What We’re Reading: WORKERS' FIGHTS; Adjuncts organize; Wobblies at DC Bike Shop

Workers’ Fights: In the world of day labor, workers are often underpaid, not paid at all, or worse. The same goes for domestic work. It’s a shady world where workers more often than not don’t see any justice. But groups like workers centers, the Workers’ Rights Clinic, and Trabajadores Unidos de D.C. are working to change that, despite the uphill battle.
-City Paper, 3/4; photograph by Darrow Montgomery, City Paper

I was a professor at four universities. I still couldn’t make ends meet: Tanya Paperny shares what it was like to teach as an adjunct professor, and why she had to leave, because of the low pay and working conditions. “I taught as many as five classes each semester at four campuses in D.C. and Maryland, crisscrossing town by bike and public transportation during work days that sometimes lasted 13 hours.” Fortunately in the DC area, the majority of adjuncts are now represented by SEIU Local 500. 
-Washington Post, 3/6

Why a D.C. bike shop is joining a radical socialist union: In solidarity with those struggling to organize at Capitol Bikeshare, the nine-person staff at Capitol Hill Bikes have formed a union, the District Bicycle Workers' Union. “The process was a lot easier at Capitol Hill Bikes, as employees have a good relationship with the shop’s owner, Denise D’Amour, who recognized the union voluntarily. ‘The bottom line is that I have a good staff, they’re smart, and they have the best interest of the store at heart, and I’m willing to do what they think is best,’ she says.”
-Washington Post, 3/5

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