Jews United for Justice.

Labor books: Union Steward's Complete Guide; Organizing in the Time of The Pandemic
The latest edition of the popular [link removed] Union Steward's Complete Guide is now available from Labor's Bookstore in both print and online versions. "No steward, from the newest to the most veteran, should go without this incredibly helpful tool that offers hands-on counsel on problems and concerns ranging from the basics of grievance handling to dealing with difficult supervisors or co-workers, to increasing membership involvement in the union." And while you're there, pick up a free download of the brand-new [link removed] Organizing in the Time of The Pandemic, in which Bill Barry says that "while the COVID-19 pandemic has been catastrophic for workers around the world, it is also a great opportunity for unions to start organizing and to rebuild the movement."

Labor On The Move: Tim Schlittner and Carolyn Bobb top comms at AFL-CIO
Tim Schlittner and Carolyn Bobb have been appointed Communications Director and Deputy Communications Director, respectively. They'd both been serving in acting capacities. "Under Tim and Carolyn's leadership, the Communications Resource has responded in unprecedented fashion to the three crises facing America, working closely with AFL-CIO officers, staff, affiliates and state and local bodies to amplify the voices of working people in the press, online and everywhere the national debate is being shaped," said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. Schlittner (below left), who oversaw the AFL-CIO's speechwriting operation for more than four years, previously worked at the UFCW as a communications manager and speechwriter and spent nearly a decade on Capitol Hill. Bobb (below right, with son Ryan) came to the AFL-CIO in May 2015 as a press secretary and previously logged stints with the Bricklayers, Laborers and the National Labor College.

Today's Labor Quote: Heywood Broun

"Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian."

Broun was a journalist and founder of the American Newspaper Guild, which became The Newspaper Guild, and which merged with the Communications Workers of America on this date in 1997.

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.

Steel workers in Cleveland begin what was to be an 88-week strike against wage cuts - 1885

Homestead, Pennsylvania steel strike. Seven strikers and three Pinkertons killed as Andrew Carnegie hires armed thugs to protect strikebreakers - 1892

The Amalgamated Assn. of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers stages what is to become an unsuccessful three-month strike against U.S. Steel Corp. Subsidiaries - 1901

One million railway shopmen strike - 1922

Some 1,100 streetcar workers strike in New Orleans, spurring the creation of the po' boy sandwich by a local sandwich shop owner and one-time streetcar man. "Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming," Bennie Martin later recalled, "one of us would say, `Here comes another poor boy.'" Martin and his wife fed any striker who showed up - 1929

Copper miners begin a years-long long, bitter strike against Phelps-Dodge in Clifton, Ariz. Democratic Gov. Bruce Babbitt repeatedly deployed state police and National Guardsmen to assist the company over the course of the strike, which broke the union - 1983

- David Prosten

Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by any recipient; please credit Union City as the source.

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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