TODAY'S LABOR CALENDAR; click here for latest listings
DC Labor FilmFest: Celebrating 20 Years of Great Labor Films!
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 * NASRIN * THE NEW DEAL FOR ARTISTS
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report
George Mason University Coalition for Worker Rights: Tue, May 25, 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Faculty, Students, Alumni, Campus Employees, Contract workers united to support worker union rights.
Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, May 25, 5pm – 7pm
Latest local labor updates.
Loudoun County Labor Caucus: Tue, May 25, 5pm – 6pm
Meeting of union members and community allies in Loudoun County.
Arts Exchange “Singing Through the Hard Times”
It’s still a few weeks away but it’s never too early to start planning to attend the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange. Once again this Labor Heritage Foundation-sponsored cultural event – scheduled for June 17-20 -- will be online this year; click here for details and to register. This year’s theme is Singing Through the Hard Times, and features a celebration of the life and work of Anne Feeney, as well as workshops, and the annual Song/Poetry/Spoken Word Contest. “In the words of Mother Jones, ‘Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!’ and so we shall, with cultural expressions of solidarity to lift spirits and inspire action.”
RetroLabor: 1984
Retired Community Services Agency Executive Director – and unofficial MWC archivist/historian -- Kathleen McKirchy kicks off a new UC feature today. RetroLabor will feature your photos and stories from the DC metro area’s local labor history. Scour your attics and basements for those photos from past rallies, picket lines or, as in this case, political campaigns.
Kathleen was the MWC’s Legislative/Political Assistant in 1984 during the council’s DC COPE campaign to get out the local labor vote for Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale. She took this shot of some of the COPE activists, including (l-r) Phinis Jones (then HERE 25), Bill Saunders and Neil Buckmon (then Laborers Local 74), Bernard Demczuk (AFGE national office), Bill Simons (WTU Local 6), Paul Greenberg (MWC Treasurer), Jos Williams (MWC President), Althea Minor (Teamsters national office), Barbara Van Blake (AFT national office), and Carol Anderson (AFSCME national office).
“Although ultimately it was not a winning campaign, we got it done in DC!” says Kathleen proudly.
Got RetroLabor? Send us your local labor history photos and/or stories to us at [email protected]
Today's Labor Quote: Philip Murray
Unions were created to make living conditions just a little better than they were before they were created, and the union that does not manifest that kind of interest in human beings cannot endure, it cannot live.
Born in Scotland on this date in 1886, Philip Murray went on to emigrate to the U.S., become founder and first president of the United Steelworkers of America, and head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1940 until his death in 1952.
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Shootout in Matewan; General strike in KC. Last week’s show: Passaic textile strike & LAWCHA preview
Pressured by employers, striking shoemakers in Philadelphia are arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy for violating an English common law that bars schemes aimed at forcing wage increases. The strike was broken - 1805
Two company houses occupied by non-union coal miners were blown up and destroyed during a strike against the Glendale Gas & Coal Co. in Wheeling, W. Va. – 1925
Thousands of unemployed WWI veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. to demand early payment of a bonus they had been told would get, but not until 1945. They built a shantytown near the U.S. Capitol but were burned out by U.S. troops after two months - 1932
The notorious 11-month Remington Rand strike begins. The strike spawned the "Mohawk Valley (NY) formula," described by investigators as a corporate plan to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, employ thugs to beat up strikers, and other tactics.
The National Labor Relations Board termed the formula "a battle plan for industrial war." - 1936
The AFL-CIO begins what is to become an unsuccessful campaign for a 35-hour workweek, with the goal of reducing unemployment. Earlier tries by organized labor for 32- or 35-hour weeks also failed - 1962
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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.
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