A record number of professionals are now in unions, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Professional union membership rose to 6.27 million last year, a gain of just over 90,000 members and a new all-time high. Union membership among professionals has steadily increased over the last 20 years, however, there are many sectors and occupations with plenty of room for union organizing. Legal services; architectural, engineering and computer services, for example, employ millions of professionals and are largely unorganized. On today’s labor calendar, tune in at 1 o’clock this afternoon for this week’s edition of Your Rights At Work when Ed Smith and I will take your calls about workplace rights. For complete details and all the latest labor events listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history… Hi, this is Linda Donahue, calling from Rochester, New York. On January 23, 1913, 10,000 clothing workers struck here in Rochester, NY for the 8 hour day, a 10% wage increase, union recognition, and some extra pay for overtime and holidays. Daily parades were held throughout the clothing district and there was at least one instance of mounted police charging the crowd of strikers and arresting 25 picketers. Six people were wounded over the course of the strike and one worker, 18 year old Ida Breiman, was shot to death by a sweatshop contractor on February 5. The strike was called off in April after manufacturers agreed not to discriminate against workers for joining a union. In was 1913, Rochester, New York. Today’s labor quote is by playwright Bertolt Brecht, who said: “Who struggles can fail. Who doesn’t struggle has already failed!” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Hey, if you’re looking for to ways manage your credit better in 2020, check out the Union Plus Credit & Budget Counseling program, which offers advice especially designed for union members. And you can get started with a FREE credit analysis session! To find out more, visit unionplus.org/creditcounseling.
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OPEIU Local 2 made history last week – just days before this year’s Women’s March -- when Linda Bridges was nominated for president, the first time in the 124-year history of the local that a woman will head up the union.
And with Sarah Levesque elected secretary-treasurer – the position previously held by Bridges – both top officers will be women, in a local that is primarily female members. The local’s executive committee will also include two African-American members, First Vice President Michael Spiller and Second Vice President Rian Howard. All the top officers are uncontested and will take office in April after the local’s next quarterly meeting. On today’s labor calendar, Support Eulen Workers Right to Organize today at noon at DCA National Airport, and then at 5, there’s a Speak Out on Workers and the Church in the DC Area at Georgetown University; for complete details and all the latest labor events listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1826 Indian field hands at the San Juan Capistrano mission refused to work, engaging in what was probably the first farm worker strike in California. Today’s labor quote is by Terence V. Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor, born on this date in 1849. Terence V. Powderly, who said: “In later life I was charged by many with being an agitator; some of my friends in defending me against assault denied that I was an agitator; they were wrong, I was an agitator and as such did all that lay in my power with voice and pen to agitate against the injustices practices on workingmen and women.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Hey, if you’re looking for to ways manage your credit better in 2020, check out the Union Plus Credit & Budget Counseling program, which offers advice especially designed for union members. And you can get started with a FREE credit analysis session! To find out more, visit unionplus.org/creditcounseling. (audio) We actually didn’t have any real idea of the magnitude and in fact, we thought that our loss was going to be--as terrible as it sounds--much greater.
That’s Fire Fighters president Harold Schaitberger, talking about the toll of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on firefighters and their families… (audio) And then finally, it took about not quite 48 hours to finally realize what the final magnitude of it was. But we immediately put into place you know our effort to take care of our families, providing cars that had been lost, the families of those perished, to stand up our own fund where we ultimately raised $162 million. Without one penny going to administrative fees and every dollar going to the families of those members. So it was--it was you know an unbelievable challenge for this Union but it--it met the challenge. Fire Fighters president Harold Schaitberger, on the latest episode of State of the Unions, the AFL-CIO’s podcast. On today’s labor calendar, the Metro Washington Council meets tonight at 6:30 at the AFL-CIO; details and all the latest local labor events listings are at dclabor.org. click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1974, Postal Workers began a four-day strike at the bulk and foreign mail center in Jersey City, New Jersey. The wildcat walkout was led by a group of young workers who identified themselves as “The Outlaws”. Today’s labor quote is by Ken Riley, president of Local 1422 of the International Longshoremen’s Association in Charleston, South Carolina, whose members were brutally attacked by 600 police while picketing on this date in 2000. Ken Riley, who said: “We come from the American South where labor is oppressed. We continue to win because losing is not an option.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Hey, if you’re looking for to ways manage your credit better in 2020, check out the Union Plus Credit & Budget Counseling program, which offers advice especially designed for union members. And you can get started with a FREE credit analysis session! To find out more, visit unionplus.org/creditcounseling. Martin Luther King's final speech in Memphis given the night before he was murdered in 1968 -- the 'I've been to the mountaintop' speech -- is well-remembered, but King's speech to the striking sanitation workers given a couple of weeks before his death was one of his most impassioned defenses of labor and collective action. Here is some of what Dr. King had to say:
(audio) “You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight, that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth. One day our society must come to see this. One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive, for the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant. All labor has dignity.” In today’s labor history, on this date in 1986, Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown," a eulogy for dying industrial cities, was the country’s most listened-to song… 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 Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown . . . Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Hey, if you’re looking for to ways manage your credit better in 2020, check out the Union Plus Credit & Budget Counseling program, which offers advice especially designed for union members. And you can get started with a FREE credit analysis session! To find out more, visit unionplus.org/creditcounseling. |
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