Many City of Takoma Park employees perform important work every day that goes unheralded and unsung, but the City would grind to a halt without them. Local artist Renee Lachman will be honoring City employees – members of AFSCME Local 3399 -- in a new series of paintings and charcoal drawings, including sanitation workers, gardeners, crossing guards, and library staff. A free opening reception for the Unsung Heroes exhibition will be held this Thursday (see Calendar) at 7:30 p.m. in the Takoma Park Community Center (7500 Maple Avenue). “These sanitation workers remind me of Olympic athletes with all their running and lifting of heavy trash, old furniture, yard waste, and broken tree limbs through all kinds of weather,” Lachman said. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve celebrated the work of doctors, nurses, and firefighters. I wanted to highlight Takoma Park’s other unsung heroes.” Read more here.
“They want us to come to work for them and make them a billion dollar company and not say a word. But we need a voice and that’s why I believe we need a union.” Keshia Brown is one of the workers at a Dollar General store in Holly Hill, South Carolina, who walked out on strike on July 16. This week’s Labor History Today podcast: A cold wind and a hot summer sit-down; Last week’s show: Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine. July 27 William Sylvis, founder of the National Labor Union, died – 1869 July 28 Women shoemakers in Lynn, Mass. create Daughters of St. Crispin, demand pay equal to that of men – 1869 A strike by Paterson, N.J. silk workers for an eight-hour day, improved working conditions ends after six months, with the workers’ demands unmet. During the course of the strike, approximately 1,800 strikers were arrested, including Wobblie leaders Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn – 1913 Federal troops burn the shantytown built near the U.S. Capitol by thousands of unemployed WWI veterans, camping there to demand a bonus they had been promised but never received - 1932 - David Prosten. Former Sheraton Columbia workers continue their fight against the Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel with actions today and this Saturday (see Calendar). “The county is processing complaints from twenty workers who the Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel has not recalled as required by the Hospitality Recall Ordinance,” reports Unite Here Local 7. “While we await enforcement of the bill, we are continuing to raise awareness of the worker’s call for people not to patronize the hotel.” This summer the focus is on concert goers to Merriweather Post Pavilion because of Brad Canfield’s co-ownership of the hotel and the fact that the Merriweather Lakehouse Hotel is marketing heavily to Post Pavilion concert goers. The first leaflet is today at 5p at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
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