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
Universal Paid Family Leave: DC Council Committee on Labor & Workforce Development: Fri, January 22, 9am – 12pm
Andrew Washington service: Fri, January 22, 11am – 1pm
Live-streamed online
Coalition to Repeal Right-to-Work: Fri, January 22, 7pm – 9pm
STRIKE FOR THE COMMON GOOD: Fighting for the Future of Public Education: Monday, January 25⋅5:00 – 7:00pm
With editor Becky Kolins Givan, Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University and Joseph A. McCartin, Professor of History & Director, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and Working Poor, Georgetown University. REGISTER HERE
Biden fires Trump's union buster at the NLRB
President Joe Biden’s busy first day on the job Wednesday included firing Peter Robb, general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Robb is a former management lawyer who helped Ronald Reagan bust the air traffic controllers union, launching a tidal wave of union busting that’s decimated the American labor movement. Labor celebrated Robb’s dismissal and hailed it as a welcome departure from the Trump administration’s anti-worker policies. “It’s proof this administration is putting workers ahead of giant corporations and their cronies,” said CWA organizer Emma Kinema. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka added that Robb had “mounted an unrelenting attack for more than three years on workers’ right to organize and engage in collective bargaining.” Read more here and hear labor historian Joe McCartin discuss this on yesterday’s Your Rights At Work show here.
IATSE 22 members help stage a flawless inauguration
Despite the pandemic and extremely strict security measures in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill, members of the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are to be congratulated on what was in the end a technically perfect production. While relatively few were allowed to attend the ceremony in person, millions around the world watched it on TV or heard it on the radio. Pictured above, members of IATSE Local 22 installed thousands of flags on the National Mall. “For many of my IATSE union kin, this is the first work that has been available since March 1, 2020,” member Andrea Blackwelder Stanley told Tory Daily. “In many ways, the display represents opportunity. Opportunity to earn a living wage and to make something beautiful to lift the hearts and spirits of a nation that is mourning so much loss and division. To me, it represents all the people of the U.S. coming together as one to be healed.” IATSE said on Twitter that it was proud to present a union-made inauguration.
- AFL-CIO Daily Brief
CWA Local 2336 officers sworn in
CWA District 2-13 Vice President Edward F. Mooney swore in Local 2336's Executive Officers virtually earlier this month. President Terry Garner (bottom left), Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Mullikin, and VP Ray Daniels resume their offices, and Melissa Smith-Kupihea is the newly-elected Executive Vice President. CWA Local 2336 represents workers at Verizon; AT&T Mobility; AVAYA; Catholic Charities; the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, D.C.; and UPO in Washington, D.C.
Labor Quote: President Joe Biden
“(I’ll be) the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.”
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Stand! The new hit labor musical
Last week’s show: The Vancouver Island Coal Strike; Skyscraper Labor.
January 22
Indian field hands at San Juan Capistrano mission refused to work, engaging in what was probably the first farm worker strike in California - 1826
Birth of Terence V. Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor - 1849
The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, OH with the merger of the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National progressive Miners Union - 1890
Five hundred New York City tenants battle police to prevent evictions - 1932
January 23
10,000 clothing workers strike in Rochester, NY for the 8 hour day, a 10% wage increase, union recognition, and extra pay for overtime and holidays. Daily parades were held throughout the clothing district and there was at least one instance of mounted police charging the crowd of strikers and arresting 25 picketers. Six people were wounded over the course of the strike and one worker, 18 year old Ida Breiman, was shot to death by a sweatshop contractor. The strike was called off in April after manufacturers agreed not to discriminate against workers for joining a union - 1913
January 24
Krueger Cream Ale, the first canned beer, goes on sale in Richmond, Va. Pabst was the second brewer in the same year to sell beer in cans, which came with opening instructions and the suggestion: "cool before serving" - 1935
Federal minimum wage increases to 75¢ an hour - 1952
- David Prosten
Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by any recipient; please credit Union City as the source.
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.
Story suggestions, event announcements, campaign reports, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space; just click on the mail icon below. You can also reach us on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on those icons.
|
