The Future We Need: A Book Launch and Discussion: Mon, May 2, 11:00am – 12:30pm
In-person and virtual book launch of The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, written by Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta.

MWC Special Meeting (Delegates only): Mon, May 2, 2pm – 4pm
The Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO will hold a special meeting Monday, May 2, 2022, at 2 pm to install new officers and vote on our COPE recommendations for endorsements of candidates for the 2022 election in both DC and Maryland.
Please register ahead of time for the committee to ensure you are a duly accredited delegate to the council. CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

AFL-CIO - Catholic Labor Network Panel to Commemorate “Labor’s Priest” Monsignor George Higgins: Mon, May 2, 3:00pm – 4:30pm

AFL-CIO Headquarters, 815 16th St. NW in Washington DC. (map)

Space is limited, please register to attend in-person using this link. Will also be livestreamed on AFL-CIO TV.

Films: UNION MAIDS with THE LAST TRUCK: CLOSING OF A GM PLANT (DC LaborFest): Mon, May 2, 7pm – 9pm
Introduced by Chelsea Bland, president, Metro DC Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Tickets: bit.ly/DCLaborFilmFest2022
AFI Member passes accepted. AFI Member discount available for union members (must present union card).

Rally for Good Jobs at the Senate Cafeteria: Tue, May 3, 3pm – 4pm

First and C Streets NE (outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building)
Senate cafeteria workers are demanding that the Senate take action to ensure that workers have raises, affordable health insurance, a pension, and job security.

Film: LOCAL 1196: A STEELWORKERS STRIKE (DC LaborFest): Tue, May 3, 6pm – 8pm (Plus: Speakers/Happy Hour!)
Tue, May 3, 6:00p (doors open 5:30)
FREE, RSVP here: bit.ly/3jZC6nW
Goethe-Institut Washington, 1377 R St. NW Ste. 300, Washington, DC 20009

Kim Kelly — Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor - with Sara Nelson — at Conn Ave: Tue, May 3, 7pm – 9pm
Politics and Prose Bookstore, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
CLICK HERE to register for this in-person event.

Labor Night at the Nats: Fri, June 10, 7:05pm – 11:00pm
$17.00 per ticket; CSA will receive $2.00 per ticket sold.
Click the link for a home run and purchase tickets: Josh Grohs, Account Executive, Group Sales (o) 202-640-7714 or [email protected]

CLICK HERE to listen to last week’s Your Rights At Work, Killed at Work, plus remembering labor priest Monsignor George Higgins and filmmaker Deborah Shaffer on “The Wobblies.”

Kaiser Permanente occupational, physical, and speech therapists unionize with UFCW
A majority of employees at twelve DMV Kaiser Permanente facilities have signed authorization cards to unionize with the United Food & Commercial Workers. The occupational, physical and speech therapists will be represented by UFCW Local 400 in the DMV area and UFCW Local 27 in the Baltimore region. Last Thursday, a third-party arbitrator oversaw the tabulation of union cards and verified the results. As a result of Thursday’s card count, 63 occupational, physical and speech therapists at ten Kaiser Permanente facilities in the DMV region will be union members represented by UFCW Local 400, while 17 employees at two facilities in Woodlawn and Nottingham in Baltimore will become members of UFCW Local 27. “We couldn’t be more proud to welcome these health care professionals to our union family,” said Mark Federici, President of UFCW Local 400, headquartered in Landover, Md. “As the country came to recognize over the course of the pandemic, these essential workers not only need but also deserve all of the benefits and protections of a union contract.” Both unions already count Kaiser Permanente employees among their ranks. In the DMV region, UFCW Local 400 represents 1,500 Kaiser workers at 36 facilities. Now both unions will meet with Kaiser Permanente to negotiate the details of a union contract covering the newly unionized members.

Solidarity Center Report: Government Must Listen to Migrant Perspectives
Migrants’ agency, including that of migrant workers, must be reflected in the policy and process decisions that affect their lives, including in their workplaces, according to a new report. Further, a focus on decent work in origin countries “is necessary to break cycles of exploitation and prevent labor migration pathways from perpetuating global power and wealth imbalances,” writes Solidarity Center's Neha Misra, co-author, with the AFL-CIO's Shannon Lederer and LCLAA's Yanira Merino, in one of the report's six articles. Find out more at Solidarity Center.

Today’s Labor Quote: Monsignor George Higgins

“Every professional group has an organization. Doctors have the AMA. Lawyers have the ABA. Business executives have any organization they want. No one would ever dream of trying to stop doctors, lawyers and business executives from organizing. But in this country, resistance to the organization of workers happens all the time.”

TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY

This week’s Labor History Today podcast: We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day; Last week's show: The death of “Big Steve” Sutton.

May 2
Birth of Richard Trevellick, a ship carpenter, founder of American National Labor Union and later head of the National Labor Congress, America’s first national labor organization - 1830

Chicago's first Trades Assembly, formed three years earlier, sponsors a general strike by thousands of workers to enforce the state's new eight hour day law. The one-week strike was unsuccessful - 1867

In Germany, Adolph Hitler issues an edict abolishing all labor unions, part of his effort to ban any political opposition - 1933

May 3
Four striking workers are killed, at least 200 wounded, when police attack a demonstration on Chicago’s south side at the McCormick Harvesting Machine plant. The Haymarket Massacre is to take place the following day - 1886

Eugene V. Debs and other leaders of the American Railway Union are jailed for six months for contempt of court in connection with Pullman railroad car strike - 1895

Pete Seeger (photo below), folksinger and union activist, born in Patterson, N.Y. Among his songs: “If I Had A Hammer” and “Turn, Turn, Turn” - 1919

- David Prosten

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