TODAY'S LABOR CALENDAR; click here for latest listings
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report
D.C. Day of Action for Heroes Act: Wed, July 22, 11am – 2pm
Various; see listing
Labor Arts Caucus (NoVA Labor): Wed, July 22, 3pm – 4pm
Workers Speak Out: Public Services in the Pandemic: Wed, July 22, 3pm – 4pm
Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, July 22, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Fairfax County Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, July 22, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, July 23, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online
Episode 2 of the San Francisco Mime Troupe's "Tales of the Resistance": Can Nurse Susie find a way to deliver vital antiviral medicine while navigating hospital bureaucracy while fending off the corrupt Capitalist Healthcare Conspiracy?
Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, July 23, 6pm – 9pm
Prince George's/Montgomery County COPE Town Hall with Councilmember Tom Hucker: Fri, July 24, 12pm – 1pm
Via Zoom; RSVP here
Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, July 24, 7pm – 9pm
Nurses mourn lost lives, demand passage of HEROES Act
Gleaming even more brightly than the U.S. Capitol building behind them, 160 pairs of white nurse’s shoes bore mute testimony to the lives lost to COVID-19 at a memorial Tuesday held by National Nurses United. “How many of these frontline nurses would be here today if they had had the equipment they needed to do their jobs safely?” said NNU president Zenei Cortez, RN. Nurses – including some from the metro DC area -- gathered at the Capitol to demand that the U.S. Senate pass the HEROES Act, which would provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and regulatory protections for frontline health care workers. The House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act on May 15 “but Senator Mitch McConnell has sat on his hands as the pandemic has surged and nurses and other health care workers have gone without the proper PPE, causing many to get sick and die,” said Cortez.
Local “Strike for Black Lives” supports HEROES Act
Tens of thousands of workers nationwide walked off the job Monday in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, in an effort to expose the income inequality and systemic racism that organizers said have become more entrenched during the coronavirus pandemic. The “Strike for Black Lives,” featured workers from a broad range of sectors, from the Service Employees union, to the Teamsters, Teachers and dozens of other labor and political groups. Here in DC, strikers gathered at the U.S. Capitol in support of the HEROES Act, as talks heat up over a fourth coronavirus relief package. The campaign is pressing for “an unequivocal declaration that Black Lives Matter” from both business and political leaders, and organizers called on businesses to “dismantle racism, white supremacy, and economic exploitation,” and ensure access to union organizing.
Paying it forward
“I would like to thank all of the unions and foundations for their generosity and their hard-working members,” AFSCME Local 709 member Kenneth Mitchell wrote to the Community Services Agency this week in a hand-written note after receiving aid from CSA’s Emergency Assistance Fund. “”When I am back on my feet I will remember that you reached out to me and I will reach back to you with support for CSA’s United Way and DC One Fund campaigns.” Click here to donate to CSA.
Today’s Labor Quote: Oscar Wilde
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work”: the Housewives League of Detroit.
Last week’s show: 2020 Great Labor Arts Exchange contest winners!
July 22
Newly unionized brewery workers in San Francisco, mostly German socialists, declare victory after the city’s breweries give in to their demands for free beer, the closed shop, freedom to live anywhere (they had typically been required to live in the breweries), a 10-hour day, six-day week, and a board of arbitration - 1886 photo: workers at the Wunder Brewery in San Francisco
A bomb was set off during a "Preparedness Day" parade in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring 40 more. Tom Mooney, a labor organizer, and Warren Billings, a shoe worker, were convicted of the crime, but both were pardoned 23 years later - 1916
July 23
Anarchist Alexander Berkman shoots and stabs but fails to kill steel magnate Henry Clay Frick in an effort to avenge the Homestead massacre 18 days earlier, in which nine strikers were killed. Berkman also tried to use what was, in effect, a suicide bomb, but it didn't detonate - 1892
Northern Michigan copper miners strike for union recognition, higher wages and eight-hour day. By the time they threw in the towel the following April, 1,100 had been arrested on various charges and Western Federation of Miners President Charles Moyer had been shot, beaten and forced out of town - 1913
- David Prosten
Communications
Digital Advertising Strategist, Remote / work-from-home, Concerted Action (Posted: 7/13/2020)
Organizing
Community Organizer, based in Richmond, VA, LIUNA-MAROC (Laborers' Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizing Coalition) (Posted: 7/13/2020)
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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. DYANA FORESTER, PRESIDENT.
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