It has been six months since the Mine Workers (UMWA) went on strike against Warrior Met Coal. Warrior operates two mines, a preparation plant and a central shop, located in the heart of Alabama, 15 miles east of Tuscaloosa. The UMWA represents about 850 workers at these facilities. In 2016, due to a series of questionable management decisions, Walter Energy filed for bankruptcy. But the workers decided to save their company, preserve their jobs and their communities by sacrificing wages, time off from work, loss of overtime pay and an end to full health care coverage. Their sacrifices totaled $1.1 billion over five years in cost savings and helped the company reach revenues in excess of $4.3 billion. The UMWA said the result of these sacrifices and an unheard-of financial comeback for the company was Warrior’s blatant mistreatment of its workers, forcing them to work most holidays and complete 12-hour shifts reaching up to seven days a week. “What Warrior Met has offered is just a tiny fraction of what the workers gave up five years ago,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. Click here to read a full recap of the strike and how union members and our communities are joining together to win a fair contract. - Kenneth Quinnell and Aaron Gallant, AFL-CIO Now blog click here for latest listings Union City Radio: 7:15am daily WPFW-FM 89.3 FM; click here to hear today's report Prince William County Labor Caucus Mon, September 27, 7pm – 8pm Meeting for PWC union members and community allies. Metro Washington Council Delegate meeting Tue, September 28, 5pm – 7pm RSVP here. NoVA Volunteer Phone Bank Tue/Wed, September 28/29, 6pm – 8pm We will be calling fellow union members about this important election! Post cards and lit are available for pick up at the NoVA Labor office. For more info contact Bob Zabel. [email protected]. 317-489-2501 Tri-County COPE Tue, September 28, 7pm – 9pm WEBINAR: Hilton Hotels is Playing Dirty with its Housekeepers Wed, September 29, 2pm – 3pm Did you know that Hilton is using COVID-19 as an opportunity to end daily housekeeping and eliminate housekeepers’ jobs? It’s a dirty trick. The hotel chain is telling CUSTOMERS that routine daily room cleaning has been eliminated due to the pandemic, while telling INVESTORS that this is the new normal that will enable the hotels to boost profits by permanently eliminating jobs. But YOU can help. To find out how, join us for this short, one-hour webinar. PRESENTERS: Carrie Sallgren, UNITE HERE; Susan Galicha, Housekeeper, Hilton Hawaiian Village (and St Joseph's parishioner); Clayton Sinyai, Catholic Labor Network CLICK TO REGISTER Fairfax County Dems Labor Caucus Wed, September 29, 7pm – 8pm Meeting of Fairfax County union members and friends of labor. Special guest Julie Hunter, Virginia AFL-CIO Political Director, will speak about the elections. Alexandria Dems Labor Caucus Wed, September 29, 7:30pm – 8:30pm Meeting of Alexandria union members and friends of labor. Contact [email protected] for the link. Union City Radio: Your Rights at Work Thu, September 30, 1pm – 2pm WPFW 89.3 FM or listen online. KI Fall Open House Thu, September 30, 6:30pm – 7:30pm Dahlgren Quad, Georgetown University (map) Optional RSVP via Facebook Womxn’s Labor Leadership Symposium 2021: WILL Empower Awards Fri, October 1, 11:30-1:30pm UPDATE: Symposium registration has closed but the public facing session – the WILL Empower Awards ceremony – will be available via Facebook Live on the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization Facebook page linked here. NATCA Sponsored Member-to-Member Lit Drop Walk Sat, October 2, 9am – 1pm Come to NoVA Labor for a member-to-member lit drop rally. NATCA's AnneMarie Sullivan will sing the National Anthem! Due to covid precautions we will gather outdoors and we will not be serving lunch. Individually wrapped breakfast snacks and water will be provided. 4536 John Marr Drive, Annandale. Questions contact Bob Zabel. [email protected] 317-489-2501 Missed last week’s Your Rights At Work radio show? Catch the podcast here: Sneak attack on worker rights; Oreo’s OK again; Womxn’s Labor Leadership Symposium. “These workers are tired of being mistreated, they are tired of being forced to work and missing time with their families. Warrior Met knows it is exploiting these workers, and it’s time for it to stop.”
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Feathers and Pennies - the 1888 Matchgirls and us. Last week's show: Rich Trumka on “Art is why they remember our struggles.”
Striking textile workers in Fall River, Mass. demand bread for their starving children - 1875 The International Typographical Union renews a strike against the Los Angeles Times and begins a boycott that runs intermittently from 1896 to 1908. A local anti-Times committee in 1903 persuades William Randolph Hearst to start a rival paper, the Los Angeles Examiner. Although the ITU kept up the fight into the 1920s, the Times remains nonunion to this day - 1893 International Ladies' Garment Workers Union begins strike against Triangle Shirtwaist Co. This would become the "Uprising of the 20,000," resulting in 339 of 352 struck firms—but not Triangle—signing agreements with the union. The Triangle fire that killed 246 would occur less than two years later - 1909 Twenty-nine west coast ports lock out 10,500 workers in response to what management says is a worker slowdown in the midst of negotiations on a new contract. The ports are closed for 10 days, reopen when Pres. George W. Bush invokes the Taft-Hartley Act - 2002 - David Prosten. |