AFSCME Local 2910, the Library of Congress Professional Guild, is joining forces with the food service workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 23, to gather contributions for workers in the Library’s cafeterias. With the cafeterias closed until further notice, thirty food service workers have been out of work since the beginning of the pandemic last March. Their health insurance benefits were terminated on July 31, and their extended unemployment benefits will run out in December. Contributions will go directly into a special fund set up by Local 23, which will distribute grocery store gift cards directly to food service staff. The Guild urges others in the labor movement to step up by contributing to the Community Services Agency.
“The right-wing has effectively taken over much of the media, from TV stations to radio and podcasts,” reports Portside, which publishes “material of interest to people on the left.” Fortunately, they say, “labor organizers and analysts are creating high quality informative podcasts and news shows.” The publication shared a list of selected labor podcasts to check out and share with friends and co-workers. The Labor Radio/Podcast Network, organized by MWC Union Cities Coordinator Chris Garlock, is prominently featured, along with the "Labor Radio Podcast Weekly," which features highlights from some of the Network’s nearly 80 shows. The Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and Your Rights At Work shows are founding members of the Network. Check out this interactive map of the Network. “I’m not a lady, I’m a hell-raiser!”
Mother Jones died on November 30, 1930 at the Burgess Farm in Adelphi, Md. Photo: Mother Jones marker at the site with Friday's Folklore's Saul Schniderman, who worked to get it placed there. This week’s Labor History Today podcast: From 1980 to 1995, during a time of significantly declining membership in most other American labor unions, the Service Employees International Union – SEIU -- nearly doubled its membership. Dr. Timothy Minchin explains why, in this excerpt from the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast. The Columbine Mine Massacre, which took place on November 21, 1927, was an important moment in the Colorado Mine Wars. Bob Rossi, who hosts a monthly labor segment on the Willamette Wake Up show on KMUZ in Salem, Oregon, discusses miners' organizing efforts. Plus: On this week’s Labor History in 2:00, Rick Smith tells the story of the 1909 Uprising of the 20,000. Last week’s show: A journey down the Working River November 25 Some 10,000 New Orleans workers, black and white, participate in a solidarity parade of unions comprising the Central Trades and Labor Assembly. The parade was so successful it was repeated the following two years - 1883 November 26 Six young women burn to death and 19 more die when they leap from the fourth-story windows of a blazing factory in Newark, N.J. The floors and stairs were wooden; the only door from which the women could flee was locked - 1910 November 27 The pro-labor musical revue, “Pins & Needles,” opens on Broadway with a cast of International Ladies Garment Workers Union members. The show ran on Friday and Saturday nights only, because of the casts’ regular jobs. It ran for 1,108 performances before closing - 1937 November 28 Some 400 New York City photoengravers working for the city’s newspapers, supported by 20,000 other newspaper unionists, begin what is to become an 11-day strike, shutting down the papers - 1953 November 29 Clerks, teamsters and building service workers at Boston Stores in Milwaukee strike at the beginning of the Christmas rush. The strike won widespread support – at one point 10,000 pickets jammed the sidewalks around the main store – but ultimately was lost. Workers returned to the job in mid-January with a small pay raise and no union recognition - 1934 November 30 “Fighting Mary” Eliza McDowell, also known as the “Angel of the Stockyards,” born in Chicago. As a social worker she helped organize the first women’s local of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1902 – 1854 - David Prosten |