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Hundreds of grocery workers to rally and march today for fair contract

BSO musicians reject contract offer

Today's Labor History

Today's Labor Quote

LABOR CALENDAR; [link removed] click here for latest listings

Union City Radio: 7:15a M-F; WPFW-FM 89.3

Baltimore Symphony Musicians picket line: Thu, September 12, 9:00am - 10:30am
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 1212 Cathedral St, Baltimore, MD 21201

[link removed] Rally for a Fair Contract at Giant & Safeway (UFCW 400): Thu, September 12, 11am - 1pm
Giant Food #376 (1400 7th Street NW, Washington, DC).

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, September 12, 1pm - 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online
Guests include: BSO musician Brian Prechtl; POGO's Becca Jones on the effect of Sharpiegate on federal workers; 1199's Yahnae Barner on the NLRB's ruling that Universal Health Services engaged in unfair labor practices. Plus "Case Closed" with David Schloss.

Hundreds of grocery workers to rally and march today for fair contract
After a major strike in New England earlier this year, and with a massive strike looming on the West Coast, Giant and Safeway workers are rallying this morning to say `enough is enough.' Hundreds of union members working at Giant and Safeway grocery stores will be joined by elected officials and community allies for a rally and march starting at 11a (see Calendar) to call for a fair contract in upcoming negotiations. The workers are members of UFCW Local 400 and their contracts expire on October 31st. Negotiations are expected to be contentious. This spring, 31,000 New England UFCW members struck Stop & Shop for 11 days before winning a fair contract. Stop & Shop, like Giant Food, is owned by Ahold Delhaize. "Our members make Giant and Safeway profitable and the dominant grocery chains in the Washington, D.C. area," said UFCW Local 400 President Mark P. Federici, "and they have a right to a fair contract."
photo: prepping for the march/rally; see more on Local 400's [link removed] Facebook page

BSO musicians reject contract offer
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians have voted to reject a pair of contract proposals that would have returned them to Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to open the 2019-20 season this weekend -- but at the expense of summer concerts and likely facing a hefty future pay cut, according to Brian Prechtl and Greg Mulligan, co-chairmen of the Baltimore Symphony Musicians Players Committee (Prechtl will appear on WPFW's Your Rights At Work at 1p Thursday). The musicians' vote to reject what the union spokesmen called "take it or leave it" contract options proposed by management was taken by electronic ballot Tuesday night and announced Wednesday afternoon.
Prechtl described the vote result as "overwhelmingly" against both contract options proposed by the BSO's management. No further negotiations have been scheduled, he said. The musicians have been working without a contract since January, and most have not been paid since June 14, when BSO management locked them out for the summer.
adapted from a [link removed] report in the Baltimore Sun

Upcoming activities:
Picketing continues Thursday, September 12 from 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. and Friday, September 13, 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
The Baltimore Symphony Musicians are performing a free community concert this Saturday, September 14 at 4 p.m. at the New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore.
Also, a trio of BSO musicians will perform Tuesday at 6p at the Takoma Busboys and Poets in the monthly Bread and Roses series; [link removed] RSVP here.

Today's Labor Quote: Mark Federici

"What's happened in New England and the West Coast suggest that our reasonable demands may well run into a wall of corporate greed, so we are letting management know now--before negotiations even begin--that our members are ready to do whatever it takes to gain a fair agreement. We're hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, and mobilizing for all possibilities."
photo: UFCW 400 members prep for today's march/rally

Today's Labor History

Labor History Today (9/8): Longest - and most divisive - teacher strike in NYC history
[link removed] Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. Teacher-community solidarity was the key to victory in the 2018 Los Angeles teacher's strike, but this wasn't the case in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville in 1968 when the longest teacher strike in New York City history also turned out to be its most divisive. Nick Juravich explains why.

Eugene V. Debs, labor leader and socialist, sentenced to 10 years for opposing World War I. While in jail Debs received 1 million votes for president - 1918

Jobless workers march on grocery stores and seize food in Toledo, Ohio - 1932

Forty-nine people are killed, 200 injured in explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenvil, New Jersey - 1940

New York City's Union Square, the site of the first Labor Day in 1882, is officially named a national historic landmark. The square has long been a focal point for working class protest and political expression - 1998

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. JACKIE JETER, PRESIDENT.

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