DC rally for Union Kitchen organizing: Sat, February 5, 11:30am – 1:00pm

Union Kitchen, 1251 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA (map)

WEBINAR: TIME TO CARE: Paid Family Leave and the Catholic Church: Mon, February 7, 3pm – 4pm
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FILM/BOOK/TALK: Confessions of A Union Buster: Tue, February 8, 7pm – 9pm
FREE; RSVP HERE

Missed this week’s Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here: Transit Equity Day, grocery prices & "Revolutionary Nonviolence”

CAP union members authorize strike
The staff union at the Center for American Progress on Wednesday rejected management’s most recent contract offer, and authorized their union bargaining team to call for any action necessary to secure a fair contract, up to and including a strike. The CAP Union says their members have been asked to go above and beyond while dealing with the impacts of the global pandemic and high living expenses while being paid substandard salaries. The CAP Union is part of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), IFPTE Local 70, and this is the first time in the history of NPEU and the history of CAP Union that members have voted to put a strike on the table. Read more here.

Union Kitchen workers rally in DC tomorrow
Union Kitchen workers and their supporters will rally tomorrow in DC (see Calendar, above). The workers at Union Kitchen – which has three locations in DC and one in Arlington -- are organizing with UFCW Local 400. After initial reports that Union Kitchen CEO Cullen Gilchrist was considering recognizing the union, Local 400 reports that Gilchrist “has now hired a union busting law firm and embarked on a campaign of intimidation and retaliation against workers organizers and outspoken union supporters.” However, the union says “We will not be bullied” and urged supporters to turn out on Saturday.

Emergency Assistance Fund renewal time
Last year, the MWC’s Community Services Agency helped over 490 union members/families with direct financial contributions to prevent eviction, foreclosure, and utility cut-offs, purchase food, and find solutions to other emergencies. This support is only possible through CSA’s Emergency Assistance Fund (EAF). February is the time for area locals to either renew or initiate participation in the Fund; annual contributions are a minimum of $300 and locals must contribute to the Emergency Assistance Fund for members to be eligible. For details, email CSA Executive Director Letycia Pastrana at [email protected]

Today’s labor quote: Katie Barrows

“No union wants to ask its members to go on strike, but withholding labor is a critical tool we must put on the table if CAP management continues to refuse to recognize the value of their staff.”

Barrows is president of NPEU, the CAP Union’s parent union.

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: “America Works” launches new season. Last week's episode: The Bread Uprising.

February 4

Big Bill Haywood born in Salt Lake City, Utah: Leader of Western Federation of Miners, Wobblies (IWW) founder - 1869

Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man launched the 1955 Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott and the birth of the civil rights movement, is born in Tuskegee, Ala. - 1913

Unemployment demonstrations take place in major U.S. cities - 1932

Thirty-seven thousand maritime workers on the West Coast strike for wage increases - 1937

President Barack Obama imposes $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure." – 2009

February 5

First daily labor newspaper, "N.Y. Daily Sentinel", begins publication - 1830

The movie Modern Times premieres. The tale of the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and his paramour (Paulette Goddard) mixed slapstick comedy and social satire, as the couple struggled to overcome the difficulties of the machine age, including, unemployment and nerve-wracking factory work, and get along in modern times - 1937

President Bill Clinton signs the Family and Medical Leave Act. The law requires most employers of 50 or more workers to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a family or medical emergency - 1993

In what turns out to be a bad business decision, Circuit City fires 3,900 experienced sales people because they're making too much in commissions. Sales plummet. Six years later it declares bankruptcy. Duh. - 2003

- David Prosten

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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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