Today's guests: DCA baggage handler Trey Baccus and SEIU 32BJ's Julie Karant on why airport workers want a union and $15 an hour. Plus: Ritchie Brooks, president of Teamsters Local 730, on how solidarity just saved every job (over 700) at the Safeway warehouse in Upper Marlboro.
Union City Radio's Chris Garlock and Ed Smith, labor lawyer and DCNA Executive Director, take listener calls and give shout-outs to area emergency, hospital and DPW personnel preparing to help area residents weather the impending snowstorm. Labor song of the day: Save the Hammer for the Man, Tom Morello/Ben Harper This Week's Labor Quiz: How many U.S. states are “right-to-work,” in which unions in organized workplaces are prohibited from requiring that dues or service fees be collected from all workers covered by, and benefiting from, the contract. (These people are often called “free riders” in that they benefit from collective bargaining but don’t help pay for it.) Is it 21; 22; 23; 24; or 25? Click on Labor Quiz to submit your answer and you could be next week's winner of a labor-themed prize!
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Walmart’s announcement last Friday that it was canceling two stores planned for the District sparked anger and surprise by elected officials but community activists said the move “proves once again that Walmart is a company that cannot be trusted.”
Countless residents knew better than to trust the big-box giant, but were ignored by elected officials eager to believe the company’s false promises, said Nikki Lewis, Executive Director of DC Jobs With Justice. “In meetings with residents and community leaders, the company promised to bring much-needed retail to Ward 7,” said Lewis. "Unfortunately,” she added, “when residents attempted to codify these promises in a written agreement, and later the Large Retailer Accountability Act, Walmart responded by threatening to cancel their plans to open three additional stores – effectively forcing Mayor Gray to veto the LRAA.” Reverend Edwin Jones, a pastor in Ward 7, added that "Walmart is not the kind of development we need in Ward 7. We need retailers that keep their promises and provide good jobs for our community.” On today’s labor calendar, catch Julie Karant of SEIU 32BJ on why airport workers are demanding a union and $15/hour at 1pm this afternoon on Your Rights at Work here on WPFW 89.3 FM. And then at 7pm tonight, NOVA Labor will hold its’ monthly meeting in Annandale, Virginia. For complete details go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1946, some 750,000 steel workers walked out in 30 states in the largest strike in U.S. history to that time. In 1974, postal workers began a four-day strike at the Jersey City, New Jersey mail center, protesting an involuntary shift change. The wildcat was led by a group of young workers who identified themselves as “The Outlaws.” And in 2000, six hundred police attacked picketing longshoremen in Charleston, South Carolina. Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King: “Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” After twenty-two years as an airport Skycap, Luis Andrades makes just four dollars and forty cents an hour. Tips are supposed to bring his wage up to the federal minimum, but ever since the imposition of bag fees -- which all go to the airlines -- tips have disappeared, Andrade told me at noon on Monday as he prepared to march near the Martin Luther King Memorial. “It’s impossible to survive on such low pay,” Andrades said, “That’s why we need a union and $15 an hour.”
Hundreds of airport workers and their supporters turned out in the frigid cold for the Martin Luther King Day demonstration, part of a large-scale national civil disobedience action in ten major cities across the country. Sporting purple SEIU knit caps against the icy breeze, the workers protested “the gross injustices and inequality that persist at airports across the country, and are calling for change in the hopeful and visionary spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said SEIU 32BJ, which is organizing them. “Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers who faced inhumane conditions at work and poverty wages,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. “I want to carry on the King legacy by standing with airport workers, from baggage handlers to cabin cleaners, fuelers to security officers, whose jobs have been contracted out to companies paying shamefully low wages.” On their march to block traffic on Kutz Bridge, the demonstrators, chanting "When we fight, we win!" stopped at the Martin Luther King memorial to sing “We Shall Overcome” as visiting tourists cheered them on and joined in the singing. Check out this week’s labor calendar at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: The Chicago Crib Disaster happened on this date in 1909. A fire broke out during construction of a water tunnel for the city of Chicago, burning the wooden dormitory housing the tunnel workers. While 46 survived the fire by jumping into the frigid lake and climbing onto ice floes, approximately 60 men died, 29 burned beyond recognition and the others drowned. In 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded. Today in 1961, hardworking Mickey Mantle signed a new contract with the New York Yankees making him the highest paid player in baseball: $75,000 for the entire season. And in 1986, Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown," a eulogy for dying industrial cities, was the country’s most listened-to song. Today’s labor quote is by Bruce Springsteen, from “My Hometown” "Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown..." In his final State of the Union address last week, President Obama said "Whatever you may believe, whether you prefer one party or no party, our collective future depends on your willingness to uphold your obligations as a citizen. To vote. To speak out. To stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us." The American Federation of Government Employees has compiled a handy list of “6 Important Quotes About Working People from the 2016 State of the Union”; you’ll find a link to it at dclabor.org
Check out this week’s labor calendar at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1915, twenty strikers at the American Agricultural Chemical Company in Roosevelt, New Jersey, were shot, two fatally, by factory guards. They and other strikers had stopped an incoming train in search of scabs when the guards opened fire. In 1920, some 3,000 members of the Filipino Federation of Labor struck the plantations of Oahu, Hawaii. Their ranks swelled to more than 8,000 as they were joined by members of the Japanese Federation of Labor. In 1973, Yuba City, California labor contractor Juan Corona was found guilty of murdering 25 itinerant farm workers he employed during 1970 and 1971. And in 1986, Bruce Springsteen mades an unannounced appearance at a benefit for laid-off 3M workers in Asbury Park, N.J. Today’s labor quote is by Bruce Springsteen: “Whatever their faults, unions have been the only powerful and effective voice working people have ever had in the history of this country, and this town knows that more than any other.” |
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