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Teamsters 639 ready to strike Capitol Paving

Census janitors protest layoffs, cutbacks

DC workers demand Hero Pay

"Good Trouble" vigil for democracy

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

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

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

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, July 15, 1pm - 2pm

WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online.

Baltimore Labor Council meeting: Thu, July 15, 7pm - 9pm
Email for call-in details: mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

[link removed] NoVA Labor Monthly Meeting: Thu, July 15, 7pm - 8pm

The agenda will include presentations by Virginia AFL-CIO President Doris Crouse-Mays, AFL-CIO Political Director Julie Hunter, and NATCA's Bob Zabel and John Carr on Labor's 2021 political program. We will also hear updates on the strikes at Volvo and Met Warrior, and from union representatives of our women's professional soccer team, Washington Spirit. NoVA Labor meetings are open and take place every third Thursday at 7 pm except in August.

'Who Killed Vincent Chin?' and 'Complicit' - Free On-Demand Screenings 7/16-7/18
[link removed] FREE; CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Multi-employer Job Fair (sponsored by UNITE HERE Local 7): Fri, July 16, 12:00pm - 4:30pm
Camden Yards "Warehouse"; 333 W. Camden Street, Baltimore, MD ([link removed] map)

Good Trouble: DC Candlelight Vigil for Democracy: Sat, July 17, 8pm - 10pm

Black Lives Matter Plaza Northwest, Black Lives Matter Plz NW, Washington, DC, USA ([link removed] map)

Understanding AAPI Hate: Building A Movement of Solidarity and Resistance: Sun, July 18, 7pm - 8pm
Join the Live Filmmaker Q&A on July 18th: Understanding AAPI Hate: Building A Movement of Solidarity and Resistance

In connection with 'Who Killed Vincent Chin?' and 'Complicit' - Free On-Demand Screenings 7/16-7/18
Directors Christine Choy (Who Killed Vincent Chin?) and Heather White (Complicit) address the issue of Anti-Asian hate crimes. Moderated by Virginia Rodino of APALA Maryland. Sunday, July 18th at 7:00pm EST. Shortlink: [link removed] bit.ly/VCPanelWUFF10

Click here to check out the latest [link removed] Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly: Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio/Podcast Network.

Teamsters 639 ready to strike Capitol Paving
Teamsters Local 639 drivers at Capitol Paving have voted unanimously to go on strike at the company. The workers, who are expecting to reject the company's "last, best and final" offer later this week, are doing so because of the company's attempt to cut their health care benefits in order to increase profits. "Capitol Paving is a company that has - in addition to clients in the private sector - substantial contracts at the local, state and federal level," said Bill Davis, Local 639 Secretary-Treasurer. "They can afford to keep their staff on their current health care plan, but they want us to switch to a plan with worse coverage in order to pad their balance sheet. As a company that is often hired at the behest of taxpayers, they have a responsibility to act as a good community partner, and that's what we are calling on them to do by dropping this proposal." Unless the company changes its proposed offer, the union says workers will be picketing outside of the company's facilities as early as next week.

Census janitors protest layoffs, cutbacks
Janitors who would usually be cleaning at the Census Bureau will be outside at 1p today protesting layoffs and cuts in working hours by Alutiiq Logistics and Maintenance. The janitorial contractor shares a parent company (Alutiiq, LLC) with subsidiaries that settled nearly $2 million in fraudulent kickback schemes and false claims charges, while another subsidiary potentially put U.S. soldiers' lives at risk, says SEIU 32BJ, which represents the workers. "Alutiiq is dragging standards down and setting a precedent that allows federal contractors to follow a race to the bottom," said Local 32BJ Vice President Jaime Contreras.

DC workers demand Hero Pay
"I'm speaking for everyone that's an essential worker that's still working through the pandemic; we strongly urge the DC City Council to pay us the Heroes Pay Act." That's Dante, a supermarket worker at a Ward 4 Safeway. His was just one of the voices at a press conference yesterday as frontline essential workers joined with union and community leaders to urge the DC City Council to fully fund $20 million dollars for the Heroes Pay Act of 2021, which will provide a much-needed one-time payment to tens of thousands of private sector essential workers who risked their health and their lives by working during the pandemic. Check out yesterday's press conferencehttps://www.facebook.com/DCJWJ/videos/336353901301987 here.

"Good Trouble" vigil for democracy
The one-year anniversary of the passing of Rep. John Lewis will be marked this Saturday, July 17th at 8pm here and in more than 100 cities across the country, as advocates join in a candlelight vigil to honor Lewis and call for a continuation of his efforts to ensure democracy for all. Thehttps://www.facebook.com/events/560733991754285 Washington, DC "Good Trouble" vigil will take place on Black Lives Matter Plaza in front of the AFL-CIO. "Unions have a long history of staying in what Brother Lewis called `good trouble," said longtime DC voting rights activist Ann Hoffman, who serves on the Metro Washington Labor Council's Executive Board. "Voting rights are civil rights are worker rights!" The vigil call of action will include demand that Congress pass the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and D.C. Statehood.

CORRECTION: Expanded federal UI benefits are currently slated to end Sept 6, not mid-October, as originally reported ([link removed] MD WORKERS NOTCH ANOTHER WIN IN UI FIGHT, 7/14 UChttp://www.dclabor.org/home/md-workers-notch-another-win-in-ui-fight )

Today's Labor Quote: Thomas Lee

"They say that we're essential but they are not treating us as essential. I think we just need a little bit more love here."

Thomas Lee is a DC-area supermarket worker and UFCW Local 400 member.

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TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Dramatizing The Murals. [link removed] The Memphis Fire Fighter Strike of 1978. Last week's show: [link removed] The Memphis Fire Fighter Strike of 1978.

July 15

Robert Gray, an African-American sharecropper and leader of the Share Croppers Union, is murdered in Cap Hill, Alabama - 1931

Twenty-one writers for Lovestruck, a mobile app that publishes visual romance novels, go on strike against owner Voltage Entertainment USA for better wages and conditions. Three weeks later the company and the workers' union CODE, an arm of the Communications Workers of America, announce a settlement that includes "a meaningful pay raise for every single writer" and other workplace gains. 2020

July 16

Martial law declared in strike by longshoremen in Galveston, Texas - 1920

San Francisco Longshoreman's strike spreads, becomes four-day general strike - 1934

July 17

Two ammunition ships explode at Port Chicago, Calif., killing 322, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. It was the worst home-front disaster of World War II. The resulting refusal of 258 African-Americans to return to the dangerous work underpinned the trial and conviction of 50 of the men in what is called the Port Chicago Mutiny - 1944

July 18

35,000 Chicago stockyard workers strike - 1919

Hospital workers win 113-day union recognition strike in Charleston, S.C. - 1969

July 19

Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Delegates adopt a Declaration of Women's Rights and call for women's suffrage - 1848

An amendment to the 1939 Hatch Act, a federal law whose main provision prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, is amended to also cover state and local employees whose salaries include any federal funds - 1940

- David Prosten

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