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Rally with budtenders, sip with baristas

Frequent overtime and low wages prompt ATU members to picket in Roanoke

ICYMI: What We're Reading

High-Level, Global Initiative: Workers Collective Fundamental to Democracy

Labor Quote

Today's Labor History

 

Today's Labor Calendar

[link removed] Click here for the complete calendar and details. Got something to add or update? Email us at mailto:[email protected] [email protected].

Union City Radio: 7:15am, WPFW-FM 89.3 FM

2-minute audio version of the Metro Washington Labor Council's Union City newsletter.

Potomac Holistics union rally: Fri, December 16, 3pm - 5pm
Potomac Holistics Cannabis Dispensary, 14808 Physicians Ln STE 211, Rockville, MD 20850

Sip-In to support La Colombe workers unionizing: Sun, December 18, 12pm - 3pm

La Colombe Chinatown, 900 6th St NW, Washington, DC ([link removed] map)

Labor Day with The Commanders (vs. New York Giants): Sun, December 18, 8:20pm
[link removed] BUY TICKETS HERE

Rally with budtenders, sip with baristas

Budtenders today, baristas on Sunday. Join unionizing budtenders at Potomac Holistics today at 3 as they fight for fair wages, paid time off, and a voice in the workplace ([link removed] read more here). Then on Sunday, get caffeinated at the sip-In at the La Colombe Chinatown to support baristas who are organizing. The Chinatown location was the [link removed] first to file for a union election, followed shortly after by the [link removed] Farragut shop in DC. And on Monday, [link removed] two more cafes in Chicago filed for their union elections, "and there are more on the way!" reports UFCW 400. Follow La Colombe Workers Union on [link removed] Twitter and [link removed] Instagram for all the latest. See Calendar above for complete event details.


Frequent overtime and low wages prompt ATU members to picket in Roanoke

With their contract set to expire at the start of 2023, dozens of members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1493 picketed last week to raise the alarm about the poor condition of Valley Metro, a transit company owned by the city of Roanoke, Virginia. Local 1493 Executive Board Member J.J. Richards explained to The Roanoke Times that while the transit company is willing to offer double-pay to workers for frequent overtime, management has so far been unwilling to negotiate wage increases to attract new workers to the profession. The bus drivers and mechanics are seeking to sit down with management and negotiate a new agreement to fix the city's ailing transit system. Valley Metro management has yet to agree to a date to bargain with the union. "[link removed] Our drivers are angry. We're mad," Richards said.

- AFL-CIO Daily Brief

ICYMI: What We're Reading

[link removed] D.C. teachers union approves labor contract, securing raises (Washington Post)

High-Level, Global Initiative: Workers Collective Fundamental to Democracy

U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh made a strong connection between labor rights and democracy at an event highlighting the DOL's $130 million initiative to advance worker rights worldwide. "The collective voice of workers is fundamental to democracy. And strong labor movements are fundamental to democracy," he said. At the December 8 event in Washington, D.C., representatives from governments, unions and philanthropic organizations--and the Solidarity Center--renewed their commitment to the global initiative, M-POWER (Multilateral Partnership for Organizing, Worker Empowerment, and Rights). "The M-POWER initiative lifts up the voice of workers who are fighting on the front lines for democracy," said Cathy Feingold, deputy president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and AFL-CIO International director. Find out more at [link removed] Solidarity Center.


Labor Quote: Doris Boshart

"We talked about it amongst ourselves all the time. And it just kept growing and growing and we kept getting angrier and angrier."

Boshart was one of the Willmar 8, eight female bank tellers in Willmar, Minn., who began the first strike against a bank in U.S. history on this date in 1877. At issue: they were paid little more than half what male tellers were paid. The strike ended in moral victory but economic defeat two years later.

Today's Labor History

This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Julia Reichert: "Documentarian of the Working Class". Last week's show: [link removed] "Capital's Terrorists".

December 16
The Bagel Bakers of America union is continuing a work slowdown at 32 of New York's 34 bagel bakeries in a dispute over health and welfare fund payments and workplace sanitation, the New York Times reports. Coincidentally -- or not -- lox sales were down 30 percent to 50 percent as well. The effect on the cream cheese market was not reported - 1951

December 17
Deborah Samson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts. She was the first known woman to impersonate a man in order to fight in the Revolutionary War. Her family was poor. As a girl, young Deborah, became an indentured servant.

December 18

General Motors announces it is closing 21 North American plants over the following four years and slashing tens of thousands of jobs - 1991

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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