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
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.
REGISTER HERE!
International Solidarity Committee: Tue, January 25, 6pm – 7pm
Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting: Tue, January 25, 5pm – 7pm
RSVP here. Nominations for MWC officers; latest local labor reports.
Wednesdays with Warner: Wed, January 26, 8:15am – 9:15am
Windmill Hill Park, 500 South Lee St, Alexandria, VA
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
Register before Monday, January 24. Rally for George Mason University Janitors: Thu, January 27, 12pm – 1pm Merten Hall, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA
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 listen online.
Arlington Dems Labor Caucus: Thu, January 27, 6pm – 7pm
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); RSVP here.
Coalition to Repeal Right to Work: Fri, January 28, 7pm – 8pm
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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,” 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.”
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Brandy Brooks campaign staff signs contract
The campaign staff of Brandy Brooks, At-Large candidate for Montgomery County Council, has 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. |
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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 |
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Today’s labor quote: Marty Levitt
“We were just thugs for the employers, we were just tools of the employer class.”
Levitt wrote "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 Your Rights At Work radio show (WPFW 89.3 FM, Thursdays at 1p ET).
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This week’s Labor History Today podcast: MLK at the AFL-CIO in 1961. Last week's show: 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.
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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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