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Fairfax Connector drivers strike Transdev

DC workers unite to support Fair Compare Act

Today's Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

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

Union City Radio: 7:15am M-F; [link removed] WPFW 89.3FM

Transdev bus driver picket line (ATU 689): Daily 4:00am - 5:00pm
Gates of the Cinder Bed Road Division, 7901 Cinder Bed Road, Lorton, VA
Show your support for the strike: [link removed] download the sign here, post on Twitter and tag @ATULocal689.

Fairfax Connector strike picketline (multiple locations, see below): Fri/Sat/Sun, December 6/7/8, 3am - 5pm
268 Spring Street, Herndon, VA; 8101 Cinder Bed Road, Newington, VA; 4970 Alliance Drive, Fairfax, VA
Check Facebook event listing [link removed] here.

George Kourpias viewing/funeral: Fri, December 6, 6pm - 8pm (viewing); Sat, December 7, 12pm - 2pm (funeral)
Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Washington DC, 701 Norwood Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20905
Alliance for Retired Americans founder, former IAM president

Rally with Holmead Place Rent Strikers: Fri, December 6, 6pm - 7pm
3435 Holmead Pl NW, Washington, DC 20010

Film: Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach); Fri, December 6, 7:20pm - 9:00pm
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20910
[link removed] CLICK HERE for tickets

DC Labor Chorus: An Evening of Favorite and Sacred Songs Concert: Sat, December 7, 7:30pm - 10:00pm
Wesley United Methodist Church, 5312 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20015

Fairfax Connector drivers strike Transdev
Yesterday, the 43rd day on strike for ATU Local 689 Metrobus workers employed by Transdev at WMATA's Cinder Bed Road garage was also Day 1 of a strike by 600 more Transdev employees, members of ATU Local 1764 who work at the Fairfax Connector. "We held off as long as we could," said ATU International President John Costa, "but Transdev made clear at negotiations (Wednesday) that they would rather see service disrupted than their unfair labor practices ended." While Costa said that ATU remains committed to negotiating with Transdev to reach a contract settlement, "workers cannot be asked to tolerate an escalating campaign of union-busting in the meantime." Multiple Fairfax Connector picketlines have been set up, and picketing continues at the Cinder Bed Road site, but the WMATA HQ picketing has been suspended for now. See Calendar above and/or [link removed] click here for latest pickets/actions. [link removed] Read more here.

DC workers unite to support Fair Compare Act
Union leaders representing District administrative workers, nurses, firemen and police all came together Wednesday to testify in favor of the Fair Compare Act, which seeks to make DC government worker wages more nationally competitive. Councilmember Elissa Silverman chaired the hearing, which also included testimony from Ventris C. Gibson, Director for the DC Department of Human Resources. Gibson spoke in opposition to the legislation, which would allow District bargaining units to compare salaries to similarly situated urban cities like Philadelphia, Seattle, and New York during contract negotiations. Current regulations require comparison only to workers in the region, which the union leaders say keeps wages artificially low. Favorable comments by Labor and Workforce Development committee chair Silverman sparked optimism for passage of the bill.
- David Stephens; photo: representatives of the Metro Washington Council, AFSCME Council 20, MPD FOP, IAFF 36, NAGE

Today's Labor Quote: Isaac Myers

"The white and colored ... must come together and work together... The day has passed for the establishment of organizations based upon color..."

African American delegates met on this date in 1869 in Washington, D.C., to form the Colored National Labor Union. African Americans were excluded from existing labor unions, such as when white workers formed the National Labor Union (NLU). In 1869 several black delegates were invited to the annual meeting of the NLU, where Isaac Myers, a prominent organizer of African-American laborers, spoke eloquently for solidarity, saying that white and black workers ought to organize together for higher wages and a comfortable standard of living. However, the white unions refused to allow African Americans to join their ranks. In response, Myers met with other African-American laborers to form what became the Colored National Labor Union. Unlike the NLU, the CNLU welcomed members of all races. Isaac Myers was the CNLU's founding president; Frederick Douglas became president in 1872.

Today's Labor History
This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Making the Woman Worker
Eileen Boris on "Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards" from the Working History podcast. Plus this week's labor history highlights!
Last week's show: (11/24): [link removed] FWW&CP, the ILO and Lattimer Redux

December 6
361 coal miners die at Monongah, W.V., in nation's worst mining disaster - 1907

United Mine Workers begin what is to become a 110-day national coal strike - 1997

December 7
Heywood Broun born in New York City. Journalist, columnist and co-founder, in 1933, of The Newspaper Guild - 1888

More than 1,600 protesters staged a national hunger march on Washington, D.C. to present demands for unemployment insurance - 1931

Delegates to the founding convention of the National Nurses United (NNU) in Phoenix, Ariz. unanimously endorse the creation of the largest union and professional organization of registered nurses in U.S. history. The 150,000-member union is the product of merger of three groups - 2009

December 8
25 unions found the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in Columbus, Ohio; Cigarmaker's union leader Samuel Gompers is elected president. The AFL's founding document's preamble reads: "A struggle is going on in all of the civilized world between oppressors and oppressed of all countries, between capitalist and laborer..." - 1886

114-day newspaper strike begins, New York City - 1962

Nearly 230 jailed teachers -- about one-fourth of the 1,000-member Middletown Township, N.J. staff -- are ordered freed after they and their colleagues agree to end a nine-day strike and go into mediation with the local school board - 2001

Faced with a national unemployment rate of 10 percent, President Barack Obama outlines new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals, saying the country must continue to "spend our way out of this recession" until more Americans are back at work. Joblessness had soared 6 percent in the final two years of George W. Bush's presidency - 2009

Material published in UNION CITY may be freely reproduced by any recipient; please credit Union City as the source for all news items and www.unionist.com as the source for Today's Labor History.

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. JACKIE JETER, PRESIDENT.

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