AFL-CIO Week of Action on the PRO Act: Apr 26 – May 1, 2021

This is the national AFL-CIO's week of action on the PRO Act. Please call Senator Warner at 202-224-2023 or 703-442-0670 and ask him to co-sponsor the bill.

MWC Executive Board meeting: Mon, April 26, 2pm – 4pm

Airport Union Caucus: Mon, April 26, 2pm – 3pm

Delegate Dan Helmer will join unions representing airport and airline workers at Dulles and DCA.

Chesapeake Bay CLUW Meeting: Mon, April 26, 7pm – 9pm

Special guest - Donna Edwards, President of MD State and DC AFL-CIO, with an update on the legislation happening in Annapolis and answer questions.

Prince William County Labor Caucus: Mon, April 26, 7pm – 8pm

Meeting of union members and community allies in Prince William County.

A Celebration of Spirit: Liz Davis (Viewing): Tue, April 27, 3pm – 7pm
Shiloh Baptist Church, 1500 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA (map)

George Mason University Coalition for Worker Rights: Tue, April 27, 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Coalition of faculty, students, alumni, staff and contract workers at GMU.

Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, April 27, 5pm – 7pm
RSVP here.

Missed last week’s Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here: David Stephen, MWC political director, on today’s historic House vote on DC statehood; Ginny Diamond, NoVA Labor president, on the Volvo worker strike in Dublin, VA; Lane Windham, Kalmanovitz Initiative Associate Director, on Constructing a New Social Compact: A Public Forum on Empowering the Post-Pandemic Working Class, April 28 – May 1, 2021. Plus D.C. Vote by the Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band.

Report from the Dublin picket line
"More than 3,000 workers are on strike [in Dublin, VA] to preserve the benefits and pay that have been eroding in recent decades, so that the middle class can survive for future generations," reports NoVA Labor president Ginny Diamond, who led a delegation to walk the picket line with UAW Local 2069 last Friday. "The workers are staying strong," Diamond added. NoVA also delivered a check for $1,500.
photo courtesy NoVA Labor; more photos here.

Forum aims to empower the post-pandemic working class
Register now for the upcoming convening, "Constructing a New Social Compact: A Public Forum on Empowering the Post-Pandemic Working Class?" Next week the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor will host hundreds of activists, workers, scholars, and students “for a series of conversations on how we can forge a New Social Compact for racial, social, and economic justice.” The forum runs Wednesday, April 28-Saturday, May 1, with over twenty panel and plenary conversations on immigration, climate change, care work, collective bargaining, and many more topics. See the full schedule here. Speakers include organizers and leaders with unions and community organizations, scholars and academics, economists, advocates, and workers. See a list of featured speakers here. Hear more on last week’s Your Rights At Work radio show.

Today's Labor Quote: Lane Windham

"How should we structure our social compact? What should the rules be? The moment is right to revisit that and to have a new conversation and this time we can build one that centers working people, that centers working families and their communities, and that addresses some of the structural racism, structural sexism that we've had in our current system."

Windham is Associate Director of Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative, which is hosting the Constructing a New Social Compact forum (see above)

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Mourn for the dead, fight like hell for the living! Last week’s show: Ludlow: My name is Louis Tikas.

The U.S. House of Representatives passes House Joint Resolution No. 184, a constitutional amendment to prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age. The Senate approved by the measure a few weeks later, but it was never ratified by the states and is still technically pending - 1924

On the orders of President Roosevelt, the U.S. Army seizes the Chicago headquarters of the unionized Montgomery Ward & Co. after management defies the National Labor Relations Board - 1944

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