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Workers demand Bill of Rights in DC

Vita Health workers win contract

Labor In The News: SEIU 32BJ's Jaime Contreras

Union Voice/Readers Write: NJ solidarity against MV Transportation

Today's Labor History

Today's Labor Quote

Hiring Hall: DC-area union staff jobs!!

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

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

DC Labor FilmFest: 20 Years of Great Labor Films!
[link removed] Click here for tickets. All films available now: WORK SONGS * THE LUNCHROOM * IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE * MISS MARX * THE CHAMBERMAID * THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS

"Wednesdays with Warner": Wed, May 19, 8:15am - 8:45am
Windmill Hill Park, 500 S. Lee St., Alexandria VA

Essential Workers Bill of Rights Press Conference: Wed, May 19, 11am - 12pm

Freedom Plaza, 1325 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004

Worker Cooperatives in Spain: Mondragon Corporation: Wed, May 19, 11am - 12pm
[link removed] Register Here

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, May 13, 1pm - 2pm

WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online.

LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussion: Thu, May 20, 7pm - 8pm

Join podcast hosts Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant -- and special surprise guests -- for a freewheeling discussion of the films in this year's DC Labor FilmFest!
[link removed] RSVP HERE

Baltimore Labor Council meeting: Thu, May 20, 7pm - 9pm
Email for call-in details: mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

[link removed] NoVA Labor monthly meeting: Thu, May 20, 7pm - 9pm

Workers demand Bill of Rights in DC

Local essential workers and area union and community leaders will call on DC Mayor Muriel Bowser this morning (see Calendar) to include thehttps://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-mayor-bowser-enact-the-dc-essential-workers-bill-of-rights?source=direct_link& DC Essential Workers Bill of Rights in her upcoming FY 2022 budget proposal. "As frontline workers, we're the first people you see when you go into grocery stores, hotels, office buildings," said Nyah Foster, a D.C. security officer and 32BJ SEIU member. "We're also being exposed to COVID and have to decontaminate ourselves before we get home so we don't expose our families. It's very stressful. We're in the middle of everything, but it feels like we're being left behind." The DC Essential Workers Bill of Rights Coalition includes nearly two dozen area unions and worker justice allies. The coalition is calling on Mayor Bowser to ensure that essential workers receive the increased pay and protections they need, including sick leave, hazard pay, paid bereavement leave and stronger workplace safety measures to protect against COVID-19.

Vita Health workers win contract
"Congratulations to Vita Health members for winning a great contract!" tweeted [link removed] 1199SEIU MD/DC yesterday. "Members got pay increases of 8.75% for the life of the contract, increased start rates, better health insurance , PPE language, transportation during bad weather, & more. Way to show that union power!"

Labor In The News: SEIU 32BJ's Jaime Contreras

Public health experts are still cautious, but they say this could be the beginning of the end. Fourteen months after the Washington region's first reported case of the coronavirus, daily infections and deaths are trending down as vaccinations take hold. Hospitals are seeing far fewer critically ill patients, and funeral homes are receiving fewer covid-19 victims. A union chief in D.C. says it's been two months since he's had to call a bereaved family to brief them on their loved one's life insurance policy. "The most difficult moments for me personally were those 25 calls," said Jaime Contreras, vice president of the Service Employees International Union in the capital area. "They were draining and devastating. But they've -- thank God -- they've stopped." [link removed] Read more in The Washington Post.

Union Voice/Readers Write: NJ solidarity against MV Transportation
"Please convey our best wishes to ATU for success against MV Transportation, ([link removed] MetroAccess call center workers strike)" writes Bill Henning, Business Manager for OPEIU Local 32 in Wall, NJ. "They are a really bad actor. In March of last year, they used the pandemic as subterfuge to close up shop with four days' notice, throwing a couple dozen of our members and I'm not sure how many of TWU Local 234's out of work. It was due to their trying to gouge SEPTA in Philadelphia for a more favorable contract."

Today's Labor Quote: John L. Lewis

"The organization and constant onward sweep of this movement exemplifies the resentment of the many toward the selfishness, greed and the neglect of the few."

John L. Lewis was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organization; the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, formed by the Congress of Industrial Organizations, formally became the United Steelworkers of America on this date in 1942.

Today's Labor History
This week's Labor History Today podcast:[link removed] Passaic textile strike & LAWCHA preview. Last week's show:[link removed] Sea Shanties and the Pleasure of Work

Explosion in Coal Creek, Tenn. kills 184 miners - 1902

Shootout in Matewan, W. Va. between striking union miners (led by Police Chief Sid Hatfield) and coal company agents. Ten died, including seven agents - 1920 See below for the climactic scene of John Sayles' 1987 film Matewan.

31 dockworkers are killed, 350 workers and others are injured when four barges carrying 467 tons of ammunition blow up at South Amboy, New Jersey. They were loading mines that had been deemed unsafe by the Army and were being shipped to the Asian market for sale - 1950

- David Prosten

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

Communications
[link removed] Communications Coordinator, Energy and Climate - Communications, AFL-CIO, based in Washington, DC [Headquarters] (Posted: 5/14/2021)
[link removed] Chispa Digital Campaigns Manager - Communications Department, LCV (League of Conservation Voters), based in Washington, DC (location is flexible) (Posted: 5/14/2021)

Misc
[link removed] State & Local Legislative Issues Coordinator, Renewable Energy - Political, Electoral & Issues Mobilization Hub, AFL-CIO, based in Washington, DC [Headquarters] (Posted: 5/14/2021)
[link removed] HR Associate - Payroll, Solidarity Center (5/13/21)

Organizing
[link removed] Senior Organizer - Center for Science and Democracy, UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists), based in Washington, DC (currently remote until safe to return) (Posted: 5/14/2021)[link removed] Full-Time Organizer, MARJB (Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board of Workers United/SEIU), based in Mid-Atlantic Region (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia) (Posted: 5/17/2021)

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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