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George Mason Univ. Coalition for Worker Rights: Fri, November 19, 12pm – 1pm
This is the monthly meeting of a coalition of faculty, students, alumni, employees and contract workers at GMU in solidarity for worker rights.

Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, November 19, 7pm – 8pm
Coalition of more than 50 organizations seeking to repeal the Jim Crow-era "right to work" law so that workers in Virginia have the right to organize unions.

Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, November 23, 5pm – 7pm
RSVP here

Tudors Biscuits workers demand union

Workers a Tudors Biscuits in Elkview, West Virginia marched on their boss Thursday afternoon to demand recognition of their union, reports UFCW 400. “Management called the police on them, but we will keep fighting until their union is recognized and they get the fair contract they deserve!”

“Warrior Met ain’t got no soul!”
“We've been on strike down in Alabama for eight months, and that’s eight months too damn long,” UMWA District 17 VP Brian Lacy told a cheering crowd yesterday on K Street in front of Fidelity Investments. Warrior Met Coal workers “have sacrificed wages, time away from their family and all they're asking for a fair contract. These big investors like Fidelity are making billions of dollars on the back of working people…and if they don't want to look out their windows and see us on their doorsteps every day, they need to do what’s right.” Others firing up the crowd included UMWA Secretary Treasurer Brian Sanson, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, AFA president Sara Nelson and A. Philip Randolph Institute president Clayola Brown. “Warrior Met ain’t got no soul!” and “No contract, no coal!” the crowd chanted as they marched in front of Fidelity.
Hear actualities from the rally on this week’s Your Rights At Work radio show (WPFW 89.3FM), as UMWA’s Erin Bates reports, along with AFL-CIO Director of government affairs Bill Samuel on how the just-signed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will put millions of Americans to work, author Joseph Anderson on his new book “Capitalist Pigs: Pigs, Pork, and Power in America,” and Hold The Line, brand-new music from Tom Morello. Rally photo by Chris Garlock/Union City

John Deere workers ratify 6-year deal, winning substantial gains
More than 10,000 members of the UAW are back at work after holding the line for five weeks in their strike against John Deere. On Wednesday, the union announced that 61% of its members voted to ratify the latest offer; UAW President Ray Curry said, “UAW John Deere members did not just unite themselves, they seemed to unite the nation in a struggle for fairness in the workplace.” The new six-year contract provides 10% raises in the first year, with substantial pay increases and lump sum payments in subsequent years. The agreement preserves the company pension for new hires and improves existing health care coverage. It also includes an $8,500 ratification bonus for each member. photo courtesy CBS

Today’s labor quote: UMWA strikers

"No contract, No coal!"

At yesterday’s K Street demonstration by striking Warrior Met Coal miners. Rally photo by Chris Garlock/Union City.

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: This week's show: Tom Morello holds the line. Last week's show: Communists and community in wartime Detroit.

November 19

Joe Hill, labor leader and song writer, executed in Utah on what many believe was a framed charge of murder. Before he died he declared: “Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize.” - 1915

The nation’s first automatic toll collection machine is used at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway - 1954

The National Writers Union is founded, representing freelance and contract writers and others in the trade. In 1992 it was to merge into and become a local of the United Auto Workers; it disaffiliated from the UAW in 2020 - 1981

November 20

First use of term “scab,” by Albany Typographical Society - 1816

Norman Thomas born, American socialist leader - 1884

The time clock is invented by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, N.Y. Bundy’s brother Harlow starts mass producing them a year later - 1888

Mine fire in Telluride, Colo., kills 28 miners, prompts union call for safer work conditions - 1901

78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, W. Va. - 1968

November 21

Six miners striking for better working conditions under the IWW banner were killed and many wounded in the Columbine Massacre at Lafayette, Colo. Out of this struggle Colorado coal miners gained lasting union contracts - 1927

The United Auto Workers Union strikes 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30 percent raise. 200,000 workers are out - 1945

A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas kills 85 hotel employees and guests and sends 650 injured persons, including 14 firefighters, to the hospital. Most of the deaths and injuries were caused by smoke inhalation - 1980

Flight attendants celebrate the signing into law a smoking ban on all U.S. domestic flights - 1989

Congress approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to take effect Jan. 1 of the following year - 1993

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act takes effect in the nation’s workplaces. It prohibits employers from requesting genetic testing or considering someone’s genetic background in hiring, firing or promotions - 2009

- David Prosten.

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