Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO

Trump Labor Department tries to shield union-busters

6/22/2017

Union-busters work most effectively in secrecy, when workers don’t know the anti-union campaign is being run by high-priced legal guns-for-hire. That’s why the Obama Labor Department last year issued a union-buster transparency rule, officially known as the “persuader rule,” designed to increase disclosure requirements for consultants and attorneys hired by companies to try to persuade working people against coming together in a union. The Trump Labor Department issued a proposal on Monday that would rescind the rule and restore the cloak of secrecy to union-busters. Edith Saffa, a Holy Cross nurse fired for organizing and local labor lawyer Jon Newman discussed union-busting and the persuader rule with hosts Chris Garlock and Ed Smith on yesterday’s edition of Your Rights At Work on WPFW FM; click here to hear the show. And click here to leave a comment and tell the Labor Department that we should be doing more to ensure the freedom of working people to join together in a union, not less.
- adapted from a report on the AFL-CIO Now blog; photo (top left): at Monday's rally for reinstated Holy Cross nurse Edith Saffa; (bottom right): Saffa (right, in blue) and DCNA's Sandra Falwell with back-pay check; photos by Korey Hartwich/NNU

Attendance at labor events surgeS; Labor Night at the Nats tickets still on sale

6/22/2017

Riding a wave of solidarity, DC-area labor events are attracting record participation numbers. This year’s DC LaborFest saw record turnout at dozens of events including a standing-room only crowd for the AFI screening of Matewan with a live appearance by director John Sayles. And Labor Heritage Foundation Executive Director Elise Bryant reports overfill registration for its2017 Great Labor Arts Exchange, the annual conference, training and celebration of artists and musicians whose work strengthens the labor movement. “No surprise, then, that Labor Night at the Nats is seeing a surge in early tickets sales—perhaps the biggest in its 11-year history,” says Kathleen McKirchy, executive director of the Community Service Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO (CSA). Nearly 6,000 tickets have already been sold for labor families expecting to enjoy a cold one or two at the Friday evening,July 28 game. “I think there’s a lot of feeling out there that it’s time to come together and remind each other that we are a community not just of workers, but friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters and caring citizens.” Labor Night at the Nats is one of three family-oriented sporting events organized by CSA each year. Proceeds from these events go to support CSA’s Emergency Assistance Fund which provides area union members with critical financial support in times of need. Tickets for Labor Night at the Nats may be purchased individually or by group. Groups that purchase 50 tickets or more receive scoreboard recognition and raffle entry to win an autographed Nats baseball. Download CSA’s flyer here, or call 202-974-8221.
- Matt Losak; 2009 Labor Night at the Nats photo by Chris Garlock

Today’s Labor Quote: Robert Green Ingersoll

6/22/2017

The laboring man...ought to remember that all who labor are their brothers, and that all women who labor are their sisters, and whenever one class of workingmen or workingwomen is oppressed all other laborers ought to stand by the oppressed class.
Robert Green Ingersoll was an American lawyer, Civil War veteran, political leader and orator.

Weekend Labor History

6/22/2017

June 23
Charles Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, goes to Butte, Mont. in an attempt to mediate a conflict between factions of the miner’s local there. It didn’t go well. Gunfight in the union hall killed one man; Moyer and other union officers left the building, which was then leveled in a dynamite blast - 1914

Congress overrides President Harry Truman's veto of the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act. The law weakened unions and let states exempt themselves from union requirements. Twenty states immediately enacted open shop laws and more followed - 1947

OSHA issues standard on cotton dust to protect 600,000 workers from byssinosis, also known as "brown lung" - 1978

A majority of the 5,000 textile workers at six Fieldcrest Cannon textile plants in Kannapolis, N.C., vote for union representation after an historic 25-year fight - 1999

June 24
Birth of Agnes Nestor, president of the Int’l Glove Workers Union and longtime leader of the Chicago Women's Trade Union League. She began work in a glove factory at age 14 - 1880

Seventeen workers are killed as methane explodes in a water tunnel under construction in Sylmar, Calif. - 1971

June 25
More than 8,000 people attend the dedication ceremony for The Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Chicago, honoring those framed and executed for the bombing at Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886 - 1893
(A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present: If your last serious read of American history was in high school—or even in a standard college course—you’ll want to read this amazing account of America as seen through the eyes of its working people, women and minorities. Zinn, a widely respected Boston University professor, turns history on its head with his carefully researched and dramatic recounting of America and its people—not just its bankers, industrialists, generals and politicians.)

Fair Labor Standards Act passes Congress, banning child labor and setting the 40-hour work week - 1938

At the urging of Black labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, Franklin Roosevelt issues an executive order barring discrimination in defense industries - 1941

Congress passes the Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act over President Franklin Roosevelt’s veto. It allows the federal government to seize and operate industries threatened by strikes that would interfere with war production. It was hurriedly created after the third coal strike in seven weeks - 1943

A total of 21 workers are killed when a fireworks factory near Hallett, Okla., explodes - 1985

Decatur, Ill., police pepper-gas workers at A.E. Staley plant gate one year into the company's two-and-a-half-year lockout of Paperworkers Local 7837 - 1994
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services

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