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Labor hails DC City Council move to protect feds

1/23/2019

The DC City Council yesterday unanimously approved the “Federal Worker Housing Relief Emergency Act of 2019” to protect unpaid federal government workers and contractors from foreclosure, eviction, and late fees during a federal government shutdown. Metro Washington Council president Jackie Jeter applauded the move, saying that “We have to ensure that our government workers are not used as pawns during this manufactured ordeal.” The bill, which takes effect immediately following the Mayor’s signature, would benefit as many as 80,000 federal workers and contractors living in DC. Under this law, moved by At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds, judges will be required to “put on hold” any motion by a housing provider or lender to evict or foreclose upon a federal worker or contractor during a federal government shutdown and for 30 days after the end of the shutdown, for a period of up to 90 days.
Jeter (at right) at January 10 AFGE/NFFE rally; photo courtesy Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images

BLET’s Herb Harris heads up 2019 Evening With Labor awardees

1/23/2019

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET) DC Chair Herb Harris heads up the list of winners of the 2019 Evening with Labor awards, announced Metro Washington Council president Jackie Jeter. Harris will be awarded the J.C. Turner Award for Outstanding Trade Unionist of the Year at this year's Evening with Labor on Saturday, March 2 at Martin’s Crosswinds in Greenbelt, MD. “Herb’s role as a longtime advocate for rail safety has made him a key political player locally and statewide,” Jeter said. “He’s been a strong ally for the entire metro-area labor movement, and an enthusiastic participant in both the Committee on Political Education and the Metro Council’s Executive Board.” Click here for details, including ordering tickets and ads in the program book.

The other Evening with Labor awardees include SEIU local 722 (Thomas M. Bradley Community Services Award), AFSCME/NUHHCE 1199 (DC COPE Award and Golden Picket Sign), The Washington-Baltimore News Guild (Organizing Award), IATSE 22 (Organizing Award), and National Nurses United (Golden Picket Sign).

This year’s event will also feature a brand-new award, the Joslyn N. Williams Vanguard Award, which “recognizes individuals who have demonstrated the ability to impact labor’s future beyond traditional means,” said EWL Chair Doris Reed. The first recipient will be former MWC president Jos Williams “who embodies all of the characteristics of this award,” said Reed.

photo: Harris at the recent DC LaborFest book talk on "The Lac-Megantic Rail Disaster: Public Betrayal, Justice Denied"; photo by Chris Garlock

Today’s Labor Quote: Elise Bryant

1/23/2019

“We sing for all labor. We sing to organize. We are a mighty chorus. We’re singing for our lives.”

Quoted in "D.C. Labor chorus: ‘The musical arm of the resistance’" in Monday's Washington Post; you can also hear her on this morning's Union City Radio at 7:15a on WPFW 89.3FM
photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post

Today's Labor History

1/23/2019

Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. On this week’s show: Martin Luther King, Jr. on the dignity of labor, labor historian Erik Loomis on “A History of America in Ten Strikes,” plus the 1913 Rochester strike by 10,000 clothing workers, Bill Fletcher remembers the 2000 police attack on picketing longshoremen in Charleston, South Carolina, and a rare speech by Dr. King for “Cool things from the George Meany Labor Archives.”

Some 10,000 clothing workers strike in Rochester, N.Y., for the 8-hour day, a 10-percent wage increase, union recognition, and extra pay for overtime and holidays. Daily parades were held throughout the clothing district and there was at least one instance of mounted police charging the crowd of strikers and arresting 25 picketers. Six people were wounded over the course of the strike and one worker, 18-year-old Ida Breiman, was shot to death by a sweatshop contractor. The strike was called off in April after manufacturers agreed not to discriminate against workers for joining a union – 1913

In Allegany County, MD, workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal era public works program employing unmarried men aged 18-25, are snowbound at Fifteen Mile Creek Camp S-53 when they receive a distress call about a woman in labor who needs to get to a hospital. 20 courageous CCC volunteers dig through miles of snow drifts until the woman is successfully able to be transported - 1936

Labor history courtesy Union Communication Services

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Metro Washington Council afl-cio

Labor hails DC City Council move to protect feds

BLET’s Herb Harris heads up 2019 Evening With Labor awardees

Today’s Labor Quote: Elise Bryant

Today's Labor History

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