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
Wednesdays with Warner:
Wed, November 3, 8:15am – 9:15am Join us for Week 33 at Windmill Hill Park, 500 South Lee St., Alexandria for cake and conversation about why workers need the right to organize unions. Collective bargaining gives workers dignity and empowers them to negotiate fair pay, paid family and medical leave, health care, workplace safety, equal pay, and retirement security. Senator Warner should sign the PRO Act.
DC Council Redistricting Hearings: Ward 6: Wed, November 3, 10am – 12pm
More details here.
Arts Union Caucus: Wed, November 3, 3pm – 4pm
Meeting for unions representing workers in the broadcast and performing arts. Updates on Strathmore, Kennedy Center, Capital One Hall, and more. |
Labor voices from Election 2021-Virginia
“When my union hotel went bankrupt, I was devastated ... [so] I went out into the streets to knock doors—it’s the same fight. I’m knocking for affordable housing, healthcare & creating new Union jobs in VA.”
—Tsehay Chereto, canvasser, Burke resident & UNITE HERE 25 member (above left)
"Workers in VA received a living wage, family healthcare, & retirement with @terrymcauliffe as governor. That’s how you build the middle class, & that is why we need his leadership again."
- LIUNA Mid-Atlantic VP Denny Martire
"The CASA in Action team is so proud of our work to empower our community. Over 69k doors were approached to engage voters to elect leaders who care for us. Here we are with our dear friend Jaime Contreras from 32BJSEIU."
CASA (photo top right)
“Through politics we organize voters, but that doesn’t stop after November 2; we will continue to organize voters and workers to ensure that one job is enough not just survive, but also to thrive.”
— UNITE HERE 23 Vice President Bert Bayou (above, bottom right)
“If Democrats continue to value the power of organizing and investing in the ground game, we can continue to elect pro-worker candidates that will enact pro-worker policies.”
— UNITE HERE 25 Political Director Sam Epps IV (below, bottom right)
“I organized my workplace almost 20 yrs ago. We did it w/hundreds of convos w/ our coworkers. It's been amazing doing the same w/ VA voters by bringing the most impt issues—wages, healthcare, housing—into focus for them.” — Heidi Hernandez, DC Local 23 leader from the Sodexo IMF cafeteria (below, left) |
EVENING WITH LABOR AWARDEES: J.C. TURNER AWARDS
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.
ERIC BUNN Eric Bunn Sr. (below left)
is National Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees, elected in April 2020 after serving three consecutive terms as District 14 National Vice President. His career in public service began when he joined the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, quickly rising to the position of President of AFGE Local 2725. Eric was then elected to AFGE’s National Executive Council as District 14 National Vice President, representing federal and D.C. government employees in the greater Washington metropolitan area as well as in Europe, serving three consecutive terms. Eric is the first local president from the District of Columbia to be elected as an AFGE National Vice President and the first to be elected as National Secretary-Treasurer. Eric Bunn has been a labor union activist for more than 35 years, working his way up through his own union, while demonstrating a true desire to carry the entire labor movement forward, including serving on the executive boards of both the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council and the NoVA Labor Council, and the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO.
|
JAIME CONTRERAS Jaime Contreras (above right)
heads 32BJ’s Capital Area District, which has over 20,000 members in the Washington D.C. metro area. Jaime has emerged as a key figure among the next generation of leaders in the labor and immigrant rights communities of the Capital Area. Jaime’s commitment to workers’ rights started at a young age: working part-time as a cleaner while a student at Bell Multicultural High School in DC, he was part of the “Justice for Janitors” team that helped drive the largest low-wage cleaners organizing effort in the history of the District as thousands of workers won wage increases and the right to a voice at work. In 2001, at the age of 27, he became the youngest Latino to hold a full-time elected position at an SEIU local. 32BJ’s Capital Area District’s membership has nearly tripled, to more than 20,000 cleaners, airport workers, security officers and other maintenance workers, since he was elected District Chairman in 2006. Jaime, who serves on the Metro Washington Council’s Executive Board, was also the first Latino president of SEIU’s Maryland and DC State Council.
|
|
|---|
|
Today’s labor quote: Tembi Hove
"We want more unions… more union jobs in Virginia. More union jobs mean better wages, better benefits.”
—UNITE HERE member Tembi Hove on why she knocked doors for Virginia democrats since August; all told, the union hit 200,000 doors in the state.
|
| |
|---|
|
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: This week's show: From the Necropolis Strike to Striketober. Last week's show: “Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery"
Striking milk drivers dump thousands of gallons of milk on New York City streets - 1921
California voters approve Proposition 22, exempting gig worker firms including Uber, Lyft and DoorDash, among others, from having to classify their workers in the state as employees, meaning they have no access to some basic labor protections and benefits. The “VOTE NO ON 22” campaign was financed by the companies to the tune of more than $200 million — the most ever spent on a ballot proposition in the state. 2020
- David Prosten.
|
|
|---|
|
Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by any recipient; please credit Union City as the source.
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.
Story suggestions, event announcements, campaign reports, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space; just click on the mail icon below. You can also reach us on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on those icons.
|
|
|---|
|
|
