CLICK HERE to listen to last week's WPFW Your Rights At Work radio show: Remembering Richard Trumka; AFL-CIO director of policy and special counsel Damon Silvers remembers his friend and colleague AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka. PLUS: The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s Tales of the Resistance Episode 5: "Passion... For Justice!"
Local labor joins “Fighting for Our Vote” rally Saturday
Local labor will add its voice to the national “Fighting for Our Vote” campaign this Saturday at 1p (see Calendar, above). “This is our chance to continue the fight for the right to vote, the cornerstone of our rights as Americans,” said Metro Washington Labor Council president Dyana Forester. Coordinated by the NAACP, the “Fighting for Our Vote” campaign focuses on access to the ballot across the nation with particular emphasis on states and cities that have passed restrictive voting laws, “with a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown voters,” said MWC political director David Stephen. The effort will mobilize members of the participating organizations – including the AFL-CIO, AFT, AFSCME, and NEA, along with the NAACP, ACLU and other advocacy organizations -- to reach out to people to urge them to register to vote and to demand that local and state elected officials adopt voter protections. “This affects us all and I urge every affiliate to get the word out and turn your members out this Saturday,” said Forester.
Virginia AFL-CIO: Workers Rally in Richmond to Urge Sen. Warner to Pass PRO Act
Union members and allies gathered outside the Richmond, Virginia, office of U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (not pictured) yesterday to urge lawmakers to support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. State Sen. Jennifer McClellan (pictured at right) came out to show her support for workers. The rally was a part of a weekly “Warner Wednesday” series across the state. Similar events are planned in the coming weeks at Warner’s offices in northern Virginia, Norfolk and more.
- AFL-CIO Daily Brief
Evening with Labor set for November 12
Evening with Labor – the Metro Washington Labor Council’s annual award dinner – has been confirmed for Friday, November 12, 2021 at Martin’s Crosswinds. “We’re so thrilled to be able to proceed with this much-anticipated gathering of the local labor movement, our friends and allies,” said MWC president Dyana Forester. Tickets and tables are still available; click here for the order form. You can also order your tickets online now with a credit card. “We’re finalizing plans for this year’s event now,” added EWL Chair George Farenthold. “Mark your calendar now and stay tuned for some exciting announcements soon!”
Today's Labor Quote: Solidarity Forever
One of the songs in the IWW’s "Little Red Song Book" first published on this date in 1909. It’s sung here by Joe Glazer.
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Trumka on the future of American labor. Last week's show: Remembering Rich Trumka (1949-2021);
August 19
Some 2,000 United Railroads streetcar service workers and supporters parade down San Francisco’s Market Street in support of pay demands and against the company’s anti-union policies. The strike failed in late November in the face of more than 1,000 strikebreakers, some of them imported from Chicago - 1917
Founding of the Maritime Trades Dept. of the AFL-CIO, to give "workers employed in the maritime industry and its allied trades a voice in shaping national policy" - 1946
Phelps-Dodge copper miners in Morenci and Clifton Ariz. are confronted by tanks, helicopters, 426 state troopers and 325 National Guardsmen brought in to walk strikebreakers through picketlines in what was to become a failed three-year fight by the Steelworkers and other unions - 1983
Some 4,400 mechanics, cleaners and custodians, members of AMFA at Northwest Airlines, strike the carrier over job security, pay cuts and workrule changes. The 14-month strike was to fail, with most union jobs lost to replacements and outside contractors - 2005
August 21
Slave revolt led by Nat Turner begins in Southampton County, Va. - 1831
August 22
Five flight attendants form the Air Line Stewardesses Association, the first labor union representing flight attendants. They were reacting to an industry in which women were forced to retire at the age of 32, remain single, and adhere to strict weight, height and appearance requirements. The association later became the Association of Flight Attendants, now a division of the Communications Workers of America - 1945
International Broom & Whisk Makers Union disbanded - 1963
Joyce Miller, a vice president of the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers, becomes first female member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council - 1980
International Longshore & Warehouse Union granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1988
August 23
The U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations is formed by Congress, during a period of great labor and social unrest. After three years, and hearing witnesses ranging from Wobblies to capitalists, it issued an 11-volume report frequently critical of capitalism. The New York Herald characterized the Commission's president, Frank P. Walsh, as "a Mother Jones in trousers" - 1912
Seven merchant seamen crewing the SS Baton Rouge Victory lost their lives when the ship was sunk by Viet Cong action en route to Saigon - 1966
Farm Workers Organizing Committee (to later become United Farm Workers of America) granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1966
The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act is modified, setting the minimum salary for exemption from overtime at $455 per week, or $23,600 per year. Employees earning less than that are now guaranteed overtime, regardless of whether they are hourly or salaried - 2004
Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, accused of murder and tried unfairly, were executed on this day. The case became an international cause and sparked demonstrations and strikes throughout the world - 1927
- David Prosten
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