Hosts: Chris Garlock and Ed Smith; join us at 202-588-0893
Also, if you miss our live show – or want to hear a past show – Your Rights At Work is now available as a podcast! Just search for Your Rights At Work on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts; subscribe and you’ll get our shows right on your phone! Guests: Harold Meyerson, with "a modest proposal for the criteria by which the Senate should judge Trump's cabinet nominees, with a particular focus on Andy Puzder," and a consideration of the rather belated discovery this year by many mainstream economists that trade deals with low-wage nations may actually have negative consequences for American workers (with a shout-out to some of the dissident economists who have been pointing this out for the past quarter-century). David Stephen, ATU 689, is in-studio and discusses the latest news on the DC transit front. Hannah Kane, an organizer with MLOV, on the campaign to reinstate fired worker activist Julia Flores, who's battling to be reinstated at Whole Foods. Labor Song: Jon Fromer: Gonna Take Us All
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Last August, a relative carrying a firearm and two clips on his waist came to visit a patient at Providence Hospital in Northeast DC.
“The patient and the armed man starting arguing, which scared the nurses,” testified Registered Nurse Jonathan Lee earlier this week. “We were worried because mass shootings happen very often in this day and age.” While the situation was eventually resolved, Lee said that “I have yet to see a written policy on workplace violence at Providence Hospital.” Incidents like that are why Assistant Secretary of Labor David Michaels on Tuesday announced that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be granting National Nurses United's petition for a standard to prevent workplace violence in healthcare settings. NNU petitioned for such a standard in July of 2016. Lee joined other NNU members from across the country testifying Tuesday in Washington, D.C. at the OSHA public stakeholder meeting on workplace violence. On today's labor calendar, columnist Harold Meyerson and ATU Local 689’s David Stephen join me and co-host Ed Smith on Your Rights at Work, today from 1-2 pm here on WPFW. Harold thinks Trump should nominate a robot for Secretary of Labor. Listen and call in with your questions about worker rights, starting at 1 pm. For all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1876, Jack London was born. An American journalist, social activist and writer best-known for his novels "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang," London was a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. He wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel "The Iron Heel," his non-fiction exposé "The People of the Abyss," and "The War of the Classes." In 1919, Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson ordered police to raid an open-air mass meeting of shipyard workers in an attempt to prevent a general strike. Workers were brutally beaten. The strike began the following month, with 60,000 workers walking out in solidarity with some 25,000 metal tradesmen . And in 1942, President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board to mediate labor disputes during World War II. Despite the fact that 12 million of the nation’s workers were women, the panel consisted entirely of men. Today’s labor quote is by Jack London Here's his classic definition of a scab—someone who would cross a picket line and take a striker's job: "After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles" Federal unions applauded last week’s ruling by the National Labor Relations Board ending three years of outsourcing work from the United States Postal Service to Staples.
Dena Briscoe, president of the DC-area local of American Postal Workers Union, called the victory "A long time coming," and said that "It's good for the public, the workers and the agency. It's always best to have qualified workers handling the public's mail." On today's labor calendar, Sarah Jaffe (Ja-fee) talks about her new book “Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt” today at noon at the AFL-CIO. If you’re wondering what happened in 2016, this talk is a good place to start to get some answers. For all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor joke, a business owner decided to take a tour around his operation and see how things were going. At the shipping docks he saw a young man leaning against the wall doing nothing. The owner walked up to the young man and said, "Son, how much do you make a day?" The guy replied "$200." The owner pulled out his wallet, gave him $200, and told him to get out and never come back. A few minutes later, a shipping clerk asked the owner, "Have you seen the UPS driver? I asked him to wait here for me." Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1912, the IWW-organized “Bread & Roses” textile strike of 32,000 women and children began in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It lasted 10 weeks and ended in victory. The first millworkers to walk out were Polish women, who, upon collecting their pay, exclaimed that they had been cheated and promptly abandoned their looms. In 1936, nearly two weeks into a sit-down strike at GM’s Fisher Body Plant No. 2 in Flint, Michigan, in what became known as the “Battle of the Running Bulls,” workers battled police when they tried to prevent the strikers from receiving food deliveries from thousands of supporters on the outside. The battle pitted strikers throwing nuts, bolts, door hinges and other auto parts against police firing buckshot from riot guns. And in 1995, National Hockey League owners ended a player lockout that had gone for three months and ten days. A key issue was owner insistence on a salary cap, which they won. Today’s labor quote is by Rose Schneiderman “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.” Schneiderman was a prominent US union leader, socialist, and feminist in the first part of the twentieth century. Hosted by Union City Radio's Chris Garlock (second from left). The monthly Labor Live@5 series relaunched with a Jazz Jam with a trio of local musicians from the D.C. Federation of Musicians: Ephriam Wolfolk (double bass, second from right), John Albertson (jazz guitar, left) and Greg Holloway (drums/percussion, far right), performing a mix of jazz standards and Latin music. NOTE: due to a technical problem, the audio file for this show is not currently available. All three musicians are members of the Metropolitan Washington D.C. Federation of Musicians, Local 161-710 of the American Federation of Musicians, which made tonight's show possible. Local 161-710 can supply all your musical needs – from a solo pianist, harpist or strolling violinist to a rock band, jazz trio or large dance orchestra. They’ll go over every detail to make sure your wedding, corporate or political reception comes off exactly as planned. And best of all, you’ll be protected by a contract backed by the American Federation of Musicians, the largest organization in the world dedicated to representing professional musicians. Referrals are free; call (202) 337-9325. Labor Live@5 is produced by Korey Hartwich and engineered by David "The Cleaner" Kelly |
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