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
NoVa Labor Office Lit Drops:
Fri, October 29, 9am – 4pm
4536 John Marr Dr. Annandale VA (map)
Contact Bob Zabel if you plan to come by and get a packet. [email protected]. 317-489-2501 DC Council Redistricting Hearings: Ward 1:
Fri, October 29, 2pm – 4pm More details here.
AFSCME Sponsored Member-to-Member Walk (NoVA Labor): Sat, October 30, 9am – 2pm
4536 John Marr Dr, Annandale, VA 22003, USA (map)
Come to NoVa Labor for a member-to-member lit drop rally. Guest Speakers:
Attorney General Mark Herring, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, AFSCME Sec/Treas Elissa McBride, Metro Washington Labor Council president Dyana Forester; Delegates Paul Krizek, Alphonso Lopez, Mark Keam, and candidate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker.
Questions: contact Bob Zabel. [email protected] 317-489-2501
Sun, October 31-Tue, Nov 2: NoVA Labor Volunteer Phone Bank: Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2021
Please click this link to register to help: Zoom Link. Trainings at 10:AM and 2:00PM. Training Zoom Link. For more info contact Bob Zabel. [email protected]. 317-489-2501
NoVa Labor Office Lit Drops: Sun, October 31, 9am – 4pm
4536 John Marr Dr. Annandale VA (map) Contact Bob Zabel if you plan to come by and get a packet. [email protected]. 317-489-2501
NOTE: CLICK HERE for the complete NoVA Labor election activity calendar listings thru Election Day (11/2). photo: UNITE HERE labor canvassers in Virginia; photo by Camucha King.
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Missed yesterday’s Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch it here or on iTunes, Spotify or your favorite podcast app! This week’s show: “Keeping Workers Safe”; "Bridging the Divide” & “A World Like This”: Michigan Congressman (& former AFL-CIO staffer) Andy Levin
remembers AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and tells us about the “Keeping Workers Safe Act” Levin just introduced in Congress. Then, Jack Metzgar on his book "Bridging the Divide” and the differences between working-class and middle-class cultures in the U.S. We wrap up with singer-songwriter George Mann
, who’s just released a brand-new CD, “A World Like This.” |
“Join us for the final push!” urges VA labor
An impressive roster of top union leaders will be leading the way in Virginia this weekend as labor enters the final stretch of its efforts to turn out the vote in Tuesday’s elections. NoVA Labor will host canvass launches on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, featuring AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride, AFT president Randi Weingarten, AFSCME president Lee Saunders, Virginia AFL-CIO president Doris Crouse-Mays and Metro Washington Labor Council president Dyana Forester
(click here for the complete schedule).
Many area political leaders will be on hand as well, including Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, Delegates Mark Keam, Paul Krizek, Alfonzo Lopez, Elizabeth Guzman, VA Lieutenant Governor candidate Hala Ayala and Alexandria Vice-Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker. Breakfast provided, and volunteers can come by and pick up a lit package any day, or register for phone banks. For more information, contact Bob Zabel, [email protected], 317-489-2501. |
Elected officials join Shoppers worker protests
Local elected officials joined Shoppers grocery store union workers
at a series of demonstrations Wednesday and Thursday to protest a lack of pay increases over the last year and cut backs to their health care benefits proposed by the company in recent contract negotiations. “We work, we sweat, we want more in our check!” the workers chanted. The 1,200 Shoppers workers are members of UFCW Local 400, which represents thousands of frontline workers in the region. “After more than a year of negotiations, during which time many of our members were forced to forego any pay raises, we have yet to make any meaningful progress on a new contract,” said Mark Federici, President of UFCW Local 400. “Now, instead of rewarding workers who have risked their health to keep these stores open during a pandemic, UNFI is proposing to slash funding for their health care benefits. Enough is enough! It’s time for UNFI to get serious.” Elected officials joining the protests included Virginia state Senator Scott Survell, VA Delegate Paul Krizek
, Maryland state Delegate Nicole Williams, Maryland Senator Jim Rosapepe and Prince George’s County Council Member Dannielle M. Glaros. Photos: Glaros (left) at New Carrollton rally; Shoppers workers rally (right). |
Bad faith in Takoma Park
The People’s Republic of Takoma Park is no workers’ paradise. That’s according to AFSCME Local 3399, which reports
that “city management has refused to negotiate in good faith” on a contract covering Takoma Park’s trash collectors, librarians, crossing guards, gardeners, police dispatchers, and recreation and arts programs organizers. At issue are not just wages and hazard pay for frontline workers who the union says “risked their health and safety to keep city services running during the pandemic,” but a personal day or holiday pay for all city employees “because the City Council refused to celebrate the Juneteenth federal holiday on June 18, 2021.” The union is urging anyone concerned – whether you’re a TP resident or not – to email the City Council at
[email protected] and City Manager Jamal Fox at [email protected]. report/photo by Chris Garlock |
Solidarity Center Report: Unions Work to Secure Tannery Jobs
Union leaders and labor rights activists are demanding the Bangladesh government secure jobs for tannery workers before taking punitive action against the industry for its role in environmental pollution. "Effective measures should be taken to protect the tannery industry and workers by bringing those responsible for the waste management crisis and pollution of the environment due to their negligence and irresponsibility,” says Tannery Workers Union (TWU) President Abul Kalam Azad. Find out more at Solidarity Center. |
Union-Made in America Halloween
Did you know that when you do your Halloween shopping, you can use the power of your paycheck to support good jobs that pay well and respect the rights of working people? Here’s a handy guide to the union-made treats that will make your holiday not only fun, but will help working people, too. |
Evening with Labor awardees: ATU 689 & IUOE 99
The 2020 Evening with Labor, rescheduled for November 12, honors those who have gone above and beyond to support and fight for the local labor movement. We’ll be featuring them this week in Union City. This Friday, October 29, is the deadline to reserve your ticket(s) and/or ad in the EWL program book; Get your ad and ticket orders in now! For ticket credit card purchases, CLICK HERE. For check payments or to avoid additional online fees,
register using this google form. Note that an option to attend virtually is available this year.
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Organizing Award
ATU 689
Local 689 organized DASH after over a decade of work, fighting back against company opposition and their union busting law firm. The campaign culminated in an almost unanimous strike vote that won the workers a contract that took them from the lowest paid fixed route operators in the region to having the highest top salaries along with an incredible 401(k). Local 689 then took its efforts to Cinder Bed Road, a recently privatized MetroBus garage, and a strike there won a contract with Transdev that raised pay, healthcare benefits, and improved working conditions, as well as an agreement with WMATA to bring the workers in-house as full WMATA employees.
IUOE 99
Local 99 won 14 major organizing victories in 2019, many at high-profile Top Secret government sites. Local 99 also won three hotel campaigns, one of which (the JD Marriott) included a non-stop bosses' campaign that featured 27 captive audience meetings in 31 days. They also won important campaigns at Audi Field, Andrews Airforce Base, the United States Department of the Interior, The Office of Personnel Management, and several large commercial sites. |
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Today’s labor quote: UFCW 400 workers at Shoppers
“We work, we sweat, we want more in our check!”
(Chant at this week's protests at Shoppers) |
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This week’s Labor History Today podcast: This week's show: Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery. Last week's show: “It Didn’t Start with Amazon: A Conversation About the History of Organized Labor in the South.”
October 29 Wall street crashes – "Black Tuesday" – throwing the world's economy into a years-long crisis including an unemployment rate in the U.S. that by 1933 hit nearly 25 percent - 1929 October 30 Ed Meese, attorney general in the Ronald Reagan administration, urges employers to begin spying on workers "in locker rooms, parking lots, shipping and mail room areas and even the nearby taverns" to try to catch them using drugs - 1986 October 31 George Henry Evans publishes the first issue of the Working Man’s Advocate, “edited by a Mechanic” for the “useful and industrious classes” in New York City. He focused on the inequities between the “portion of society living in luxury and idleness” and those “groaning under the oppressions and miseries imposed on them.” - 1829
Tennessee sends in leased convict laborers to break a coal miners strike in Anderson County. The miners revolted, burned the stockades, and sent the captured convicts by train back to Knoxville - 1891
After 14 years of labor by 400 stone masons, the Mt. Rushmore sculpture is completed in Keystone, South Dakota - 1941
The Upholsterers International Union merges into the United Steelworkers - 1949
Int'l Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors of the United States & Canada surrenders its AFL-CIO charter and is disbanded - 1971
- David Prosten.
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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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