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Hospital or medical debt stories wanted

Time to topple Maryland's musical monument to the Confederacy?

Today's Labor History

Today's Labor Quote

Hiring Hall: DC-area union staff jobs!

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

Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; [link removed] click here to hear today's report

Labor Radio Podcast Network livestream show: Wed, January 20, 7pm - 8pm
[link removed] Watch live on Facebook
Guests: Marc Dann, Mark McDermott, Danny Schur & Kurt Stand

Andrew Washington viewing: Thu, January 21, 12pm - 5pm
Thankful Baptist Church, 1401 Independence Ave SE Washington, DC 20003

AFSCME Council 20 Executive Director and 1st Vice President for the Metro Washington Council

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, January 21, 1pm - 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online

FILM: 9-5: The Story of a Movement: Thu, January 21, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
[link removed] Register here

Baltimore Labor Council meeting: Thu, January 21, 7pm - 9pm
Email for call-in details: mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

[link removed] NoVA Labor monthly meeting: Thu, January 21, 7pm - 9pm

[link removed] Universal Paid Family Leave: DC Council Committee on Labor & Workforce Development: Fri, January 22, 9am - 12pm

Andrew Washington service: Fri, January 22, 11am - 1pm
[link removed] Live-streamed online

[link removed] Coalition to Repeal Right-to-Work: Fri, January 22, 7pm - 9pm

Got local labor news? Email it to us today! Send tips, releases or suggestions to us at mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

Hospital or medical debt stories wanted
Have you, a family member or fellow union member been hit with crippling hospital or medical debts in Maryland? Advocates of legislation to limit the effects of such debt want to hear your story. Email David Stephen at mailto:[email protected] [email protected] or NNU's Korey Hartwich at mailto:[email protected] [email protected]. "We need to protect Marylanders from the outrageous possibility that getting sick can lead to bankruptcy, homelessness, and destitution," says Hartwich, "and every story can get us closer." MWC affiliates National Nurses United and SEIU 1199 are teaming up with community allies to support legislation proposed by Maryland Delegate Lorig Charkoudian and Senator Brian Feldman that would place tighter restrictions on medical debt lawsuits and debt collection practices, including prohibiting litigation for small amounts, blocking liens on patients' homes or first cars, requiring hospitals to offer reasonable payment plans, and banning lawsuits while appeals or applications for financial help are still pending.

Time to topple Maryland's musical monument to the Confederacy?
Calling it "racist," "dreadful" and "disgraceful," Marylanders are calling on the state's General Assembly to repeal the official state song -- written by a pro-Confederate propagandist - and replace it with one co-written by a labor musician. "For more than 80 years, our beloved Maryland has had a dreadful state song written by a pro-Confederate propagandist," says a [link removed] petition started by Labor Heritage Foundation Executive Director Elise Bryant. "It refers to Abraham Lincoln as a `Tyrant' and `Despot' and denounces the Union forces--which included thousands of loyal patriotic Marylanders--as `Northern Scum.'" Musician Steve Jones - who's written the music for two labor jazz operas -- and Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin have collaborated to re-write the song, re-titled as "Maryland My Maryland: The Free State Song," to "celebrate its natural history, its beauty, its geographic and cultural diversity, and its commitment to the struggle for freedom and justice for all, not secession and violence." The Maryland General Assembly has refused for decades to repeal the song's official designation, claiming they have nothing to replace it with. "Now we do," says the [link removed] petition.

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Today's Labor Quote: Sharon McMahon

"I was just really struck by that moment -- like, it is someone's job to clean this up so we can have democracy."

McMahon is a government teacher who once taught in Montgomery County and now lives in Minnesota. She's launched the letter writing campaign to send thank-you letters to custodians at the U.S. Capitol who cleaned up after the January 6 insurrection; email them to AFSCME Local 626 at mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

Today's Labor History
This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: Stand! The new hit labor musical. Last week's show: [link removed] The Vancouver Island Coal Strike; Skyscraper Labor.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded - 1920

Hard working Mickey Mantle signs a new contract with the New York Yankees making him the highest paid player in baseball: $75,000 for the entire 1961 season - 1961

Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown," a eulogy for dying industrial cities, is the country's most listened-to song. The lyrics, in part: "Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores / Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more / They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks / Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown / Your hometown / Your hometown / Your hometown . . ." - 1986

- David Prosten

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Hiring Hall: 9 jobs!

Plus dozens more DC-area union jobs; [link removed] click here!

Administrative
[link removed] Accountant II - General Ledger - Accounting Department, AFSCME (Posted: 1/19/2021)
[link removed] Office Assistant II - Data & Analytics Department, AFSCME (Posted: 1/13/2021)
[link removed] Administrative - Bookkeeping - Clerical, Iron Workers (Posted: 1/19/2021)
[link removed] Special Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) (Posted: 1/14/2021)
[link removed] Administrative Assistant (in support of the FCTA/FASSE), FCTA (Frederick County Teachers Association) (Posted: 1/13/2021)

Legal
[link removed] Attorney, CJNRC (Climate Jobs National Resource Center) (Posted: 1/15/2021)

Misc
[link removed] Strategic Campaigner, CJNRC (Climate Jobs National Resource Center) (Posted: 1/15/2021)

Organizing
[link removed] Bilingual Spanish Organizer (full time), ROC United (Restaurant Opportunities Centers United) (Posted: 1/15/2021)
[link removed] Union Organizers - AFT Virginia (Posted: 1/14/2021)

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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