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
Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, February 23, 5pm – 7pm
Loudoun County Labor Caucus: Tue, February 23, 5pm – 6pm
Meeting for union members and community allies in Loudoun County.
Addressing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Workers in the German and US Metalworking Sectors: Wed, February 24, 11am – 12pm
FREE; REGISTER HERE
Achieving Economic and Racial Justice for Black Workers: Policy Priorities for 2021 and Beyond: Wed, February 24, 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Register here
Taxing the Rich and Bargaining for Racial Justice in Connecticut: Wed, February 24, 5pm – 6pm
Register here
Baltimore Labor Council meeting (rescheduled from 2/17): Wed, February 24, 7pm – 9pm
Email for call-in details: [email protected]
Fairfax County Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, February 24, 7pm – 8pm
Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, February 25, 1pm – 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online
Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, February 25, 6pm – 7pm
Meeting of Arlington union members and community allies.
Shenandoah Valley Labor Community Alliance: Thu, February 25, 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Meeting of union members and community allies in the Shenandoah Valley.
A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem: Fri, February 26, 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Missed last week's Your Rights At Work? Click here to check out Peter Cole on “Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly” and Dr. Laura Warren Hill on “Strike the Hammer: The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, New York, 1940-1970.”
UFCW 400 leader slams Kroger’s decision to close two stores to deny workers hazard pay
“Kroger’s decision to close two stores rather than provide employees with much-deserved hazard pay is nothing short of despicable," said UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federici earlier this month, after Kroger announced it would be closing grocery stores in Long Beach, CA. in retaliation for the city mandating hazard pay for grocery workers. “For nearly a year, Kroger workers have served as heroes on the front lines of this pandemic,” said Federici. “Their sacrifice has resulted in billions of dollars in profits for Kroger. But instead of sharing with the people who made those profits possible, Kroger is shamefully choosing greed over gratitude. We will not let this stand.” a major Seattle grocery chain is pressuring elected leaders to reverse a similar grocery hazard pay mandate recently passed there. Read more here.
He drove a truck in World War II, but he wasn’t allowed to drive a streetcar in D.C.
Howard Stokes went to Glen Echo thousands of times. But he never went inside the park. Stokes was a streetcar operator for the Capital Transit Co., a firm that had its own racist history: The company refused to hire Black bus drivers or streetcar operators until 1955. Howard Stokes became an operator a year later and was assigned to the No. 20 trolley line, running between Union Station and Cabin John, Md. That meant he took White patrons to a park he was barred from entering. Stokes -- who joined ATU Local 689 in 1945 -- told Washington Post columnist John Kelly. Stokes served in World War II in the 665th Quartermaster Truck Company, U.S. 9th Army; among his decorations was a citation for driving a vehicle 51 hours under enemy fire “without sleep or relief.” Local 689 says the story is a reminder “that thousands of union workers struggled together to transform transit jobs from segregated work into an engine for the Black middle class of this region.” Read more here.
Labor Quote: W.E.B. DuBois
"What a world this will be when human possibilities are freed, when we discover each other, when the stranger is no longer the potential criminal and the certain inferior!"
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Last week’s show: Remembering John Sweeney and Anne Feeney
W.E.B. DuBois, educator and civil rights activist, born - 1868
William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner began publishing articles on the menace of Japanese laborers, leading to a resolution in the California legislature that action be taken against their immigration - 1904
Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” following a frigid trip -- partially by hitchhiking, partially by rail -- from California to Manhattan. The Great Depression was still raging. Guthrie had heard Kate Smith’s recording of “God Bless America” and resolved to himself: “We can’t just bless America, we’ve got to change it” – 1940
Association of Flight Attendants granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1984
- David Prosten
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