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Rally: Prince George's County "is a union town"!

Nurses urge support for MD bill ensuring healthcare for all

UFCW 1994/MCGEO: MontCo negotiations update

Evening with Labor ad deadline coming up

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.

Three transit strike picket lines against Keolis: Woodbridge, Manassas & Leesburg: Thu, February 16, 3:30am - 5:00pm
Prince William County Transit workers (Teamsters Local 639) - 3:30 am to 5 pm; 14700 Potomac Mills Rd, Woodbridge,VA & 7850 Doane Drive, Manassas, VA

Loudoun County Transit workers (ATU Local 689) - 3:30 am to 3 pm; 43031 Loudoun Center Place, Leesburg

Your Rights at Work radio show (WPFW 89.3FM): Thu, February 16, 1pm - 2pm
WPFW 89.3 FM or [link removed] listen online.

D.C. COPE Happy Hour: Thu, February 16, 5:30pm - 6:30pm
AFL-CIO, 815 Black Lives Matter Plz NW, Washington, DC xxxxxx, USA ([link removed] map)

Info: mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

Baltimore Labor Council meeting: Thu, February 16, 7pm - 9pm

Email for call-in details: mailto:[email protected] [email protected]

NoVA Labor monthly meeting: Thu, February 16, 7pm - 9pm

On the agenda: Transit strikes, Delegate Joshua Cole, PWC candidate Kerensa Sumers, Community Service Agency's Letycia Pastrana, CLUW President (DMV) Chelsea Bland, Airport Worker health care campaign, Justice for Janitors campaign at GMU, organizing and legislative updates. This is an in-person meeting at the NoVA Labor union hall, 4536 B John Marr Drive, Annandale, VA. If you cannot attend in person, you can observe the meeting on [link removed] zoom.


Rally: Prince George's County "is a union town"!

Demanding "local jobs for local people," dozens of area building trades workers and their community and political allies rallied in Greenbelt last night. "I don't know when we got into the business of trying to rip people off here in Prince George's County," said Progressive Maryland Executive Director Larry Stafford, "but everyone deserves a wage that can sustain a family here in Prince George's County. And that applies to our school construction." The rally was organized to support adoption of a project labor agreement (PLA) ensuring that a percentage of county workers are hired and that the construction jobs are union. The PLA is supported by a majority of the Prince George's County Council, including Edward Burroughs III, Wala Blegay and Krystal Oriadha, all of whom attended and spoke at the rally. "We know that all across this county, all across the state, all across the East Coast, wage theft is rampant, misclassification is rampant," said Burroughs. "We know that these large companies hire subcontractors and they exploit workers, and one of the greatest ways we can protect county workers is through a project labor agreement." Said Blegay, "We want PLAs in the school system, we want PLAs all throughout Prince George's County construction, and we want private industry to understand this is a union town." Unions attending the rally included the Baltimore-DC Building Trades Council, MidAtlantic Carpenters, Plumbers 5, Painters DC 51, Steamfitters 602, SMART and Iron Workers 5. [link removed] CLICK HERE NOW to send a letter supporting a PLA in Prince George's County.

- report/photos by Chris Garlock/Union City

Nurses urge support for MD bill ensuring healthcare for all

"Every day nurses witness preventable health care tragedies that result from our current fragmented system of insurance, the high costs of care and insurance, and a health care system that too often puts profits before people," said RN Judy Alba yesterday, testifying in support of SB365/HB363 to the Senate Finance Committee hearing. Alba, a member of National Nurses United (NNU), is a registered nurse at an acute care hospital and a resident of Mt. Rainier in Prince George's County. The legislation would enable all Marylanders to get health care, regardless of immigration status. Noting that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for care under the ACA, Alba said that more than 275,000 Marylanders "have been left behind to struggle with a system that costs too much and puts finance before human need," adding "Disease does not know nationality or immigration status. When large sectors of our population are without health care, not only do they suffer, the whole society is put at risk in the case of infectious disease and we all pay higher costs for medical care."

photo: Alba (r) testifying beside NNU President Jean Ross (l) at another Senate hearing a few years ago.

UFCW 1994/MCGEO: MontCo negotiations update

The UFCW 1994/MCGEO bargaining team "is still hard at work, trying to finish up the latest contract negotiations with Montgomery County," reports Amy Millar, Special Assistant to the President at Local 1994. "Currently, we're in mediation, which is expected to last until tomorrow (Thursday). If mediation is unsuccessful, we will go into arbitration next week. The good news is that we're making progress and hope to reach an agreement soon."

Evening with Labor ad deadline coming up

The deadline for ads in this year's annual Evening with Labor program guide is Friday, February 24; [link removed] click here for details. Friday, March 3. This year the event - scheduled for Friday, March 3 -- will honor some incredible leaders from the local labor movement: Kayla Mock from UFCW Local 400, Sam Epps of UNITE HERE Local 25, Ottis Johnson Jr. of AFGE District 14, Chuck Clay of IATSE 22, and John Boardman of UNITE HERE 25 are among the individual honorees, and 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers, ATU 689, AFSCME District Council 3, OPEIU 2, IATSE 22, and UFCW 400 are among the organizational honorees.


Labor Quote: Leonora O'Reilly

"You cannot or will not make laws for us; we must make laws for ourselves. We working women need the ballot for self-protection; that is all there is to it."

Leonora O'Reilly was born in New York on this date in 1870. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she began working in a factory at 11, joined the Knights of Labor at 16, and was a volunteer investigator of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. She was a founding member of the Woman's Trade Union League.

Today's Labor History

This week's Labor History Today podcast: [link removed] Domestic worker, Mother of the Movement. Last week's show: [link removed] Reconciling a Slaveholding Past.

Diamond Mine disaster in Braidwood, Ill. The coal mine was on a marshy tract of land with no natural drainage. Snow melted and forced a collapse on the east side of the mine, killing 74 - 1883

Beginning of a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a five-day, 40-hour week - 1926

David Prosten

 

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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members. DYANA FORESTER, PRESIDENT.

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