“I’ll be there to demand jobs with justice” and commits those who take the pledge to be there at least five times over the course of the year. What is to be a 7-day streetcar strike begins in Chicago after several workers are unfairly fired. Wrote the police chief at the time, describing the strikers’ response to scabs: "One of my men said he was at the corner of Halsted and Madison Streets, and although he could see fifty stones in the air, he couldn't tell where they were coming from." The strike was settled to the workers’ satisfaction - 1885 An executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the National Labor Relations Board. A predecessor organization, the National Labor Board, established by the Depression-era National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, had been struck down by the Supreme Court - 1934 IWW strikes Weyerhauser and other Idaho lumber camps - 1936 Jesus Pallares, founder of the 8,000-member coal miners union, Liga Obrera de Habla Espanola, is deported as an "undesirable alien." The union operated in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado - 1936 The Boilermaker and Blacksmith unions merge to become Int’l Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers - 1954 The newly-formed Jobs With Justice stages its first big support action, backing 3,000 picketing Eastern Airlines mechanics at Miami Airport - 1987 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in CWA v. Beck that, in a union security agreement, a union can collect as dues from non-members only that money necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining representative - 1988 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services Rallies against the GOP healthcare bill are planned at the Capitol today andtomorrow in what's being called a “People’s Filibuster”. The Senate plan, crafted in secret by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will make millions of working people pay more for less healthcare, tax workplace plans, and give massive tax breaks to the rich. It would also take away health care from millions of working people, and drastically cut Medicaid. The rallies start as early as 8a this morning and run all day at the U.S. Capitol. You can also click here to sign a petition telling the Senate to oppose the GOP health care bill. "Whenever there has been movements or resistance, there have always been arts and music," Carlos Jimenez, the executive director of the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, told the record crowd of over 200 artists, activists, and musicians who attended last Saturday night’s Power of Song concert at the Great Labor Arts Exchange (GLAE). The event, part celebration, part conference and training, has been held annually for nearly four decades at what is now the Tommy Douglas Conference Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. In addition to the music, GLAE featured multiple panels and workshops including "Out at Work," a panel about the LGBT community's experience in the workplace and "Building a Vocal Community," Ysaye Barnwell’s workshop focusing on African-American spirituals. The 2017 Arts Exchange culminated with an unprecedented concert of nearly a dozen choral groups from across North America coming together to sing "Solidarity Forever," which John Paul Wright, a labor singer, organizer and Locomotive Engineers union member, called an "unforgettable moment." Exhausted but exuberant, Arts Exchange organizer Elise Bryant, Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation, said afterward that "Never have so many social justice activists, and laborers come together in one place to celebrate the importance of arts and music and the spoken word in support of the labor movement." - Mack Miller; photos by Matt Losak; check out more photos here. |