Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

Macy’s workers unite across the country

4/20/2018

Macy’s workers and their supporters held three rallies yesterday, one as far away as Seattle, as UFCW locals 400 and 21 gear up to negotiate their next union contracts with the company. Workers want “better pay, better hours, better schedules, better everything,” UFCW 400 member Bianca Morris said on yesterday’s "Your Rights at Work" show on WPFW. “Negotiations are slow going, but we’ve made it very clear to Macy’s that our goal is to take the time to get the deal that our members have earned,” said UFCW 400 mobilization director Alan Hanson, who joined Morris on the show. UFCW Local 400 coordinated with Seattle sister local 21, which also represents hundreds of Macy’s associates, to hold simultaneous rallies yesterday. “We are really excited to be joining forces with our sisters and brothers in the Pacific Northwest,” said Alan. “We have made a commitment to negotiate together to win the contract we deserve.”
photo: DC Jobs with Justice Executive Director Elizabeth Falcon at the downtown DC rally; courtesy DC JWJ; click here for more photos

“Labor history matters!”

4/20/2018

...writes Kathleen McKirchy, the longtime Executive Director of the Metro Washington Council’s Community Services Agency, who recently retired. In this photo, Marcia Mikesell, Administrative Secretary at PPMWS/CWA (the Printing, Publications and Media Workers Sector of CWA) in Pittsburgh shows off a photo from the 1927 National convention of the International Typographical Union held in Indianapolis. McKirchy came across the photo about 15 years ago in an antique store “in Iowa or Indiana” and “rather than have it sit in my apartment” she got in touch with CWA — with whom the ITU merged — “to see if they might want it.” The folks at PPMWS got back to her and on a recent driving trip to Chicago, McKirchy stopped by to donate the photo. The framed stuff above Mikesell are old tools and artifacts of the printing trades. “These members from 94 years ago did their bit to advance the labor movement,” says McKirchy. “Now it’s up to us today to create new exciting history.”
photo credit Kathleen McKirthy

Labor Quote of the Day: Woody Guthrie

4/20/2018

"You struck a match and in the blaze that started,
You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns,
I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me.
Thirteen children died from your guns."
- from Guthrie's song Ludlow Massacre, about the Colorado state militia's attack on a striking coal miners' camp (see Today's Labor History)

today's labor history

4/20/2018

April 20
Nearly 10,000 demonstrators celebrate textile workers’ win of a 10-percent pay hike and grievance committees after a one-month strike, Lowell, Mass. - 1912

Ludlow massacre: Colorado state militia, using machine guns and fire, kill about 20 people—including 11 children—at a tent city set up by striking coal miners - 1914

An unknown assailant shoots through a window at United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther as he is eating dinner at his kitchen table, permanently impairing his right arm. It was one of at least two assassination attempts on Reuther. He and his wife later died in a small plane crash in 1970 under what many believe to be suspicious circumstances - 1948

United Auto Workers members end a successful 172-day strike against International Harvester, protesting management demands for new work rules and mandatory overtime provisions - 1980

April 21
New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller signs Taylor Law, permitting union organization and bargaining by public employees, but outlawing the right to strike - 1967

Some 12,500 Goodyear Tire workers strike nine plants in what was to become a 3-week walkout over job security, wage and benefit issues - 1997

Mary Doyle Keefe, who in 1943 posed as “Rosie the Riveter” for famed painter Norman Rockwell, dies at age 92 in Simsbury, Connecticut. Published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in May 1943, Rosie came to symbolize women factory workers during World War II. (The Rockwell painting is sometimes conjoined in peoples’ memories with a similarly-themed poster by Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller, “We Can Do It!” created the year before.) - 2015

April 22
Songwriter, musician and activist Hazel Dickens (right) dies at age 75. Among her songs: “They’ll Never Keep Us Down” and “Working Girl Blues.” Cultural blogger John Pietaro: "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them. Her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause" - 2011
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services

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