MD State and DC AFL-CIO 2021 Maryland General Assembly Legislative Conference: Mon, December 21, 1pm – 3pm
A brief overview and discussion of the major aspects of the 2021 MD General Assembly and broad issues impacting labor. This year’s conference will be held via Zoom. There is no fee to attend, however you must register in advance to receive the link to join. Materials for the conference will be emailed to all registered attendees prior to start of conference.

Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, December 22, 2pm – 4pm
Election for 2nd Vice President and Saul Schniderman sings his annual holiday labor song, affiliate reports and more.

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work ("A Red Carol"): Thu, December 24, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online
This week's show: "A Red Carol," the new radio drama from the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work (Labor music call-in): Thu, December 31, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online
This week's show: See out the old year and ring in the new with your favorite labor songs! Call in with your requests: 202-588-0893

UC on holiday hiatus: Union City will next appear on Monday, January 4. Urgent updates or breaking news will be posted on our website and/or Twitter feed. We wish everyone safe and restful holidays and look forward to a happier New Year in 2021.

Missed yesterday's Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here; A Red Carol; Workers in holiday movies. The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s Daniel Savio, on A Red Carol, their version of the Dickens classic, which airs next week on Christmas Eve at 1pm on Your Rights At Work. Plus: Kathy Newman discusses the workers who make your favorite holiday movies possible.

DC teachers reach agreement on returning to schools
The Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) last night announced an agreement with DC Public Schools on a Memorandum of Agreement that lays out conditions needed to return to in-person learning.
“DC teachers miss our students and recognize that many have struggled to adapt to distance learning,” said WTU President Elizabeth Davis. “Reopening our schools won’t be a return to normal; we are committed to finding ways to best support our students who have struggled the most during the pandemic.” The agreement is effective through the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year or through the end of the COVID-19 pandemic health emergency, whichever is sooner. It calls for increased transparency around facility walk-throughs, ensuring that Local School Advisory Teams (LSAT’s), bodies elected to represent school communities, and other members of local school communities are able to verify that facilities are ready to reopen. “The safety of our students, school–based staff, and communities must remain our top priority,” Davis continued. “As we move forward, it is critical that our individual schools are open about the work that has been done to ensure proper air circulation and other protections are in place in every school building before it reopens to in-person learning. We must take every precaution and build trust that we’ve done all that is possible to safeguard our communities.”

Sunday deadline for shutdown lawsuit
Federal employees who worked during the 2018-2019 government shutdown must join the lawsuit by this Sunday, December 20, to be eligible for damages. Click here to join. Heidi Burakiewicz and the law firm Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch, in conjunction with AFGE, filed the first lawsuit against the U.S. government related to the 2018-2019 shutdown on behalf of federal employees who were forced to work without pay. The deadline to sign up to be a plaintiff -- the case covers all eligible affected federal employees -- in this lawsuit has been extended to December 20. Employees who fail to sign up may be ineligible to participate or receive damages.

Georgia AFT leader headlines Monday’s MWC rally/phonebank
Georgia Federation of Teachers President Verdaillia Turner will be the special guest at the Metro Council’s final “Virtual rally and phonebank” Monday at 6p for Georgia’s senate run-off before the holiday break. “Sister Turner (below) will give us an update on how things are looking on the ground in Georgia and provide insight into what we need can do to help win in Georgia!” says MWC Political and Legislative Director David Stephen. “We are encouraging everyone to join us Monday, even you cannot phone bank,” adds Stephen. Register here. If you would like to phone bank with the MWC before the holidays, you can make calls anytime Monday-Wednesday 9:00a-7:00p ET; email [email protected] for details.

From Protest to Power: Save the Date
“We’re done talking about what 2020 has taken from us,” says Nakisha Lewis, Director of Civil, Human and Women's Rights at the AFL-CIO. “Let’s talk about what we built together. Let’s talk about what we’ll fight for in 2021.” Thousands of organizers and activists protested across the country, demanding to be heard as they said, “Black Lives Matter.” Millions of people elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House, winning a labor-friendly administration and the first African American and Indian American woman as vice president. With that inspiration, the theme for the 2021 Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil and Human Rights Conference is From Protest to Power: When We Fight, We Win. “On Jan. 15 and 16, we will gather virtually to build on our victories and strategize about the continued fight for economic and racial justice with—and also within—the labor movement,” says Lewis. The conference will be free of charge, and all sessions and trainings will be held online so that everyone can attend safely.

Today’s labor quote: Brian Young

“The more nervous you are about the reaction of your organization, the more you probably need a union.”

Young is the former union member and activist who’s now president of Action Squared, whose employees organized with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union and recently ratified their first union contract.

Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Paul Robeson and the 1948 Library of Congress cafeteria workers’ strike: With 95% of DC’s hotel and restaurant workers out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we look back at the history of cafeteria workers’ struggle at the Library of Congress for a union and how singer and activist Paul Robeson supported their 1948 strike. Plus: AFSCME's Lillian Roberts tells how a showdown with NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller over the right of state workers to organize led to her being jailed for two weeks in December, 1968; Mark Bradley, author of Blood Runs Coal, about the brutal 1968 murder of Jock Yablonski and his family by United Mineworkers president Tony Boyle, and how it inspired a surge in union democracy; The Beginning of the End of Apartheid.
Last week’s show: America’s last general strike. photo: mass picket outside the Federal Works Administration during the 1948 cafeteria strike.

December 18
General Motors announces it is closing 21 North American plants over the following four years and slashing tens of thousands of jobs - 1991

December 19
An explosion in the Darr Mine in Westmoreland Co., Penn. kills 239 coal miners. 71 of the dead share a common grave in Olive Branch Cemetery. Dec 1907, was the worst month in US coal mining history, with over 3,000 dead - 1907

A 47-day strike at Greyhound Bus Lines ends with members of the Amalgamated Transit Union accepting a new contract containing deep cuts in wages and benefits. Striker Ray Phillips died during the strike, run over on a picket line by a scab Greyhound trainee - 1983

26 men and 1 woman are killed in the Wilberg Coal Mine Disaster near Orangeville, Utah. The disaster has been termed the worst coal mine fire in the state’s history. Federal mine safety officials issued 34 safety citations after the disaster but had inspected the mine only days before and declared it safe - 1984

December 20
Delegates to the AFL convention in Salt Lake City endorse a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote - 1899.

The first group of 15 Filipino plantation workers recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association arrive in Hawaii. By 1932 more than 100,000 Filipinos will be working in the fields - 1906

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) takes effect today - 1970

Thousands of workers began what was to be a two-day strike of the New York City transit system over retirement, pension and wage issues. The strike violated the state’s Taylor Law; TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint was jailed for ten days and the union was fined $2.5 million - 2005

- David Prosten

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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.

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