CLICK HERE to listen to yesterday's Your Rights At Work radio show (Thursdays 1-2p on WPFW 89.3FM), NPEU VP for Organizing Hayley Brown on “Reproductive rights are workers rights,” and Visiting Professor at University College London Damon Silvers on “Labor, Climate Change, and Innovation”.
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ATU Local 689 DC Circulator bus operators OK contract, end strike
After a unified and strong three-day strike, ATU Local 689 bus operators for the DC Circulator voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to approve a collective bargaining agreement with RATP Dev. Over 150 workers walked off the job on May 3rd after two intense months of negotiations, shutting down Circulator transportation in the city for three days. “This strike showed the power of workers fighting for our rights,” said Local 689 President Raymond Jackson. “Transit agencies across the country are now on notice. Public transit contractors cannot continue to make cuts on the backs of workers and riders.” The new three-year contract with RATP Dev includes health care improvements, better retirement benefits, and substantial wage increases. Starting pay is raised over 25% immediately to address the bus operator shortage. Operators at top pay will receive 18.5% increases over the course of the contract. Retirement was changed from an employer match system to a direct employer contribution to a member's 401(k). The workers successfully fought company language that would have outsourced Local 689 members’ jobs as well as eliminating workers’ federal rights under the Family & Medical Leave Act. photo: ATU president John Costa joins the picket line.
ICYMI: The strike that shut down Metro for nearly a week in 1978, from The Washington Post, May 4. |
Partnership Award honors Claimant Advocacy Program
The Claimant Advocacy Program on Wednesday received this year's Partnership Award from the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. Part of the Metro Washington Labor Council, the program has been directed by Tonya Love for the past two decades. Love and her fellow CAP attorney, Lolita Martin, provide free representation to jobless DC workers in unemployment compensation appeals hearings, a caseload that spiked tremendously during the pandemic. Joining Love – who was specifically honored in the award -- at the event was CAP attorney Lolita Martin and CAP client Melinda Gray; Martin not only helped Gray, a home healthcare worker, win unemployment benefits, but when she won at the D.C. Court of Appeals, the case benefitted the many members of Legal Aid’s client community who do the essential work of providing home health care services that allow elderly individuals and those with disabilities to remain in their homes and communities. “Congratulations to Tonya and Lolita,” said Metro Washington Council president Dyana Forester. “We are so incredibly proud of this unique, long-standing and -- most importantly -- effective program for DC workers.”
photo (l-r): Tonya Love, Melinda Gray, Lolita Martin |
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Forester appointed to Healthcare Workforce Task Force
Metro Washington Labor Council president Dyana Forester has been appointed to a new Healthcare Workforce Task Force formed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC Health. The Task Force is charged with rebuilding, strengthening, and expanding the District’s healthcare workforce. “Our health care workers have been incredible throughout the pandemic. At every single stage of the pandemic, they’ve demonstrated the utmost professionalism and compassion. But they’ve been through a lot, and this task force is going to put forth fresh ideas for how to best support current and aspiring health care workers,” said Mayor Bowser. “We have an opportunity, right now, to bring more residents into a high-demand field and, in doing so, to provide relief and support to our amazing frontline health care workers.”
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Labor Photo: DC Labor FilmFest Opening Night
The 2022 DC Labor FilmFest launched on May Day at AFI Silver with a packed screening of a remastered print of the 1979 classic “The Wobblies”. Metro Washington Council president Dyana Forester and Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich welcomed attendees – including an enthusiastic group of young Wobblies -- to the first in-person Labor FilmFest since the pandemic forced the 2020 and 2021 editions online. Filmfest director hosted a Q&A with “Wobblies” co-director Deborah Shaffer after the screening. The LaborFest and FilmFest continue through May with more screenings, music, books and labor history events; click here for the schedule or download the program guide. photo (l-r): Garlock, Shaffer, Forester & Elrich; photo by Bruce Guthrie.
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Today’s Labor Quote: Mother Jones
“The first thing is to raise hell. That’s always the first thing to do when you’re faced with an injustice and you feel powerless. That’s what I do in my fight for the working class.”
photo: 2022 May Day wreath placed at the Mother Jones Historic Marker in Adelphi, Maryland by the Labor Heritage Foundation’s Saul Schniderman, “with thanks to Union Plus and Keith Anderko” for donating the wreath. |
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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 6 Works Progress Administration (WPA) established at a cost of $4.8 billion -- more than $72 billion in 2011 dollars -- to provide work opportunities for millions during the Great Depression - 1935
400 black women working as tobacco stemmers walk off the job in a spontaneous revolt against poor working conditions and a $3 weekly wage at the Vaughan Co. in Richmond, Va. - 1937 May 7
The Knights of St. Crispin union is formed at a secret meeting in Milwaukee. It grew to 50,000 members before being crushed by employers later that year - 1867
Two die, 20 are injured in “Bloody Tuesday” as strikebreakers attempt to run San Francisco streetcars during a strike by operators. The strike was declared lost in 1908 after many more deaths, including several in scab-operated streetcar accidents - 1907
Philadelphia’s longest transit strike ends after 44 days. A key issue in the fight was the hiring and use of part-timers - 1977
photo: In 1977, SEPTA workers carry signs at a strike rally GEORGE D. MCDOWELL / PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN COLLECTION, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
May 8 The constitution of the Brotherhood of the Footboard was ratified by engineers in Detroit, Mich. Later became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers - 1863
Jerry Wurf, who was to serve as president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) from 1964 to his death 1981, born in New York City. The union grew from about 220,000 members to more than 1 million during his presidency - 1919
12,000 Steelworker-represented workers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber win an 18-day strike for improved wages and job security - 1997 - David Prosten
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