NEWS: In a victory for community activists, Walmart's request for a special zoning exception to build a new Super Center in Bowie was denied on January 21. UFCW Local 400 congratulated their community allies in Bowie “for standing up to Walmart and preserving their community and good jobs in Prince George's County!”
Montgomery County employees will receive wage increases under a tentative agreement reached between UFCW 1994 MCGEO and the County administration. The agreement covers the third year of the existing contract and Local 1994 will return again to the bargaining table in November for negotiations with the County over the full contract. Go to dclabor.org for all the latest local labor news. In this week’s Labor Quiz, American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez organized a nationwide boycott involving what type of fruit? Was it bananas; oranges; grapes; apples or cantaloupes? Go to unionist.com and click on Labor Quiz to submit your answer and you could be this week’s winner! Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1917, Wobbly activist Tom Mooney was convicted in a bombing frame-up orchestrated by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He was pardoned and released 22 years later. In 1937, Congress approved legislation putting $940 million into Depression-era relief projects. And on this date in 1950, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy falsely charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. It seems that just about everyone else the Wisconsin senator didn’t like was a Communist as well, including scores of unionists. This was the beginning of "McCarthyism." He ultimately was officially condemned by the Senate and died of alcoholism. Today’s labor quote is by IWW leader Tom Mooney: “I suppose the urge to serve the labor movement was born in me.”
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In July 1984, the action taken by one young Irish shop cashier changed the face of the anti-apartheid movement around the world. The film “Blood Fruit” – screening this Sunday in the Capital Irish Film Festival -- tells what happened when Mary Manning refused to sell two grapefruits under direction from her union in support of the anti-apartheid struggle. She and ten supporters were suspended and a strike ensued. The screening is at 4:30 pm and director Sinead O'Brien will be on hand for Q&A after the film. Go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for complete details.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1896, ironworkers from six cities met in Pittsburgh to form the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers of America. In 1904 it took more than a thousand firefighters 30 hours to put down The Great Baltimore Fire, which started on this day and destroyed 1,500 buildings over an area of some 140 acres. In 1910, Philadelphia shirtwaist makers voted to accept an arbitration offer and end their walkout as the Triangle Shirtwaist strike wound down. One year later 146 workers, mostly young girls aged 13 to 23, were to die in a devastating fire at Triangle’s New York City sweatshop. On this date in 1919, the Seattle General Strike began. The city was run by a General Strike Committee for six days as tens of thousands of union members stopped work in support of 32,000 striking longshoremen. Today’s labor quote is from a pamphlet circulated in Seattle during the 1919 general strike: “You are doomed to wage slavery till you die unless you wake up, realize that you and the boss have nothing in common, that the employing class must be overthrown, and that you, the workers, must take over the control of your jobs, and through them, the control over your lives instead of offering yourself up to the masters as a sacrifice six days a week, so that they may coin profits out of your sweat and toil.” The long hours, the paywalls, and the turnover may have proven enough for Politico staffers to start organizing. That and having Mike Elk on board, a labor reporter union supporter who’s leading the current charge to get representation at the news outlet. As the Washington Free Beacon reports, there has not been open pushback from management and there seems to be interest among the staff at Politico. The Beacon also noted that Politico lost over 40 staff in 2014, and five more already this year. Organizers believe the effort could take six months to a year.
Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1937, the movie Modern Times premiered. The tale of the tramp – played by Charlie Chaplin -- and his paramour – played by Paulette Goddard – brilliantly mixed slapstick comedy and social satire, as the couple struggled to overcome the difficulties of the machine age including unemployment and nerve-wracking factory work, and get along in modern times. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, requiring employers to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a family or medical emergency. And on this date in 2003, in what turned out to be a fatal business decision, Circuit City fired nearly 4,000 experienced sales people. Sales plummeted and six years later Circuit City declared bankruptcy. Today’s labor quote is by Charlie Chaplin: “We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost." Charlie Chaplin, who said “You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure! Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world . . .” News: National Nurses United member and RN Kendra Ziegler last Thursday night urged the Montgomery County Council to allow all workers to earn paid sick days. "As a registered nurse, I know that a great way to cut down on the spread of sickness, improve public health, and keep Montgomery County working is to require paid sick leave for all workers," Ziegler testified. The crowd of 50 speakers and supporters included unions and community allies in the Working Families Coalition, which includes 130 organizations across Maryland fighting for paid sick leave for all workers in the state. Click here to sign a petition supporting paid sick leave.
Today’s labor calendar includes a noontime panel on Men, Fathers, and Work-Family Balance; click on calendar for complete details. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1825, the Ohio legislature authorized construction of the Miami and Erie Canal, to connect Toledo to Cincinnati. Local historians say "Irish immigrants, convicts and local farmers used picks, shovels and wheelbarrows," at 30 cents per day, to construct the 249-mile-long waterway. In 1869, "Big Bill" Haywood was born in Salt Lake City, Utah; Haywood became the leader of Western Federation of Miners, and a founder of the International workers of the World, or IWW. On this date in 1913, Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man launched the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and the birth of the civil rights movement, was born in Tuskeegee, Alabama. In 2009, President Barack Obama imposed caps of $500,000 on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure" Today’s labor quote is by Rosa Parks: “People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Rosa Parks, who said “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right. ” Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement." |
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