News: David Keicher, Director of Affiliate and Federation Outreach in the AFL-CIO’s Campaigns Department, is retiring after 43 years in the labor movement. “What I remember and cherish most are the friends I have made," said Keicher. "I wish you well in our continued fight for economic and social justice for our members, their families and all workers.”
Longtime AFGE Local 2876 president Joyce Melchor passed away recently. She had just retired on December 31 after heading the local for decades; she had been at the Government Printing Office for 50 years. John Bonnage died on January 26. He was a health and safety trainer for AFSCME for many years and was particularly noted for his work on HIV/AIDS Education and on the Business and Labor Responds to AIDS project of the Centers for Disease Control. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1834, one of the first American labor newspapers, The Man, was published in New York City. It cost one cent, and, according to The History of American Journalism, “died an early death.” Another labor paper, the N.Y. Daily Sentinel, had been launched four years earlier. In 1918, faced with 84-hour workweeks, 24-hour shifts and pay of 29¢ an hour, fire fighters formed The International Association of Fire Fighters. Some individual locals had affiliated with the AFL beginning in 1903. Today’s labor quote is by labor educator Fred Kaltenstein: “Why should we get involved? Why should my child learn about what happened to workers a hundred years ago? If these children don’t understand and appreciated the struggles of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, they may be doomed to fight the same battles over again.”
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The Jefferson hotel – whose workers belong to UNITE HERE Local 25 -- ranks Number 10 on U.S. News & World Report's 2015 list of the nation's best hotels, jumping from number 99 on last year’s list. "Aside from honors from Fodor's and Frommer's, The Jefferson earned recognition from more industry experts in 2015, including Travel and Leisure and Lonely Planet," writes U.S. News. The Jefferson also got rave reviews from travelers, who said that the hotel's staff members went out of their way to make their stays memorable, helping it to nab a spot on the Conde Nast Readers' Choice List as well.
Here's today's labor history: On this date in 1910, a few weeks after workers asked for a 25-cent hourly wage, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company fired 173 union members and brought in replacements from New York City. Striker-scab battles and a general strike ensued. In 1975, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of sales clerk Leura Collins and her union, the Retail Clerks, in NLRB versus J. Weingarten Inc.—the case establishing that workers have a right to request the presence of their union steward if they believe they are to be disciplined for a workplace infraction. And in 1986, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed an agreement with the Campbell Soup Co., ending a 7-year boycott. Today's labor quote is from a Weingarten Rights card, which many union members carry at all times, with instructions to read word for word: "If this discussion could in any way lead to my being disciplined or terminated, or affect my personal working conditions, I respectfully request that my union representative, officer, or steward be present at this meeting. Until my representative arrives, I choose not to participate in this discussion." News: IMF employees on their way into work last Thursday were warned that asbestos work is being done by workers with faked asbestos licenses. Members of the Laborers Mid-Atlantic local, wearing Tyvek suits and gas masks, passed out informational fliers about the fraudulent licenses at the IMF building on 19th Street, which houses approximately 2,300 staff and a day care center which has remained open during the asbestos abatement project. The District of Columbia recently found that staffing company Green Jobs Works has employed six “unlicensed personnel” on the ongoing project. Asbestos is a known human carcinogen and can cause chronic lung disease as well as lung and other cancers.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1937, sixty-three sit-down strikers, demanding recognition of their union, were tear-gassed and driven from two Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation plants in Chicago. Two years later the U.S. Supreme Court declared sit-down strikes illegal. The tactic had been a major industrial union organizing tool. In 1992, two locals of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, struck in sympathy with 1,300 graduate student teaching assistants who were demanding the right to negotiate with the university. Today’s labor quote is by Congressman Barney Frank: “People talk about how a rising tide lifts all boats. For some people a rising tide is a very bad thing. For people who don’t have a boat and who are standing on their tip toes to keep their heads above water, a rising tide is not a welcome prospect.” Barney Frank served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. Happy President’s Day, a federal holiday and day off for many workers.
News: Transit workers have been calling for the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority to create and enforce a safety culture since the fatal 2009 Red Line accident, ATU Local 689 president Jackie Jeter testified last Friday. “Five years ago, Local 689 testified in support of retraining plans, routine recertification and equipment upgrades,” Jeter told the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “While we commend the improvements made since the 2009 accident, we must point out that WMATA has not met the necessary task of developing a safety culture.” Friday’s hearing was called in response to the deadly smoke incident at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station on January 12, which killed one and injured nearly 40 people. Jeter outlined three main areas of safety that the union believes should be prioritized, including investing in training and continuous re-training for the entire workforce, changing the perception by Metro workers that they may face retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions, and holding management to the same standards of education and preparation as workers. This Week's Labor Quiz asks who wrote the 1931 union anthem, "Which Side Are You On?" Was it Woody Guthrie; Florence Reece; Pete Seeger; Mother Jones, or Joe Hill? Go to unionist.com and click on Labor Quiz to submit your answer and YOU could be next week's winner! Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1926, a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers began, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a 5-day, 40-hour week. And in 2011, all public schools in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin were closed as teachers called in sick to protest Governor Scott Walker’s plans to gut their collective bargaining rights. In honor of President’s Day, today’s labor quote is by Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States: “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” |
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