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

Virtual Phone Bank and Best Practices training session: Wed, September 30, 2:30pm – 4:00pm
Register here

NoVA Labor Arts Caucus: Wed, September 30, 3pm – 5pm
Contact Jess Speaker at [email protected] for the link.

Virtual Phone Bank for Cameron Webb: Wed, September 30, 5:30pm – 7:30pm

Manufacturing Hands: Japanese Robotics and Human Labor: Wed, September 30, 5:30pm – 7:00pm
RSVP here

MD/DC AFL-CIO Labor 2020 phonebank (OH): Wed, September 30, 6pm – 9pm
Sign up here

Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, September 30, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Contact [email protected] for the zoom link.

Rally today for service & jobs at Amtrak
The rail labor unions at Amtrak are holding a rally today (See Calendar for details) to urge Congress to provide funding to save jobs and protect rail service. "Amtrak is a national rail service that supports good union jobs and a strong local economy,” says Herbert Harris, Jr, State Chairman, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen / IBT. “Congress should provide the additional funding to keep Amtrak viable and serving our country."

Make the call, make a difference
With just over a month to Election Day, local union members can find out how they can help elect local labor candidates at today’s Virtual Phone Bank training session. “This is basic grassroots labor activism and as we navigate through this pandemic, every call you make could well be the difference on November 3,” says MWC Political Director David Stephen. Sign up here now and find out more!

CSA launches Holiday Basket Program
With a record number of area families struggling with increased hardships this year due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community Services Agency is launching its 2020 Holiday Basket Program. “The need has never been greater,” said CSA Executive Director Sonte DuCote. This program provides support to needy union and community families for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Local unions and community members can support the program by donating gift cards and grocery store cards from union grocers like Giant and Safeway to the Community Services Agency. Local unions and CSA partners may also adopt needy families for the Christmas holidays. For more information email [email protected] or click here to donate online.

Today’s Labor Quote: Mother Jones

“’The first thing is to raise hell,’ says I. ‘That’s always the first thing to do when you’re faced with an injustice and you feel powerless. That’s what I do in my fight for the working class.’”

On this date in 1899, Jones, who was 70 at the time, organized the wives of striking miners in Arnot, Pennsylvania to descend on the mine with brooms, mops and clanging pots and pans. They frightened away the mules and their scab drivers. The miners eventually won their strike.

Today's Labor History

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: “Despotism on Demand”
Sociologist Alex Wood on the history of the relationship between bosses and workers and how that’s playing out in the age of COVID-19. On Labor History in 2: The Wreck of The Old ‘97.
Last week’s show: Escape on the Pearl; Black Labor Week

29 strike leaders are charged with treason – plotting "to incite insurrection, rebellion & war against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" – for daring to strike the Carnegie Steel Co. in Homestead, Pa. Jurors refuse to convict them - 1892

Railroad shopmen in 28 cities strike the Illinois Central Railroad and the Harriman lines for an 8 hour day, improved conditions and union recognition, but railroad officials obtain sweeping injunctions against them and rely on police and armed guards to protect strikebreakers - 1915

Black farmers meet in Elaine, Ark. to establish the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices. They are shot at by a group of whites, and return the fire. News of the confrontation spread and a riot ensued, leaving at least 100, perhaps several hundred blacks dead and 67 indicted for inciting violence - 1919

- David Prosten

Hiring Hall

Plus dozens more DC-area union jobs; click here!

Misc
Business Analyst, IUPAT (International Union of Painters and Allied Trades) (Posted: 9/22/2020)

Organizing
Digital Rights Organizer, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicine and Knowledge Economy Group, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 9/23/2020)

Political
Political Coordinator, ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 689) (Posted: 9/28/2020)

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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