LABOR CALENDAR
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report
“We Make Events #RedAlertRESTART” Rally on the Mall: Tue, September 1, 6pm – 10pm
National Mall, 3rd Street below Capital
“We Make Events #RedAlertRESTART” Building Lighting: Tue, September 1, 9:00pm – 11:59pm
Various buildings around DC TBA
Labor Day Weekend 2020
If you're planning a Labor Day event or activity, please let us know -- email [email protected] -- and we'll help get the word out!
Labor on WAMU’s “The Big Broadcast”: Sun, September 6, 9pm – 11pm
WAMU 88.5; or listen online
2020 “WORKERS RISING” LABOR DAY RADIO SPECIAL: Mon, September 7, 8am – 5pm
WPFW 89.3 FM; or listen online
photos: Labor contingents at Friday's Commitment March; photos by Chris Garlock
Metro Washington Council and Community Services Agency staff are teleworking; reach them at the contact numbers and email addresses here.
Missed yesterday's Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here; Labor joins the Commitment March (with WTU's Liz Davis and IUPAT's Brian Courtien); Unionbusting, vegan style.
“We Make Events #RedAlertRESTART” highlights entertainment job crisis
Because their business is rooted in large group gatherings, entertainment venues were one of the first industries to be completely shut down in early March and will be one of the last to return. Hundreds of thousands of businesses employing millions of people are at risk, warn entertainment industry unions including IATSE Local 22 here in Washington. “If we do not receive government assistance the live events industry will literally collapse,” said Local 22 president David McIntyre. Two events this Tuesday (see Calendar) will highlight – one literally -- efforts to push the RESTART Act, which would extend unemployment benefits to workers displaced by COVID-19. “We Make Events #RedAlertRESTART” will rally from 6-10p on the Mall and then from 9p-midnight, downtown buildings will be lit up with red lights, both to highlight the urgency of the crisis and to showcase the lighting skills of IATSE members.
BSO musicians reach 5-year contract
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its musicians, who are represented by the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore, AFM Local 40-543, announced on Friay that they have reached a five-year agreement on a new contract that begins on September 7. The contract provides “foundational stability” and marks the first long-term agreement since a three-year contract expired in 2016 and follows a summer-long lockout of the musicians last year. “This long term agreement will allow us to continue to attract world class musicians and will give us the freedom to concentrate on what we do best,” said BSO Players’ Committee Chair Brian Prechtl, “making sublime music that nurtures and uplifts hearts, minds and spirit.” Union Secretary-Treasurer Mary Plaine added that “We’ve come a long way in the last year and a half,” and thanked everyone who supported the musicians during the lockout, saying “You helped get us to where we are today.” Details of the agreement are here.
BSO players (left to right) Matt Barker, Andy Balio and Rene Shapiro perform at the press conference announcing the new five year contract. (Barbara Haddock Taylor / Baltimore Sun)
Today's Labor Quote: Liz Shuler
"All I can say is I understand what I can’t possibly understand. But I choose to stand. And to kneel. And raise a fist. And shed a tear. And say a prayer. And fight like hell to make real change."
At Friday's Commitment March in Washington, DC. Read her speech here.
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Cutting along the Color Line
Quincy Mills, Professor of History at the University of Maryland in College Park, talks about black barbers, the evolution of their trade, and its political meaning as a skilled form of labor.
Plus: poet Martin Espada reads his poem "Castles for the Laborers and Ballgames on the Radio," written for his friend, historian Howard Zinn. This week’s Labor History in 2: The Amistad.
Last week’s show: A travel guide to labor landmarks
August 31
The Trade Union Unity League is founded as an alternative to the American Federation of Labor, with the goal of organizing along industrial rather than craft lines. An arm of the Communist Party of the United States, the League claimed 125,000 members before it dissolved in the late 1930s - 1929
Solidarity workers movement founded as a strike coordination committee at Lenin Shipyards, Gdansk, Poland. The strike launched a wave of unrest in the Soviet Union that ultimately led to its dissolution in 1991 - 1980
325,000 unionists gathered in Washington, D.C. for a Solidarity Day march and rally for workplace fairness and healthcare reform - 1991
Detroit teachers begin what is to become a nine day strike, winning smaller class sizes and raises of up to four percent - 1999
September 1
Congress declares Labor Day a national holiday - 1894
30,000 women from 26 trades marched in Chicago's Labor Day parade - 1903
Walter Reuther, a founder of the United Auto Workers and president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations when it merged with the AFL in 1955, born - 1907
In Hawaii, some 26,000 sugar workers represented by the Longshoremen’s union begin what is to become a successful 79-day strike that shuts down 33 of the 34 sugar plantations on the islands. The strike brought an end to Hawaii's paternalistic labor relations and impacted political and social institutions throughout the then-territory - 1946
Some 20,000 Pennsylvania Railroad shop workers effectively halt operations in 13 states for 12 days. It was the first shutdown in the company's 114-year history - 1960
The AFL-CIO creates Working America, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization designed to build alliances among non-union working people - 2003
- David Prosten
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