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AFGE cheers Biden EO $15/hr fed wage

Brandy Brooks campaign staff signs contract

Shuler: "Fight isn't over," as Senate Republicans again sink voting rights

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

 

[link removed] LABOR CALENDAR; click here for latest listings:

Union City Radio: 7:15am daily

WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; [link removed] click here to hear today's report

[link removed] Airport Union Caucus: Mon, January 24, 3pm - 4pm

MD/DC AFL-CIO Monday Lobbyists' Meeting: Mon, January 24, 5pm - 7pm

The Maryland General Assembly is moving at a rigorous pace. Several bill hearings affecting labor have been heard and many more scheduled in the next two weeks. This meeting is not for paid lobbyists and we reserve the right not to include everyone that registers for the meeting.

[link removed] REGISTER HERE!

[link removed] International Solidarity Committee: Tue, January 25, 6pm - 7pm

Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, January 25, 5pm - 7pm

[link removed] RSVP here. Nominations for MWC officers; latest local labor reports. [link removed]

Wednesdays with Warner: Wed, January 26, 8:15am - 9:15am
Windmill Hill Park, 500 South Lee St, Alexandria, VA

[link removed] [link removed] Navigating the Future of Work in the Age of Pandemics and Social Movements: Wed, January 26, 12:00pm - 1:30pm


Research webinar: "Worker Surveys: A Strategic Organizing Tool": Wed, January 26, 2pm - 3pm
[link removed] Register before Monday, January 24.

Rally for George Mason University Janitors: Thu, January 27, 12pm - 1pm

Merten Hall, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA

[link removed] Fairfax County Dems Labor Caucus: Wed, January 26, 7pm - 8pm

Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work: Thu, January 27, 1pm - 2pm

WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online.

[link removed] Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, January 27, 6pm - 7pm

[link removed] Pride at Work: Thu, January 27, 7:15pm - 8:15pm

FILM: With Babies and Banners (with filmmaker Lyn Goldfarb): Thu, January 27, 7:00pm - 8:30pm

FREE (online screening); [link removed] RSVP here.

[link removed] Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, January 28, 7pm - 8pm

Missed last week'shttps://anchor.fm/christopher-garlock/episodes/All-You-Fascists-Are-Bound-To-Lose-e1ck1q6 Your Rights At Work radio show? [link removed] Catch the podcast here. Longtime union organizer Bob Muehlenkamp has written an introduction to a new "activist" edition ofhttps://www.confessionsofaunionbuster.com/ Confessions of a Union Buster, Jim Russell on [link removed] The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans, and a brand-new song from "the singing elevator constructor."


AFGE cheers Biden EO $15/hr fed wage

Calling it one of President Biden's "most significant actions to date," AFGE hailed Friday's announcement that the Biden administration is implementing an executive order to establish a $15 per hour minimum wage for federal government work. "Because 85% of federal workers live outside the DC area, it is hard to imagine a single action that could have a more significant positive impact on all American workers' paychecks beyond raising the federal minimum wage itself, which would take an act of Congress,"[link removed] said AFGE president Everett Kelley. Kelley said Biden's move will raise the pay of nearly 70,000 American workers. "President Biden promised to be the most pro-union, pro-worker president in American history. Actions like these show he is delivering on that promise."


Brandy Brooks campaign staff signs contract

The campaign staff of Brandy Brooks, At-Large candidate for Montgomery County Council, has [link removed] signed a union contract governing wages, benefits, and working conditions. The contract establishes both compensation and benefits for staff, including health insurance stipends, travel and meal supports, and a guaranteed leave policy. The staff have joined the Campaign Workers Guild (CWG), which offered critical representation through the bargaining process. "We believe all workers deserve a union and a voice at the table. These workers raised theirs and won protections, wage increases, and better working conditions," said Tyler Wilkinson, a CWG Representative. "I strongly support the right of my staff and all workers to form a union and believe wholeheartedly in the duty of employers to recognize that right and to bargain in good faith," said Brooks.

photo: Brandy Brooks (center) with campaign staff.

Shuler: "Fight isn't over," as Senate Republicans again sink voting rights

"This fight isn't over," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler after the Senate's 50 Republicans sent the two big voting rights bills down the drain again on Wednesday. "Anti-worker politicians will continue trying to rig our democracy, and America's union members will do everything in our power to defend it." Led by labor and the Poor People's Campaign, progressive groups lobbied, by voice, e-mail and phone right through the end of the debate and votes this week. "It's not just a Black issue," warned the Rev. William Barber II, founder and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. "Fifty-five million people will lose their access to the polls they used in 2020, if we allow what's going on to continue. It's a democracy issue. Dr. King never framed this issue as just a Black issue. He always framed it as an economic issue and a race issue, and we should be doing the same." The dual defeat "will not deter Senate Democrats from continuing our fight against voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering and dark money," despite no GOP support, defiantly declared Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) after the roll call. "We will not quit."

by Mark Gruenberg, PAI Staff Writer

Today's labor quote: Marty Levitt

"We were just thugs for the employers, we were just tools of the employer class."

Levitt wrote "[link removed] Confessions of a Union Buster," just re-issued with an introduction by legendary union organizer Bob Muehlenkamp, who discussed the book on last week's [link removed] Your Rights At Work radio show (WPFW 89.3 FM, Thursdays at 1p ET).


TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] MLK at the AFL-CIO in 1961. Last week's show: [link removed] Who was Zelda D'Aprano?

January 24
Krueger Cream Ale, the first canned beer, goes on sale in Richmond, Va. Pabst was the second brewer in the same year to sell beer in cans, which came with opening instructions and the suggestion: "cool before serving" - 1935

Federal minimum wage increases to 75¢ an hour - 1952

January 25
Sojourner Truth addresses 1st Black Women's Rights convention - 1851

The Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) is founded in Toledo, Ohio as the Tin, Sheet Iron and Cornice Workers' International Association - 1888

United Mine Workers of America founded in Columbus, Ohio. The union's constitution barred racial, religious and ethnic discrimination - 1890

200 miners are killed in an horrific explosion at the Harwick mine in Cheswick, Pa., Allegheny County. Many of the dead lay entombed in the sealed mine to this day - 1904

The Supreme Court upholds "Yellow Dog" employment contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions. Yellow Dog contracts remained legal until 1932 - 1915

16,000 textile workers strike in Passaic, N.J. - 1926

- David Prosten. photo: Passaic strikers and their children picketing outside the White House in Washington, DC.

 

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.

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