This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.
With DC Mayor Muriel Bowser continuing to negotiate an agreement with United Health Services that would exclude recognition of healthcare unions at the East End Hospital, the unions and Metro Washington Council are urging affiliates and activists to contact the mayor this week to ensure quality care for residents of wards 7 and 8. Check out our website – dclabor.org -- for details, including a sample letter. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1990, the United Mine Workers settled their 10-month Pittston strike in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia Today’s labor quote is by Harriet Hanson Robinson, an 11-year-old textile worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, who participated in her first “turn-out,” or strike, on this date in 1834, responding to a 15 percent wage cut. Harriet Hanson Robinson, who wrote in her autobiography: “When the day came on which the girls were to turn out, those in the upper rooms started first, and so many of them left that our mill was at once shut down. Then, when the girls in my room stood irresolute, uncertain what to do, asking each other, ‘Would you?’ or ‘Shall we turn out?’ and not one of them having the courage to lead off, I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying, with childish bravado, ‘I don't care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not’; and I marched out, and was followed by the others.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Now is a great time to find a better deal on your auto insurance. To get a free quote and explore the best offers from national insurance providers, visit unionplus.org/auto.
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This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.
A delegation of U.S. union leaders traveled to Matamoros, Mexico recently to support tens of thousands of factory workers who have launched a wave of strikes to demand wage increases and democratic control of their unions. Since January 25, at least 48 factories that produce auto parts and other goods for export to the United States have signed agreements to increase wages by 20% and pay a bonus of almost $2,000. This is a huge victory for the workers, most of whom make around $2 dollars an hour. And in the past week, the strike wave has spread beyond the factories to supermarkets and other employers, and the leaders of the Matamoros unions, which historically have been close to the employers, were forced to endorse the workers’ demands. But the employers and the company unions are already striking back, and in the past week, as many as 2,000 strike leaders have been fired and blacklisted, and the delegation of U.S. trade unionists urged both the Mexican and U.S. governments to demand that these U.S. companies honor their agreements and stop firing and blacklisting these courageous workers. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1986, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed an agreement with the Campbell Soup Company, ending a seven-year boycott. Today’s labor quote is by Sue Carney, Director of Human Relations at the American Postal Workers Union. Sue Carney, who said: “The Union is not a fee-for-service organization, it is a family.”` Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Now is a great time to find a better deal on your auto insurance. To get a free quote and explore the best offers from national insurance providers, visit unionplus.org/auto. This is Chris Garlock, with the latest labor news, updates and history from the Metro Washington Labor Council.
(audio) “So I would say that all you have to do is give young people the information and let them know that forming a union is an option, because unions are relevant.” That’s Kooper Caraway, the 28-year-old president of the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO, on the latest episode of the AFL-CIO’s ‘State of the Unions’ podcast. (audio) “Unions always have been relevant. Unions have been relevant for 200 years and they’ll be relevant 200 years from now as long as some people have to work for wages and some people have to struggle to make ends meet. Until everyone has everything they need then unions are going to be relevant. And so that’s particularly true for young people. And so as long as those young people have the tools and the information and education they need, then they’ll understand because they’re going to go to work. Those heroic kids in Parkland, they’re going to go to school. They might be grad students one day and might be tired of being mistreated and then compensated very little and want to organize. The labor movement will be right there with them. They may go to work after that and work on political campaigns and be tired of being overworked and underpaid. They’ll organize that way, like we’re seeing across the country. As long as they have the tools and the information I think they’ll take hold of it. And I really think that they’ll make us proud.” Subscribe to "State of the Unions" anywhere you listen to podcasts. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1918, faced with 84-hour workweeks, 24 hour shifts and pay of 29 cents an hour, fire fighters formed The International Association of Fire Fighters. Previously, 17 fire fighter locals had affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, the first was the local right here in Washington, DC, in 1901, Today’s labor quote is by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said: “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Now is a great time to find a better deal on your auto insurance. To get a free quote and explore the best offers from national insurance providers, visit unionplus.org/auto. Union City Radio’s Chris Garlock hosts.
Guests: Robyn Leigh Muncy on “The Strange Career of ‘the Working Class’ in US Political Culture Since the 1950s,” published in the December issue of "Labor: Studies in Working Class History." Professor Muncy is Director of the Honors Program, Department of History, University of Maryland, College Park. Paul Buhle, co-author of new graphic biography “Eugene Debs: A Graphic Biography." Patrick Dixon, Ph.D., Managing Editor, “Labor: Studies in Working Class History,” Research Analyst, Kalmanovitz Initiative; Labor History Today podcast co-producer. |
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