If you get your health care coverage through work, it's time to start paying attention to what’s going on in Washington. Especially to the new plan to tax our health benefits.
Republican leaders in Congress are doing their best to keep this under wraps, but under the Republican plan being discussed, at least some of the cost of our health care benefits could be included in our taxable earnings. Employers may well react to this by cutting back on our health benefits through even higher deductibles and co-pays or even eliminating our health plans altogether.
Let your senators and members of Congress know what you think. Tell them not to tax your workplace health care benefits.
You might even want to do that in person. They are at home this week, hosting town halls, public appearances and other events with their constituents. To find an event near you, go to our website at dclabor.org

Here’s today's labor history,
On this date in 1938, members of the Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in San Francisco’s Chinatown begin what is to be a successful four-month strike for better wages and conditions at the National Dollar Stores factory and three retail outlets.
In 1940, Screen Actors Guild member Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award, honored for her portrayal of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind”
And on this date in 1986, in response to the layoff of 450 union members at a 3M factory in New Jersey, every worker at a 3M factory in Elandsfontein, South Africa, walks off the job in sympathy.

Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King, who said
“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families; find out more at unionplus.org.

Jibril Wallace has been working at the Safeway in Washington, D.C. for 28 years. She has worked much of that time with no paid sick days. “When you were sick, or the kids were sick, you went to work,” Jibril says. “You found a relative who worked in government and had sick leave if you could. Or I’d do the overnight shift and their dad would stay with them, and I’d be there during the day.”
Asked how she managed when she herself was sick, Jibril said, “I’m not quite sure what that is—you still had to go to work.”
Since the District of Columbia’s paid sick days law was expanded to include part-time workers, Jibril has a new peace of mind. “It’s very relieving to know if your kid or you yourself are sick, there will still be hours on your check,” she said. 
Unfortunately, there are now attempts to dilute the new paid sick days law; we’ll keep you updated as that story develops.
Meanwhile, you can read Jibril’s complete story – and see a great photo of Jibril and her way-cute kids -- on our website at dclabor.org

On today’s labor calendar,
there’s a protest against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker this morning starting at 9a in front of the Washington Post, and at 2pm this afternoon, author John DeSantis will discuss his book “The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike” at the African American Civil War Museum.
Complete details on these and all the local labor events are at dclabor.org, click on calendar.

Here’s today's labor history,
On this date in 1908, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women, justifying them as necessary to protect their health. A laundry owner was fined $10 for making a female employee work more than 10 hours in a single day.
In 1912, women and children textile strikers were beaten by Lawrence, Massachusetts police during a 63-day walkout protesting low wages and work speedups.
And in 1919, Congress passed a federal child labor tax law that imposed a 10 percent tax on companies that employ children. The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional three years later.

Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, who said
“In Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills they have just passed a bill to protect song birds. What about the little children from whom all song is gone?”

​Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families; find out more at unionplus.org.

Hosts:  Chris Garlock and Ed Smith; JOIN US AT 202-588-0893

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 Union City Radio on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts; subscribe and you’ll get our shows right on your phone!

On today's show, David Cay Johnston, author “The Making of Donald Trump," and Russell Hebron, the NIH shuttle bus driver fired for wearing a union button on the job.

Labor Song: Aretha Franklin – Respect

Produced by Sid Dawson, engineered by Mike Nasella; Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org.

Discussions about how labor needs to stand with immigrant workers and against the criminalization of minorities were the highlights of Tuesday night’s DC COPE meeting and this month’s edition of the DC LaborFest’s Bread and Roses series.
At the COPE meeting at IATSE Local 22’s union hall, workers and union activists agreed to stand together, to speak out, and to attend the Metro Council’s upcoming March 10 training on immigrant rights.
A few miles away, more than 50 union members and community allies gathered at the Takoma Park Busboys and Poets to watch and discuss the new documentary “13th,” Ava DuVernay’s searing exploration of the "intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States."

On today’s labor calendar, our guests on this week’s edition of Your Rights at work are Russell Hebron, the NIH shuttle bus driver fired for wearing a union button on the job, and David Cay Johnston, author “The Making of Donald Trump.” Plus we’ll take listener calls; the show starts at 1p here on WPFW.

Here’s today's labor history,
On this date in 1868, educator and civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois was born.
In 1904, the San Francisco Examiner began publishing articles on the “menace” of Japanese laborers, leading to a resolution in the California legislature that action be taken against their immigration.
And in 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” following a frigid trip—partially by hitchhiking, partially by rail—from California to Manhattan. The Great Depression was still raging. Guthrie had heard Kate Smith’s recording of “God Bless America” and resolved to himself: “We can’t just bless America, we’ve got to change it.”

Today’s labor quote is by W.E.B. DuBois
“We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong – this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it.”

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families; find out more at unionplus.org.

It all started with a simple handshake. Georgetown University student Febin Bellamy was getting ready for another late night of studying. Janitor Oneil Batchelor was starting his night shift. It was the usual routine, Batchelor would come in to clean the classroom and Bellamy would study. On this particular night, however, the two young men started talking. Batchelor's dream of starting his own catering business was something that Bellamy, a business student and a former service worker himself, could relate to. Before returning to their routine, the two exchanged a handshake. Bellamy shared Batchelor’s story on his Facebook page and within weeks, students across campus raised $2,500 to help jumpstart Batchelor’s catering business. Bellamy got to know more Georgetown service workers -- many of them members of Unite Here Local 23 who work in the school's cafeterias -- and, inspired by their stories and dreams, he created Unsung Heroes, a nonprofit organization that focuses on promoting awareness and appreciation for workers on college campuses and  works to “make visible the Invisibles.” Recent profiles on the Unsung Heroes Facebook page include Cheung Gunho, who works in Georgetown's Leo O'Donovan Dining Hall, Georgetown bus driver Alvaro Barberena, and Dorothy Lewis, a facilities worker at Georgetown University Medical Center.  To read their stories, click on the link to the Unsung Heroes Facebook page on our website at dclabor.org 

Here’s today's labor history, 
On this date in 1918, textile mill owners in India locked out their workers over a cost-of-living wage dispute. Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi proposed a compromise and began his first “fast unto death,” which lasted for four days until the mill owners agreed to arbitration.

Today’s labor quote is by Mohandas K. Gandhi, now known as Mahatma Gandhi, who said
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. ​​​​​​

Nearly 150 food, beverage and concessions workers at National Airport won union recognition last week. 
The workers at DCA’s Paradies Shops started organizing with UNITE HERE Local 23 after other workers at DCA won union recognition last Fall. The organizing effort coincided with recent mass mobilizations resisting immigration enforcement in airports. “The reason we joined together is for respect,” said Committee leader Aschalew Asabie at a February 1 rally at DCA. “I came to this country from Ethiopia," said Asabie. "A majority of the people who work in this airport are immigrants. We did not expect this when we moved to this country, but we are awake now, and we are going to demand respect every day!”

On today's labor calendar:
“13TH” screens free tonight at 6p at the DC LaborFest's Bread and Roses series at the Takoma Park Busboys and Poets. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay -- who directed "Selma" -- explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans. 
Carmen Berkley, Civil, Human and Women's Rights Director at the AFL-CIO, will introduce the film. 
Complete details, as always, are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history, 
On this date in 1892, representatives of the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers met in St. Louis with 20 other organizations to plan the founding convention of the People’s Party. Their objectives included ending political corruption, spreading the wealth, and combatting the oppression of the rights of workers and farmers. 

Today’s labor quote is by Sam Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor
"Either the trade unionists are right or they are wrong. If they are wrong, every one of us who counts himself a trade unionist ought to be shunted aside and thrown overboard. If we are right, we ought to stick and fight and take whatever consequences may come, conscious in the knowledge and conviction that the right will prevail."

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. ​​​​​​

​ Today is President’s Day, a federal holiday and a well-deserved day off for many American workers.

Here are a couple of basic principles that should go without saying:
Working people deserve to go to work every day without fear for their safety or being harassed.
They deserve to go out the door and make a living without worrying about their lives being upended.
Workers across the country have been making their voices heard in recent weeks.
All kinds of workers: Hotel workers, farm workers, teachers, taxi drivers, airport, construction and retail workers.
All kinds of places: Los Angeles; Phoenix; Austin, Texas; New York City; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and of course Washington DC.
Why? We’re defending our neighbors, co-workers and friends who are being swept up in a series of immigration raids by the new Trump administration. Working people understand in our bones that when the government terrorizes people who are simply living their lives and going to work each day, we all lose. When we allow ourselves to be divided, we all lose.  
That’s why the American labor movement is standing up for all workers. Because when we stand together, we all win.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1834, responding to a 15 percent wage cut, women textile workers in Lowell, Massachusetts organized a “turn-out”—or strike—in protest. The action failed. Two years later they formed the Factory Girl’s Association in response to a rent hike in company boarding houses and the increase was rescinded. One worker’s diary recounts a “stirring speech” of resistance by a co-worker, 11-year-old Harriet Hanson Robinson.
In 1908, a rally for the unemployed became a major confrontation in Philadelphia, and 18 were arrested for demanding jobs.
In 1917, thousands of women marched to New York’s City Hall demanding relief from exorbitant wartime food prices. Inflation had wiped out any wage gains made by workers, leading to a high level of working class protest during World War I.
And on this date in 1990, the United Mine Workers settled their 10-month-old Pittston strike in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Today’s labor quote is by Richard Trumka
Time after time we're told corporations should have freedom from pesky job safety regulations, environmental protections and labor standards - giving working people the freedom to be crushed in collapsing mines, choke on filthy air and get paid too little to live on.
Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, was the president of the United Mine Workers during the successful strike against Pittston.

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. ​​​​​

Labor hailed the news Wednesday that Secretary of Labor nominee Andy Puzder had withdrawn his nomination after it became clear he did not have the votes to win confirmation. AFGE president J. David Cox Sr. called the withdrawal "a victory for working people everywhere," while AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said "Working people rejected Puzder because he routinely violated labor law, disrespected workers, opposed a living wage and used his position of authority to enrich himself at the expense of working people." Trumka added that Puzder's defeat was "a reminder of the collective power of working people and a clear message to President Trump that it’s time to change course completely." Benjamin Jealous, founding chair of Good Jobs Defenders, said that “Defeating Puzder’s nomination is a big victory,” but Jealous also warned that “The Republican war on workers didn’t start with Andy Puzder, and it doesn't end now.”

In local labor news, UFCW 1994/MCGEO reports that Montgomery County workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2-year contract. Union members will vote on the proposed deal at ratification meetings to be announced.

On today's labor calendar,
"Brother Outsider" screens tonight at 7pm in Takoma Park; the film is about the civil rights hero Bayard Rustin, who among many other things was the chief architect of the historic 1963 March on Washington.
And on Sunday from 4-7pm there’s a fundraiser to support the production of the DC area premiere of the labor jazz opera “Love Songs from the Liberation Wars: the 1940's Tobacco Workers Struggle.”
Complete details, as always, are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

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, union members at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, struck in sympathy with graduate student teaching assistants who were demanding the right to negotiate with the university. The battle to win recognition of their union continues to this day. Just last month, graduate students in nine departments at Yale were given the right to hold union elections by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.

Today’s labor quote is by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, speaking at a rally of Yale graduate students in 2014:
“It takes a brave bunch of people to step forward. A brave bunch of people to argue the case. A brave bunch of people to say that we have gone this far, we will go no further without our rights being guaranteed, protected and of course recognized.”
 
Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you can pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Whatever you give, thank you!

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. ​​​​

Last year, NIH shuttle bus driver Russell Hebron got fired for wearing a union button on his uniform. But he and his union, ATU local 1764, fought back and won. "When I got fired, my wife was nervous,” Hebron says. “But I didn’t feel bad, because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong." Other activists have been harassed or fired as well.
“It’s a revolving door, but we still have our union, and we’re still trying to win,” says Hebron. “We want justice — at NIH and beyond… along with my union family, we’re not stopping until we make it right.” Read more at dclabor.org

On today's labor calendar, this morning at 8:30 – just over an hour from now – workers will rally on Capitol Hill against Andy Puzder, President Trump's nominee to be Labor Secretary. Puzder has a track record of killing jobs and cutting pay and there's growing bipartisan opposition to his nomination; confirmation hearings start today.
On today’s edition of Your Rights at Work – 1pm here on WPFW – our guest is Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, author of “The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation.”
Complete details are on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history,
On this date in 1870, Leonora O’Reilly was born in New York. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she began working in a factory at 11, joined the Knights of Labor at 16, and was a volunteer investigator of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. She was a founding member of the Women’s Trade Union League.
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 on this date 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.

Today’s labor quote is by Leonora O’Reilly
"... just so soon as a party loses sight of the good of the whole and works for 'party' right or wrong, it becomes a menace to the community ..."

Help keep Union City Radio on the air by pledging at 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739, or you can pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Whatever you give, thank you!

Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families through their unique products and services. Find out more at unionplus.org. ​​​