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
Airport Union Caucus: Wed, August 12, 2pm – 3pm
Meeting for unions representing airport and airline workers.
Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, August 12, 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Via Zoom
Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, August 13, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online
Guests include Christopher Martin, author, "No Longer Newsworthy: How the Mainstream Media Abandoned the Working Class" and Gary Jones, Working-Class Studies Association 2020 awards judge.
Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, August 13, 6pm – 7pm
Facebook Live
Coalition to Repeal "Right to Work": Fri, August 14, 7pm – 9pm
Zoom
Labor In The News: DC union members' voices
Protesting racism: “If you don’t respect black people, you’re not going to get our money,” said UNITE HERE Local 25 member Joseph Tolbert III in The Washington Post last month. Tolbert has been organizing a series of protests in response to a racist incident at the Fish Market of Maryland in Clinton. photo: Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post
Exposing exploiters: “There were days when we went to work and had a total of eight tables come in for brunch,” Patricia Namyalo, a 38-year-old immigrant from Uganda and UNITE HERE 25 member, told The New York Times in June. “And that’s supposed to be shared among four people.” In the story exploring how the ultra-rich are exploiting workers during the COVID-19 crisis, Namyalo recalled when business began to dwindle in early March, before the city’s shutdown went into effect, and well before members of Congress, who sometimes dine at the hotel, recessed for the crisis.
#LaborStories: SEIU 32BJ member Veronica F. Morris – a housekeeper at George Washington University – was featured on the recent #LaborStories series on New York City’s Working Theater’s Facebook page. “I work in Gelman Library, where I keep everything sanitized and clean,” Morris said.
Hearing From Our Heroes: UFCW/MCGEO 1994 Shop Steward Audra Dugue told her story of being a frontline worker during the pandemic on "Hearing from Our Heroes," an event about the Heroes Act sponsored last Thursday by the Montgomery County Democratic Party Labor Advisory Committee. Also on the Zoom call were Maryland Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, along with Representatives Jamie Raskin, John Sarbanes, and David Trone. The keynote speaker was Virginia Representative Bobby Scott. "Audra exemplifies the outstanding rank and file leadership that makes our union strong," said Local 1994 President Gino Renne.
DC BOE hiring election workers
The DC Board of Elections (DCBOE) is recruiting 2,000 District residents to serve as Election Workers for Early Voting Week, starting Tuesday, October 27 - November 2, 2020, and the November 3, 2020 General Election. DCBOE needs responsible and reliable people to assist voters and to ensure a smooth voting process at polling locations throughout the city. Election Workers can earn up to $600, and training is provided. Returning citizens released from incarceration are strongly encouraged to apply. People interested in becoming an Election Worker should complete the online application; you can also contact the Call Center at 202-741-5283 or [email protected] for more information.
2020/2021 MWC Directory updates due
The Metro Washington Council's annual Directory of Local Unions is widely read and used by area reporters and political leaders, as well as throughout the local labor community. To ensure that your local's latest information is included in the upcoming 2020/2021 edition, click here, review your local's information, and email any updates to us at [email protected]
DEADLINE FOR ALL UPDATES: COB FRIDAY, AUGUST 21.
Questions? email [email protected] or call Chris Garlock at 202-974-8153.
Today’s Labor Quote: Lillian Russell
“We all have a fear of the unknown. What one does with that fear will make all the difference in the world.”
Actress and former chorus girl Lillian Russell's financial support helped the chorus girls in the Ziegfield Follies create their own union, the Chorus Equity Association on this date in 1919.
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Remembering Gene Debs; Waging Peace
Shubert Sebree remembers Eugene Debs. Professor Laura McEnaney, author of Postwar: Waging Peace in Chicago, on the fate of labor's complex New Deal coalition and connecting the essential workers of the 1940s with those fighting today’s war against the pandemic.
Plus Joe Glazer and The Ballad of Eugene Victor Debs, and this week’s Labor History in 2: Workers Pay the Price for Bad Management
Last week’s show: No longer newsworthy?
August 12
The national Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners is founded in Chicago in a gathering of 36 carpenters from 11 cities - 1881
What was to become a 232-day strike by Major League Baseball players over owners' demands for team salary caps began on this day; 938 games were cancelled - 1994
August 13
Striking miners at Tracy City, Tenn., capture their mines and free 300 state convict strikebreakers. The convicts had been "leased" to mineowners by officials in an effort to make prisons self-supporting and make a few bucks for the state. The practice started in 1866 and lasted for 30 years - 1892
Newspaper Guild members begin three-month strike of Hearst-owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer, shutting the publication down in their successful fight for union recognition - 1936
Civil rights leader and union president A. Philip Randolph strongly protests the AFL-CIO Executive Council's failure to endorse the August 28 "March on Washington" - 1963
- David Prosten
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. DYANA FORESTER, PRESIDENT.
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