Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

Parallel meetings show labor engagement

9/18/2018

Delegates to the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO packed into the President's Room at the AFL-CIO last night (right) for the first meeting of the Fall season. After the traditional summer Council meeting recess -- which was full of local and national labor activities -- the delegates and leaders had a lot to report and share, and the meeting stretched to after 9p. A few blocks away at the DC City Council a hearing (below) on repealing Initiative 77 -- One Fair Wage, which was also a topic of discussion at the Metro Washington Council -- also attracted a large crowd and testimony there also stretched into the evening hours. With the Fall political season well underway -- labor-to-labor walks took place last weekend throughout the region -- the sense of engagement and committed activism was palpable at both the Metro Council and DC City Council meetings. Watch this space for updates soon. photos by Chris Garlock (right) and ROC DC (below)

Building pro-worker policies from the ground up

9/18/2018

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka hosts a panel of union members elected to political office at noon today for a discussion on “Shifting the power—building pro-worker policies from the ground up.” The panel includes Boston mayor Marty Walsh – member of the Laborers -- Dahlia Vertreese, a member of the Operating Engineers who serves as mayor of Hillside, New Jersey, and Ruth Wattenberg, an AFT member who’s on the DC State Board of Education. Click here or see Calendar (right) for details.

Labor Quote of the Day: Occupy Wall Street

9/18/2018

“We are the 99 percent.”
The slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which launched on September 17, 2011 with an anti-Wall Street march and demonstration that ended up as a 2-month encampment in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. The event led to protests and movements around the world, with their focus on economic inequality, corruption, greed and the influence on government of monied interests.

photo courtesy current.org

Today's Labor History

9/18/2018

Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week's show: racial justice activist Bill Fletcher reminds us of an 1893 strike in California by Chinese, Portuguese and Paiute Indians…Lauren Coodley, author of “Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual”… ATU’s Chris Townsend’s memories of Solidarity Day…our Labor History Object of the Week is original correspondence from the American Federation of Labor on expanding Social Security’s coverage. photo: ATU 689 at 1981 Solidarity Day, courtesy Washington Area Spark

The Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is formally founded at an Ohio convention - 1978

Nine strikebreakers are killed in an explosion at Giant (gold) Mine near Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Miner Roger Warren confessed that he planted the explosives that caused the deaths. He recanted the confession but later confessed once again - 1992

A 20-month illegal lockout of 2,900 Steelworkers members at Kaiser Aluminum plants in three states ends when an arbitrator orders a new contract. Kaiser was forced to firescabs and fork over tens of millions of dollars in back pay to union members - 1999

One week after the September 11, 2001, attacks, anthrax spores are mailed by an unknown party to several news media offices and two U.S. senators. Five people exposed to the spores died, including two workers at Washington, D.C.’s USPS Brentwood facility: Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen (right), who were to die of their exposure within the month – 2001
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services

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