Missed yesterday's Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here: Why “Work Won’t Love You Back”; Sarah Jaffe on her new book; AFGE’s Richard Loeb on President Biden revoking Trump’s Executive Orders targeting federal workers’ rights; Sophia Miyoshi, Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC Lead Organizer, on the upcoming webinar on Your Rights At Work In A Pandemic.
SEIU members demand reinstatement of fired VA janitors
Earlier this month, the Catholic Labor Network supported janitors in Northern Virginia fighting to get their jobs back. While SEIU Local 32BJ represents more than 90% of commercial building janitors in markets such as Boston, New York, and Washington, DC, much of the workforce in adjoining suburbs such as Northern Virginia remains unorganized, where union contractors face heavy pressure from low-wage nonunion competitors. That’s exactly what happened at an office building on Old Gallows Road in Vienna, Virginia recently when nonunion contractor K&S – which has a history of labor problems -- took over the cleaning contract from a union firm and immediately fired the existing cleaning staff. During a rally in early January, union members demanded that K&S reinstate the fired workers and join the union’s master contract. After picketing the building, activists went to the K&S offices to deliver a petition but were blocked from meeting with management. The local plans to continue pressing the company to improve the treatment of their employees.
- Adapted from a report on The Catholic Labor Network website
Evening with Labor rescheduled to November
With the pandemic continuing to rage across the country and around the world, the Metro Washington Council’s Evening with Labor has been rescheduled for Friday, November 12. “We had very much hoped to be able to gather in solidarity and celebration in April,” said EWL Chair George Farenthold. “We have a great deal of confidence in the Biden/Harris administration’s plans to vaccinate millions of Americans in the next few months, but we want to be absolutely sure that such a large gathering will be safe for us all, so we’ll look forward to seeing everyone in November.”
Solidarity Center Report: The Union Difference on Guatemala Banana PlantationsUnionized workers on #Guatemala banana plantations earn more, work fewer hours, face less sexual harassment and have safer workplaces, according to a new Solidarity Center report. Working conditions are very similar to modern slavery at the two-thirds of Guatemalan banana plantations not unionized, says César Humberto Guerra López, national secretary of labor and conflicts for SITRABI (Union of Banana Workers of Izabal). Some 39 percent of all bananas sold in the United States are produced in Guatemala. Find out more at Solidarity Center.
Labor Quote: Dolly Parton
9 to 5, yeah
They got you where they want you
There's a better life
And you dream about it, don't you
It's a rich man's game
No matter what they call it
And you spend your life
Puttin' money in his wallet
Dolly Parton hit number one on the record charts on this date in 1981 with "9 to 5," her anthem to the daily grind.
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The People, No.
Kansas City native Thomas Frank talks with the Heartland Labor Forum radio show about his new book about American populism, the long trail of elites who hate it, why pundits called Donald Trump a populist and why he’s nothing of the kind. Harvey J. Kaye on The Fight for The Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and The Greatest Generation Truly Great, from Empathy Media Lab. And on Labor History in 2:00, Rick Smith tells us about Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.
Last week’s show: Stand! The new hit labor musical.
January 29
Responding to unrest among Irish laborers building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Pres. Andrew Jackson orders first use of American troops to suppress a labor dispute - 1834
Six thousand railway workers strike for union and end of 18-hour day - 1889
Sit-down strike helps establish United Rubber Workers as a national union, Akron, Ohio - 1936
Newly-elected President Barack Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier for women and minorities to win pay discrimination suits - 2009
January 30
The Paris Peace Conference establishes the Commission on International Labour Legislation to draft the constitution of a permanent international labor organization, founding the International Labour Organization (ILO). Today, as part of the United Nations, the ILO is charged with drafting and overseeing international labor standards. -1919
January 31
Ida M. Fuller is the first retiree to receive an old-age monthly benefit check under the new Social Security law. She paid in $24.75 between 1937 and 1939 on an income of $2,484; her first check was for $22.54 - 1940
After scoring successes with representation elections conducted under the protective oversight of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the United Farm Workers of America officially ends its historic table grape, lettuce and wine boycotts - 1978
photo: Bust of Cesar Chavez in the Oval Office, January 21, 2021
Union and student pressure forces Harvard university to adopt new labor policies raising wages for lowest-paid workers - 2002
Five months after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans school board fires every teacher in the district in what the United Teachers of New Orleans sees as an effort to break the union and privatize the school system - 2005
- David Prosten
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