Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

Sick and Safe Leave Forum set for July 25

7/20/2017

With just a few exceptions, if you work in DC, you have the right to take paid sick days when you or a loved one is ill, to go to a doctor, or to receive services related to domestic violence or assault. “It's outrageous how many employers still violate this law on a daily basis,” says Ari Schwartz, Lead Organizer for DC Jobs With Justice. To make paid sick days for all a reality, “workers need to know their rights and have the tools to defend them,” says Schwartz, which is why the Just Pay Coalition is hosting a Sick and Safe Leave Forum and presentation on July 25, in partnership with the DC Department of Employment Services’ Office of Wage-Hour (OWH). “It's time for every employer to follow the law and for every worker to know about their right to paid sick days,” said Schwartz, who will be on WPFW's Your Rights At Work today . Click here for details and to RSVP.
photo originally posted by the Employment Justice Center

Boardman and Contreras make Latino Powermeter list

7/20/2017

Two area labor leadershave made the 2017 El Tiempo Latino Powermeter, the publication’s list of the 100 most influential people for Latinos in the metro area. SEIU Local 32BJ Vice President Jaime Contreras and Unite Here Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Boardman made the selection, culled from more than 400 nominees. “Considered a key figure among the new generation of leaders in immigration and labor rights groups in DC,” Contreras – who also serves on the Metro Washington Council’s Executive Board -- “has been able to build alliances with a growing immigrant community in DC, Maryland, and Virginia while bridging the gap between labor and New Americans,” while Boardman “has arduously fought to help hundreds of Latino workers improve their work benefits by pushing for contracts with improved pension plans and salary wages.”

Labor Quote of the Day: William Burrus

7/20/2017

"Those unions that enjoy the right to strike have no guarantee that sacrificing their jobs and their livelihood will result in victory but they nevertheless engage in lengthy strikes, not because they are assured of winning but because they are determined to fight."
Burrus is a former president of the American Postal Workers Union

Today's Labor History

7/20/2017

New York City newsboys, many so poor that they were sleeping in the streets, begin a 2-week strike. Several rallies drew more than 5,000 newsboys, complete with charismatic speeches by strike leader Kid Blink, who was blind in one eye. The boys had to pay publishers up front for the newspapers; they were successful in forcing the publishers to buy back unsold papers - 1899
(Kids at Work: Your heart will be broken by this exceptional book’s photographs of children at backbreaking, often life-threatening work, and the accompanying commentary by author Russell Freedman. Photographer Lewis Hine—who himself died in poverty in 1940—did as much, and perhaps more, than any social critic in the early part of the 20th century to expose the abuse of children, as young as three and four, by American capitalism.)

Two killed, 67 wounded in Minneapolis truckers' strike—"Bloody Friday" - 1934

Postal unions, Postal Service sign first labor contract in the history of the federal government—the year following an unauthorized strike by 200,000 postal workers, the largest wildcat strike in U.S. history - 1971

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