TODAY'S LABOR CALENDAR; click here for complete and latest listings
Union City Radio: 7:15am daily
WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report "Wednesdays with Warner" for the PRO Act (Week 45): Wed, January 19, 8:15am – 9:15am
Windmill Hills Park, 500 South Lee St., Alexandria, VA (map)
Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, January 19, 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Contact [email protected] for the link.
AI & Global Workers' Rights: Thu, January 20, 11am – 1pm REGISTER HERE
Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, January 20, 1pm – 2pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online. Baltimore Labor Council meeting: Thu, January 20, 7pm – 9pm
Email for call-in details: [email protected]
NoVA Labor Monthly Meeting: Senator Tim Kaine special guest: Thu, January 20, 7pm – 9pm
Senator Tim Kaine will be our special guest! Also on the agenda: Virginia AFL-CIO President Doris Crouse-Mays on the legislative session and Starbucks Baristas who are organizing unions in every state!
George Mason Univ. Coalition for Worker Rights: Fri, January 21, 12pm – 1pm |
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Howard County hospitality workers seek right to return to work
The plight of Merriweather Lakehouse workers in their efforts to return to work has raised awareness that all hospitality workers are vulnerable to permanent job loss as a result of COVID layoffs. "The pandemic is not over and the hospitality industry in our region has not yet recovered," reports UNITE HERE Local 7. Both Baltimore and Washington, DC have passed laws to protect hospitality workers' right to return to their jobs as the hotels and event centers reopen and restaff. Now the Howard County Council is considering legislation to give workers in Howard County the same protection, requiring employers to rehire previously laid off workers for open positions before they consider new applicants. CLICK HERE to email the Howard County Council and ask its members to cosponsor the bill and ensure economic stability for hospitality workers. Meanwhile, workers have called a boycott of Merriweather, urging the community not to eat, sleep, or meet at the hotel.
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As Metro GM exits, transit workers urge WMATA to listen
Responding to the announcement of WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld’s retirement, ATU 689 noted that while the union had clashed repeatedly with Wiedefeld early on in his 6-year tenure, they developed “a productive working relationship” over the last two years. “We had to fight to preserve public transit as a public service run by public workers, while Wiedefeld and the WMATA Board fought for privatization,” said Local 689 in a news release yesterday. “Our WMATA members even voted to authorize an unprecedented strike in 2018, during our negotiations with the authority.” Subsequently, however, “we were able to resolve the historic Cinder Bed Road strike and bring that garage back in-house to WMATA,” protected transit work from privatization, and implement policies during the COVID19 pandemic “that saved lives and helped protect WMATA workers and their families.” The union urged the WMATA Board to find a new General Manager who can learn from Wiedefeld’s working relationship with Local 689, saying “The next few years ahead will be challenging, but we’re confident in saying that WMATA is a better system when it values and listens to the opinions of those that do the work that keeps this region moving.”
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Webinar: “Worker Surveys: A Strategic Organizing Tool”
Worker surveys can be an effective, multipurpose research and organizing tool. The AFL-CIO Economic Power and Growth Hub is offering a research webinar on “Worker Surveys: A Strategic Organizing Tool” on Wednesday, January 26, at 2 pm ET. Free but you must register before Monday, January 24. Emily Erickson at Alabama A&M is an expert in worker surveys and she will explain why and how to use surveys, including the different ways to use the data that’s been collected. Angela Dawson of Jobs to Move America will discuss how worker outreach for the production of a report on manufacturing workers in Alabama has boosted organizing. This webinar will be of interest to union researchers and others who want to learn more about how to design and use worker surveys that can achieve multiple strategic organizing purposes.
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Today’s Labor Quote: Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson
“We believe that people of good will should be able to sit down and come up with a humane program that will keep those jobs and those workers in Freehold.″
From a December 1985 letter to 3M asking them not to shut down the company’s video and audio tape facility in Freehold, New Jersey, Springsteen’s hometown. |
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Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: MLK at the AFL-CIO in 1961. Last week's show: Who was Zelda D’Aprano?
January 19
Twenty strikers at the American Agricultural Chemical Co. in Roosevelt, N.J. were shot, two fatally, by factory guards. They and other strikers had stopped an incoming train in search of scabs when the guards opened fire - 1915
3,000 members of the Filipino Federation of Labor strike the plantations of Oahu, Hawaii. Their ranks swell to 8,300 as they are joined by members of the Japanese Federation of Labor - 1920
Yuba City, Calif. labor contractor Juan V. Corona found guilty of murdering 25 itinerant farm workers he employed during 1970 and 1971 - 1973
Bruce Springsteen makes an unannounced appearance at a benefit for laid-off 3M workers, Asbury Park, NJ - 1986
January 20
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded - 1920
Hard working Mickey Mantle signs a new contract with the New York Yankees making him the highest paid player in baseball: $75,000 for the entire 1961 season - 1961
Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown," a eulogy for dying industrial cities, is the country’s most listened-to song. The lyrics, in part: "Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores / Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more / They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks / Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown / Your hometown / Your hometown / Your hometown . . ." - 1986
- David Prosten.
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Hiring Hall: DC-area union jobs, plus click here for more listings! |
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Administrative
Executive Assistant, NELP, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 1/18/2022) District of Columbia
Secretary Level I, UFCW, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 1/14/2022) District of Columbia
Communications
Speechwriter to the President – Communications, AFL-CIO, based in Washington, DC [Headquarters] (Posted: 1/13/2022) District of Columbia
Website Administrator, NATCA, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 1/12/2022) District of Columbia
Senior Production Coordinator and Designer, ALPA, based in Tyson (McLean), VA (Posted: 1/13/2022) Virginia
Legal
Staff Attorney / Staff Negotiator, AFA, based in Washington, DC (remote from within the US) (Posted: 1/18/2022) District of Columbia
Misc
Director – Public Employee Department, AFT, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 1/18/2022) District of Columbia
Executive Assistant, NELP, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 1/18/2022) District of Columbia
Staff Representative, HPAE, for covering New Jersey (Posted: 1/12/2022)
Membership Administration Analyst, ALPA, based in Tyson (McLean), VA (Posted: 1/13/2022) Virginia
Fellowship and Training Manager, DHNC, location is flexible within North Carolina (will require occasional travel) (Posted: 1/14/2022)
Organizing
Field Organizers, DHNC, location is flexible within North Carolina (will require occasional travel) (Posted: 1/14/2022)
Research
Research and Organizing Associate or Manager, DPE, based in Washington, DC (Posted: 1/18/2022) District of Columbia
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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. DYANA FORESTER, PRESIDENT.
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