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Linda Bridges makes history as OPEIU Local 2 nominates first female president

Cinder Bed Road drivers OK agreement with Transdev, ending 84-day strike

National electrical contractor to pay $2.75 million to workers and the district for wage theft

Signing up for a different kind of strike

Today's Labor Quote: Johnny Paycheck

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

Women's March (CLUW contingent): Sat, January 18, 9am - 5pm
Freedom Plaza, 1455 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004
[link removed] RSVP here

Gonna Take Us All MLK Holiday Ball 2020: Sun, January 19, 8:00pm - Midnight

Silver Spring Civic Building * One Veterans Place, Silver Spring, MD 20910
$35/ticket; $300/table; [link removed] CLICK HERE

CSA "Bowling for Gold" Tournament: Sun, January 26
Crofton Bowling Centre, 2115 Priest Bridge Dr, Crofton, MD 21114
[link removed] Details/sign up here

Metro Washington Council Delegate Meeting: Tue, January 21, 6:30pm - 8:00pm
AFL-CIO, 815 16th St NW, Washington, DC xxxxxx (Presidents Room)

The Metro Washington Council and Community Services offices will be closed Monday in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Day. The next Union City will be published on Tuesday, January 21.

Linda Bridges makes history as OPEIU Local 2 nominates first female president
OPEIU Local 2 made history Tuesday night when Linda Bridges was nominated for president, the first time in the 124-year history of the local that a woman will head up the union. And with Sarah Levesque elected secretary-treasurer - the position previously held by Bridges - both top officers will be women, in a local that is primarily female members. The local's executive committee will also include two African-American members, First Vice President Michael Spiller and Second Vice President Rian Howard. All the top officers are uncontested and will take office in April after the local's next quarterly meeting.
photo: (l-r) Sarah Levesque, Linda Bridges, Michael Spiller and Rian Howard; photo by Kathleen McKirchy

Cinder Bed Road drivers OK agreement with Transdev, ending 84-day strike

THIS JUST IN: ATU Local 689 members from the Cinder Bed Road bus garage yesterday voted overwhelmingly to approve a collective bargaining agreement with Transdev. Over 120 workers have been on strike since October 24th -- the longest transit strike in this region's history and the first strike at a MetroBus garage in 41 years. Full bus service will likely be restored sometime early next week. The union credited the victory to "the tireless work of transit riders, union members, activists, and elected officials across the DMV."

"This strike was always bigger than one garage." said Raymond Jackson, President and Business Agent of ATU Local 689. "This was a stand for working people against mistreatment. These workers showed what you can achieve when you fight for what you deserve. This strike should be a warning to transit systems across the country. You should reconsider privatizing public transit. This is what you risk when trying to cut costs on the backs of workers and riders."
[link removed] Read more here.

National electrical contractor to pay $2.75 million to workers and the district for wage theft
Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced on Wednesday that Power Design, Inc., a national electrical contractor, will be required to pay $2.75 million to workers and the District as part of a settlement in a wage theft and worker misclassification case.
"This settlement should be a wake-up call to District employers: if you cheat workers out of wages and benefits they've earned, or commit payroll fraud to gain an unlawful edge, you will be held accountable," said AG Racine.
"We have been concerned about Power Design's treatment of workers for many years now," said Elizabeth Falcon Executive Director of DC Jobs with Justice, which began sounding the alarm about Power Design's activities in DC in 2017. "DC has some of the best laws in the country that support and protect workers, and strong enforcement action like this show that we are serious about putting our values into practice for workers."
The settlement resolves a 2018 lawsuit against Power Design and two subcontractors that staffed its worksites for allegedly misclassifying more than 500 electrical workers as independent contractors instead of employees to cut labor costs. OAG also alleged that Power Design cheated workers out of wages and benefits and failed to pay District unemployment insurance taxes.
[link removed] Read more here.

Signing up for a different kind of strike
With just over a week to go until this year's CSA Bowling for Gold tournament -- Sunday, January 26 (see Calendar) -- there's still time to sign up a team for the fun fundraiser for the Community Services Agency. "Union members, friends and family have a blast at the Bowling Tournament, so come on out!" says CSA Executive Director Sonte DuCote. Email mailto:[email protected] [email protected] or call 202-974-8226 for expedited registration. Proceeds help support CSA's Emergency Assistance Fund.
photo: 2019 IUOE 99 team; photo by Chris Garlock

Today's Labor Quote: Johnny Paycheck

Take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more
My woman done left and took all the reasons I was working for
You better not try to stand in my way 'cause I'm walkin' out the door
Take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more

From "Take This Job and Shove It," by Johnny Paycheck, listed by Billboard magazine as the most popular song in the U.S. on January 18, 1978.

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Today's Labor History

This week's [link removed] Labor History Today podcast: UAW's Punch Press strike daily
On today's show, the Cool Things from the Meany Archives crew features The Punch Press, an auto worker strike publication. Also this week, Saul Schniderman remembers contributions to labor history by both Johnny Paycheck and Bruce Springsteen.
Last week's show: (1/5): [link removed] A very unusual strike

January 17
Radical labor organizer and anarchist Lucy Parsons leads hunger march in Chicago; IWW songwriter Ralph Chaplin writes "Solidarity Forever" for the march - 1915

President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 10988, guaranteeing federal workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively - 1962

January 19
Twenty strikers at the American Agricultural Chemical Co. in Roosevelt, N.J. were shot, two fatally, by factory guards. They and other strikers had stopped an incoming train in search of scabs when the guards opened fire - 1915

3,000 members of the Filipino Federation of Labor strike the plantations of Oahu, Hawaii. Their ranks swell to 8,300 as they are joined by members of the Japanese Federation of Labor - 1920

Yuba City, Calif. labor contractor Juan V. Corona found guilty of murdering 25 itinerant farm workers he employed during 1970 and 1971 - 1973

Bruce Springsteen makes an unannounced appearance at a benefit for laid-off 3M workers, Asbury Park, NJ - 1986

January 20
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded - 1920

Hard working Mickey Mantle signs a new contract with the New York Yankees making him the highest paid player in baseball: $75,000 for the entire 1961 season - 1961

Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown," a eulogy for dying industrial cities, is the country's most listened-to song. The lyrics, in part: "Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores / Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more / They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks / Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown / Your hometown / Your hometown / Your hometown . . ." - 1986

- David Prosten

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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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