TODAY'S LABOR CALENDAR; click here for latest listings
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report Cocktails & Conversation: Ending Violence in Our DC Communities: Fri, October 22, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
2214 Rhode Island Ave NE, Washington, DC 20018-2827, United States (map)
FREE (but space is limited); RSVP here. NOTE: this event will also be livestreamed on our
Facebook page.
Coalition to Repeal "Right to Work": Fri, October 22, 7pm – 8pm Coalition of more than 50 organizations seeking to repeal the Jim Crow-era so-called "right to work" law.
UFCW Local 400 Sponsored Member-to-Member Canvass: Sat, October 23, 9am – 2pm
4536 John Marr Dr, Annandale, VA 22003, USA (map) Guest Speakers: Candidates Karrie Delaney, Marcus Simon, and Kathy Tran. Keep the momentum going for the final days of this critical election!
Questions Contact Bob Zabel. [email protected] 317-489-2501
Labor - The State of Work for Black and Brown Residents: Sat, October 23, 11:00am – 12:30pm
Via Zoom; Tickets/registration here.
Ray Scannell Celebration of Life: Sat, October 23, 3pm – 7pm
RSVP HERE
Gather in community to remember Ray Scannell
— neighbor, friend, relative, coach, and comrade. Come share a drink, a memory, a bite, and help toast Ray’s Ball Shed, the charitable fund set up in Ray’s name. |
All hands on deck in tight Virginia election
Since August, dozens of UNITE HERE hospitality workers have been knocking on tens of thousands of doors across northern Virginia, encouraging voters to elect Terry McAuliffe as governor, Hala Ayala as lieutenant governor and Mark Herring as attorney general. With polls showing an increasingly close race between McAuliffe and his Trump-backed opponent, the union is set to more than triple its efforts by bolstering its number of canvassers to 200—and knocking on more than 200,000 doors in total.
“2020 showed us once again that when we fight, we win,” said Marlene Patrick-Cooper, president of UNITE HERE Local 23. “We need to double our efforts to win this political fight in November, make Virginia a great state to be a worker, and bring thousands more workers in airports, universities and cafeterias into the union. Virginia 2021 can either be Michigan in 2016 or Georgia in 2020—it all depends on how hard we are willing to fight for the working class in the Commonwealth.” The canvassers—housekeepers, cooks, bartenders and food service workers—are fighting to keep the commonwealth from sliding backward. After electing a pro-worker governor and state legislature, Virginia passed a minimum wage increase, expanded public sector bargaining and introduced paid sick leave for home health care workers. - AFL-CIO Daily Brief |
Prince William Initiative aims to boost construction jobs
Building trades unions, community groups and elected officials on Wednesday celebrated the launch of the Prince William County Workforce Equity Initiative. The Initiative is designed to grow minority-owned businesses and to offer residents from underserved communities a pathway to the middle class through union apprenticeship programs. At Wednesday’s launch, a plan was announced to utilize construction projects for workforce development to promote economic and racial justice. Attendees included representatives from the NAACP, CASA, Muslim Assoc. of Virginia, Project Mend-a-House, IBEW, Carpenters, Painters, UA, Building Trades, NoVA Community College, NoVA Labor, and the PW Chamber of Commerce. Elected officials included Chair Wheeler, Supervisors Bailey, Boddye, and Angry, Delegates Guzman and Roem, and Senator McPike.
photo (l-r): IUPAT’s Roxy Mejia, VA State Senator McPike, NoVA Labor’s Ginny Diamond |
Watch football, support CSA
Labor football fans can now enjoy their sport and support the Metro Washington Council’s Community Services Agency. The Washington Football Team will donate $10 for each ticket sold here to the November 29 game against the Seattle Seahawks. “Come enjoy a fun-filled day with friends and family while watching some football!” says CSA Executive Director Letycia Pastrana. Purchase ten or more tickets for an additional discount. Contact Chris Carter or Letycia Pastrana ([email protected] or call 678-429-8174) directly if you have any questions or require special seating arrangements. |
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Today's Labor Quote: Lawrence Katz “I think we’ve really met a once-in-a-generation ‘take this job and shove it’ moment.”
Katz, a Harvard professor and labor economist, in the Harvard Gazette. |
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This week’s Labor History Today podcast: This week's show: “It Didn’t Start with Amazon: A Conversation About the History of Organized Labor in the South.” Last week's show: The Battle of Virden.
October 22
Bank robber Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd is killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio. He was a hero to the people of Oklahoma who saw him as a "Sagebrush Robin Hood," stealing from banks and sharing some of the proceeds with the poor - 1934 October 23 Explosion and fire at Phillips Petroleum refinery in Pasadena, Texas, kills 23 and injures 314 - 1989
Postal workers Joseph Curseen and Thomas Morris (photo above)
die after inhaling anthrax at the Brentwood mail sorting center in Washington, D.C., which has since been re-named after them. Other postal workers are made ill. Letters containing the deadly spores had been addressed to U.S. Senate offices and media outlets - 2001
October 24
Strike of Teamsters, Scalesmen and Packers in New Orleans. City trade is paralyzed; in two weeks the walkout becomes a general strike, involving more than 20,000 whites and blacks together, in support of demands for union recognition and a 10-hour work day - 1892
The first U.S. federal minimum wage – 25 cents an hour – takes effect, thanks to enactment of the Depression-era Fair Labor Standards Act. The law required an increase to 30 cents an hour one year from this date, and to 40 cents an hour on this date in 1945. The FLSA also established the 40-hour work week and forbade child labor in factories - 1938
The 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act, signed by Pres. Roosevelt two years earlier - 1940
AFL-CIO readmits Teamsters union to the labor federation, ending a 30-year expulsion for corruption. In 2005 the Teamsters again parted company with the AFL-CIO – along with a half-dozen other unions – over differences of approach on organizing and politics - 1987.
- David Prosten.
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