This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.

​Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools – the only unionized charter schools in DC – abruptly announced last week it was closing its middle schools and consolidating its two high schools on one campus. Chavez educators found out their schools were closing via calls from the media. “Cesar Chavez would be appalled that management at the school that proudly bears his name has treated children, their parents and their educators with such utter contempt,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “A perennial problem with under-regulated charter schools is the lack of transparency, accountability and stability. Public schools could never operate in this cavalier and specious manner. Today,” Weingarten added, ”Chavez management showed just how damaging that absence of accountability can be.” Educator leaders at Chavez and the AFT have launched an investigation and are considering legal action.

On today’s labor calendar, the Virginia AFL-CIO Legislative Conference is taking place in Richmond, Virginia; check our website at dclabor.org for details; click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1932, the first U.S. unemployment compensation law was enacted, in Wisconsin.
 
Today’s labor quote is by Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, who, responding to unrest among Irish laborers building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, ordered the first use of American troops to suppress a labor dispute on this date in 1834.
Andrew Jackson, who said:
“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.”
                                                                            
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus, which offers a FREE consumer credit counseling session for union members. To learn more about how to get back on track with your finances, visit unionplus.org.

This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.

Registered nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital earlier this week welcomed the decision by the National Labor Relations Board to move forward with a complaint against the hospital citing numerous alleged labor violations.
“By moving this complaint forward the NLRB is sending a message to Johns Hopkins that they cannot disregard nurses’ right to organize,” said Oncology RN Kim Henriquez, a member of National Nurses United.
“We want Johns Hopkins Hospital to live up to its reputation for quality care. To do that, they must listen to the bedside nurses, and stop wasting millions of dollars on anti union consultants.”
The NLRB’s regional office has scheduled a hearing in Baltimore on March 6.

On today’s labor calendar, activity to end the government shutdown continues at the Hart Senate Office Building; check our website at dclabor.org for details; click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1915, the Supreme Court upheld “Yellow Dog” employment contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions. Yellow Dog contracts remained legal until 1932.                                                                                             

Today’s labor quote is by the editor of the United Mine Workers' Journal, writing in 1921, when the term “yellow dog contract” first appeared:
“This agreement has been well named. It is yellow dog for sure. It reduces to the level of a yellow dog any man that signs it, for he signs away every right he possesses under the Constitution and laws of the land and makes himself the truckling, helpless slave of the employer.”

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. To learn more about how Union Plus is helping federal workers impacted by the government shutdown and to apply for assistance, visit unionplus.org.

Broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
 
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
DC’s call-in show about worker rights: those you have, those you don’t, how to get them and how to use them.
 
Hour 1: AFGE Political Director Tucker McDonald with the latest on efforts to end the government shutdown; American Income Life Vice President Denise Bowyer on how AIL is helping by extending their lay-off waiver of premiums; DC Labor Chorus Director Elise Bryant on the story on the Chorus – and Trump resistance -- in Monday's Washington Post.
 
Hour 2: The 1919 Seattle General Strike with Dana Frank, Professor of History Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz and author, “Purchasing Power: Consumer Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1919-1929” and labor historian David Jepsen, Director, "Labor Wars of the Northwest." Plus Tula Connell with a Solidarity Center Report: “Cambodia Trash Collectors Win Pay Boost & Sri Lanka Garment Workers Stand up for  Rights at Work”

Produced by Chris Garlock and Peter Pocock; engineered by Robin Smith

This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.

​Today, on the eve of yet another missed paycheck for federal workers thanks to the Trump Shutdown, there’s a national Day of Action.
Federal unions are asking members and supporters to call your senators and representatives and “shut down” congressional phone lines by telling them to re-open the government. Right now, without wasting another second.
Here are the numbers to call:
855-976-9914 for the House;
866-803-8830 for the Senate.
Again, call your senators and representatives and tell them to reopen the government now. We have both those numbers on our website at dclabor.org. Thank you!

On today’s labor calendar, we’ll have the latest on the government shutdown on “Your Rights At Work” here on WPFW starting at 1pm; call in with your comments and questions about rights on the job.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1935, Krueger’s Cream Ale, the first canned beer, went on sale in Richmond, Virginia. Pabst was the second brewer in the same year to sell beer in cans, which came with opening instructions and the suggestion: "cool before serving."                                                                                                                     
Today’s labor quote is by Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, who famously quipped that
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”


Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. To learn more about how Union Plus is helping federal workers impacted by the government shutdown and to apply for assistance, visit unionplus.org.
 
Bonus: My Zero - "Work Is the Curse of the Drinking Class" Official Music Video
https://youtu.be/SDPOOb7jobk