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AFL-CIO endorses new trade deal

USAS started her journey as an organizer

Solidarity Center Report: Study says gender violence rife in Brazil garment factories

Hold The Date: CSA's bowling tournament

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
International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) supports ATU 689 strike; Show your support for the strike: [link removed] download the sign here, post on Twitter and tag @ATULocal689.

Fire Drill Friday with Jane Fonda and Sally Field: Fri, December 13, 11am - 1pm
U.S. Capitol lawn near the Capitol Visitors Center
"9 to 5" star Jane Fonda's 10th Fire Drill Friday is focused on Jobs, Communities and a Just Transition and "Norma Rae" star Sally Field, fresh off her recent Kennedy Center award, will be one of the speakers, along with some union members talking about how the climate crisis affects them in their jobs.

Seminar on How to Make Your Union Stronger by Involving and Mobilizing your Members: Sat, December 14, 10am - 3pm
4536 B John Marr Drive, Annandale VA
Instructors are Rutgers University labor educators Mike Merrill and Naomi Williams.
RSVP to mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

"Party Like It's 1997" benefit for United Students Against Sweatshops: Sat, December 14, 8pm - 11pm
LIUNA - Laborers' International Union of North America, 905 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20006 (rooftop)
[link removed] Details here

Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO 2020 Maryland General Assembly Legislative Conference: Mon, December 16, 9am - 2pm
IBEW Local 24 union hall, 2701 W. Patapsco Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Brief overview and discussion of major aspects of the 2020 MD General Assembly and broad issues impacting labor.
8:30 am Registration and Meet & Greet
Registration Fee: $40.00 (includes continental breakfast, lunch and materials)
Registration form: (410) 269-1940 or email mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

Metro Washington Council Open House for MWC delegates & affiliates
Mon, December 16, 6pm - 8pm
Must be a Metro Council affiliate or delegate; [link removed] RSVP here

AFL-CIO endorses new trade deal
The AFL-CIO [link removed] endorsed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement earlier this week, calling it "a vast improvement over both the original NAFTA and the flawed proposal brought forward in 2017. President Trump may have opened this deal," said Labor Federation President Richard Trumka, "But working people closed it. "Trumka said the new trade deal "is far from perfect," noting that by itself, it's not a solution for outsourcing, inequality or climate change. "Successfully tackling these issues," Trumka said, "requires a fullcourt press of economic policies that empower workers, including the repeal of tax cuts which reward companies for shipping our jobs overseas."

USAS started her journey as an organizer
"I remember passing out flyers around campus and doing class raps in front of 400 students in preparation for the campus workers going on strike," says Sabina Wildman, Domestic Campaigns Coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). "We were out at 4am, while it was still dark, to set up and start the picket. I remember feeling so energized and motivated to build student and worker power on my campus! That was just the beginning of my journey in the labor movement," says Wildman, who's based out of D.C. and got her start in labor organizing as an undergraduate student at the University of California Santa Cruz. "Now I live and work in D.C. and am consistently inspired by collective worker power and what workers and youth can do together. I have many hopes and dreams about the kind of future I'd like to live in and I know we can only get there if we become a stronger and more representative movement, connecting workers across the world. There's so much work that needs to be done, and we know that there's nothing like dancing to decompress and re-energize ourselves among comrade friends. I hope to see you all on the dance floor on December 14th!" See Calendar, above, for details on the USAS [link removed] "Party Like It's 1997" fundraiser.

Solidarity Center Report: Study says gender violence rife in Brazil garment factories
The vast majority of women in Brazil's textile and shoe factories who took part in a recent study say they have experienced some form of violence at work, often gender-based violence and harassment--to the extent that "for many women, work is synonymous with suffering," according to the report. "I am especially surprised by the extent of sexual harassment by supervisors," says National Confederation of Apparel Workers ([link removed] CNTRV) President Francisca Trajano. Read more at the [link removed] Solidarity Center.

Hold The Date: CSA's bowling tournament
Mark your calendar now for the 2020 Community Services Agency's 28th Annual Bowling Tournament. Join UFCW Local 400, IBEW Local 26 and other unions on Sunday, January 26 at the Crofton Bowling Centre. Plenty of free parking and a great time hanging out with your union sisters and brothers. Email mailto:[email protected] [email protected] or visit [link removed] communityservicesagency.org for more information.
photo: 2019 UFCW 400 team; photo by Chris Garlock

Today's Labor Quote: Sam Gompers

"What does Labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright."

Today's Labor History
This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: Collective actions
Working-class heroes organize Pecket Well College in England; Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farms Cooperative (photo) in the Mississippi Delta. Plus this week's labor history highlights!
Last week's show: (12/1): [link removed] Making the Woman Worker

December 13
Death in San Antonio, Tex. of Samuel Gompers, president and founder of the American Federation of Labor - 1924

December 14
Daniel DeLeon, socialist scholar and labor organizer, born - 1852
Some 33,000 striking members of the Machinists end a 69-day walkout at Boeing after winning pay and benefit increases and protections against subcontracting some of their work overseas - 1995

December 15
AFL convention passes a one-cent per capita assessment to aid the organization of women workers. (Exact date uncertain) - 1913

The Kansas national guard is called out to subdue from 2,000 to 6,000 protesting women who were going from mine to mine attacking non-striking miners in the Pittsburgh coal fields. The women made headlines across the state and the nation: they were christened the "Amazon Army" by the New York Times - 1921

Eight days after the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, the AFL pledges that there will be no strikes in defense-related plants for the duration of World War II - 1941

The U.S. Age Discrimination Employment Act becomes law. It bars employment discrimination against anyone age 40 or older - 1967

Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers union organizer Clinton Jencks, who led New Mexico zinc miners in the strike depicted in the classic 1954 movie "Salt of the Earth," dies of natural causes in San Diego at age 87 - 2005

- David Prosten; [link removed] Amazon Army Mural, located at the Pittsburg Public Library

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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