Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

AFGE launches ‘Save the EPA’ drive

9/19/2017

Saying massive grass-roots pressure on lawmakers to force them to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink would succeed, the Government Employees (AFGE) and two top environmental groups last week launched a “Save the EPA” campaign. AFGE, along with the Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation, launched the campaign on September 12th to protect the EPA from expansive budget cuts and internal restrictions imposed by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, an avowed climate change denier. The campaign will include in-person lobbying and phone calls from constituents, as well as conversations between EPA workers and community members about the importance of environmental protections.
- Press Associates, Inc.

Lane Windham on "Knocking on Labor's Door" tonight at Takoma Busboys

9/19/2017

Lane Windham, Associate Director of Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and co-director of WILL Empower (Women Innovating Labor Leadership), discusses her brand-new new book “Knocking on Labor's Door” tonight at 6p at the Takoma Busboys and Poets. "Knocking on Labor's Door" shakes up current debates about labor's future by offering a fresh narrative for labor’s recent past. Highlighting the integral, often-overlooked contributions of women, people of color, young workers, and southerners, Windham reveals how in the 1970s a newly diversified working class powered a new wave of private-sector union organizing efforts. Employers, however, united to manipulate weak labor law and quash this new organizing wave. Windham's story inspires both hope and indignation, and will become a must-read for labor activists and scholars. The talk is part of the Metro Council's monthly Bread and Roses labor culture series.

Labor Quote of the Day: Joe Glazer

9/19/2017

"I dreamed that I had died, And gone to my reward,
A job in heaven's textile plant, On a golden boulevard.
The mill was made of marble, The machines were made of gold,
And nobody ever got tired, And nobody ever grew old."
From The Mill Was Made Of Marble

Today's Labor History

9/19/2017

Chinese coal miners forced out of Black Diamond, Wash. - 1885

Between 400,000 and 500,000 unionists converge on Washington D.C., for a Solidarity Day march and rally protesting Republican policies (right) – 1981

Musician and labor educator Joe Glazer, often referred to as “Labor’s Troubadour,” died today at age 88. Some of his more acclaimed songs include "The Mill Was Made of Marble," "Too Old To Work" and "Automaton." In 1979 he and labor folklorist Archie Green convened a meeting of 14 other labor musicians to begin what was to become the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange and, soon thereafter, the Labor Heritage Foundation - 2006
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services

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