Union City Radio’s Chris Garlock hosts, with DCNA Executive Director Ed Smith. 

Today's guests: 
Judy Rivlin, AFSCME Deputy General Counsel, on the national implications of this week’s Supreme Court ruling on Friedrichs, and Andrew Washington, Executive Director, AFSCME Council 20, on the local implications of Friedrichs.
GWU Progressive Student Union members Henry Klapper and Olive Eisdorpher on the Fair Jobs GW campaign and their support for GW cafeteria workers.
SEIU 32BJ Area Director Jaime Contreras on the 24-hour strike by airport workers at National Airport.

Labor song of the week: Sell your labour, not your soul, Brian McNeill
Brian McNeill (born 6 April 1950, Falkirk, Scotland) is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and musical director. He was a founding member of Battlefield Band which combined traditional Celtic melodies and new material. 

This Week’s Labor Quiz: The OSHA Severe Injury Reporting rule, passed in 2014, requires employers to report severe work-related injuries. 
How many work-related injuries were reported in 2015, the first full year of the federal reporting requirement? 2,420; 5,273; 8,213; 10,388.

Union leaders cheered Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court tied, 4-4, on a key labor case, Friedrichs versus California Teachers Associ​ation. The tie upholds lower court rulings for the teachers and for unions’ right to collect agency fees. AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman called it “a significant victory for all working people and a defeat for corporate interests.” Goldman added that “We should enjoy the victory but get ready for additional cases that are in the pipeline that aim to take away our rights and bust our unions.”
Unions appeared headed for a 5-4 loss in the Supreme Court after the January 11 argument of the case, but Justice Antonin Scalia, leader of the court’s conservative bloc, died a month later, and no successor has been confirmed.

On today’s edition of “Your Rights at Work,” Ed Smith and I will discuss the implications of the Friedrichs decision with AFSCME Council 20 Executive Director Andrew Washington at 1pm here on WPFW 89.3FM
And for all the latest local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1883, cowboys earning $40 a month began what was to become an unsuccessful two-and-a-half-month strike for higher wages at five ranches in the Texas Panhandle.

In 1927, farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona.

In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed legislation establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps to help alleviate suffering during the Depression. By the time the program ended after the start of World War II it had provided jobs for more than six million men and boys. The average enrollee gained 11 pounds in his first three months.

And in 1995, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, later to become a Supreme Court justice, issued an injunction against baseball team owners to end a 232-day lockout.

Today’s labor quote is by Cesar Chavez
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”
This quote is on a plaque on the roof patio above the USDA cafeteria here in Washington, reports Steven Beasley of AFSCME 3876, which represents workers at USDA.

In “The Case of the Nanny's Separation Anxiety,” our latest report from the Claimant Advocacy Program files, a laid-off nanny won her unemployment benefits thanks to help from a CAP lawyer. The nanny was being replaced with an au pair, but the employer family wouldn’t tell her how long they needed her to keep working.
The nanny confronted the employer and demanded that they give her a final date of employment along with a reference, but when she filed for unemployment benefits, the employer contested the claim, saying that the nanny had caused the separation by demanding a termination date. The CAP attorney helped the nanny win her case when she was able to prove that she was involuntarily separated from her job due to the parents' personal choice of an au pair versus a nanny. The Claimant Advocacy Program is a free legal counseling service available to individuals who file unemployment compensation appeals in the District of Columbia. Call 202-974-8150 for more info, and read more about the case at dclabor.org

For the latest info on local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1918, Chicago stockyard workers won the 8-hour day.

In 1930, at the height of the Great Depression, 35,000 unemployed marched in New York’s Union Square. Police beat many demonstrators, injuring 100.

In 1990, Harry Bridges, Australian-born dock union leader, died at age 88. He helped form and lead the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for 40 years.

And in 2012, leaders of the Screen Actors Guild announced that the membership had voted to merge with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, creating the 150,000-member SAG-AFTRA.

Today’s labor quote is by Harry Bridges
“The most important word in the language of the working class is ‘solidarity’”

George Washington University students, workers, faculty, staff and community allies turned out last Friday afternoon to support dining workers at GW as the university transitions from Sodexo to Restaurant Associates.
The GWU Progressive Student Union organized the rally and march to, quote “demand job retention for the over 40 dining hall workers on our campus," unquote, delivering 2,000 pledges, and demanding that the administration act quickly to secure employment for the workers. "The action this afternoon was such a strong show of solidarity and community between workers and students!" reported the Progressive Student Union.
"Thank you to all who showed up to hold GW accountable. We look forward to hearing from the administration in the next week...until the University makes concrete commitments to these members of our community, this effort is far from over."

On today’s labor calendar, the Betty Dukes Foundation hosts a Women's and Worker's Rights Rally at the National Press Club today starting at 12 noon; today marks the fifth anniversary of WALMART VS DUKES, the largest civil rights class action lawsuit to be heard by the United States Supreme Court. The Dukes class action law suit represented 1.6 million women.
For details on this and other local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1852, Ohio made it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day.

In 1918, Sam Walton, founder of the huge and bitterly anti-union Walmart empire, was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He once said that his priority was to “Buy American,” but Walmart is now the largest U.S. importer of foreign-made goods—often produced under sweatshop conditions.
In 1948, the “Battle of Wall Street” took place, during which police charged members of the United Financial Employees’ Union, striking against the New York Stock Exchange and New York Curb Exchange (now known as the American Stock Exchange).  Forty-three workers were arrested in what was to be the first and only strike in the history of either exchange.

Today’s labor quote is by Betty Duke
“We, the women of Wal-Mart, will have our day in court. [Wal-Mart] will answer our charges—that they have treated us unfairly and we deserved better.”

Labor union presidents seldom have good things to say about the company boss. But Jackie Jeter, the head of Metro’s principal union, is praising the transit agency’s new chief, Paul J. Wiedefeld, describing him as the first general manager in memory to take safety seriously.

And in the latest news on a story we’ve been following for a while now, Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers told Congress last week that more than half of the private contract workers at the Senate cafeteria were misclassified and thus at risk for being underpaid. We’ve got a link to the Washington Post’s reports on both these stories on our website at dclabor.org

And for the latest local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1935, members of Gas House Workers’ Union Local 18799 began what was to become a four-month recognition strike against the Laclede Gas Light Company in St. Louis. The union later said the strike was the first ever against a public utility in the United States.

In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. led a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Violence during the march persuaded him to return to Memphis the following week, where he was assassinated.

Today’s labor quote is by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality. That is the dream...”

After a decade at the helm of NoVA Labor, Dan Duncan last week announced he won't be running for another term. "The time has come to move on and allow new leadership to take NoVA Labor to new heights," Duncan said. "We have a wonderful crew of people running our federation," Duncan added. "What we have done could never be accomplished by one person or one local. We have done it together and under the new leadership team that’s being formed, we will continue to make NoVA Labor bigger, better and stronger."

On this weekend’s labor calendar, catch the Phil Ochs Song Night tomorrow as Pat Wictor, Joe Jencks, Greg Greenway, Magpie and SONiA perform at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington starting at 7pm.
For the latest local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1872, Toronto printers struck for the 9-hour day in what is believed to be Canada’s first major strike.

In 1894, the first “Poor People’s March” on Washington was held, in which a thousand jobless workers demanded creation of a public works program. Led by populist Jacob Coxey, the unemployed protesters became known as “Coxey’s Army.”

In 1911, a total of 146 workers were killed in a fire at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a disaster that would launch a national movement for safer working conditions.

And on this date in 1947, an explosion at a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois killed 111 miners. Mineworkers President John L. Lewis called a 6-day work stoppage by the nation’s 400,000 soft coal miners to demand safer working conditions.

Today’s labor quote is by Frances Perkins
“There was a stricken conscience of public guilt and we all felt that we had been wrong, that something was wrong with that building which we had accepted or the tragedy never would have happened. Moved by this sense of stricken guilt, we banded ourselves together to find a way by law to prevent this kind of disaster.”
Frances Perkins witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist disaster and went on to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet.

Union City Radio’s Chris Garlock hosts, with DCNA Executive Director Ed Smith. 

​Today's guests: 
Wala Blegay. Staff Attorney for DC Nurses Association & Sabrathia Draine Ishakwue, Registered Nurse, Member of DC Nurses Association, on the increasing violence in area hospitals and the need for legislation protecting local nurses at work. 
Carlos Jimenez, new Executive Director at the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO.

Labor song of the week: The Union Grand; by Jack Chernos 

This Week’s Labor Quiz: Why is Troy, New York, significant in women’s history? Is is because:
Harriet Tubman lived there; Mother Jones organized a union there; the first sustained union of women workers was formed there; OR: women workers were first allowed to wear pants there.

Commuters on Route 29 Tuesday morning wondering why pregnant women were picketing honked their support when they saw the banner reading “Verizon Has Labor Pains!” “It’s been nine months since we began bargaining,” said CWA 2108 president Marilyn Irwin, “and we’re not much closer to a contract than we were on that first day.” While negotiations continue, the Verizon workers are frustrated and Irwin said that a strike “is a very real possibility. It’s just day to day and workers are angry that a company that’s making a billion and a half dollars a month in profits is trying to take away our job security and ruin our work lives.” Despite those frustrations and the chilly morning, the Local 2108 members were in good spirits Tuesday morning as they patted bellies exaggeratedly distended with pillows and waved at passing commuters. 

On today’s labor calendar, check out “Your Rights at Work” today at 1pm here on WPFW 89.3FM, as we discuss patient safety with the DC Nurses Association.
For the latest local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
In this date in 1900, groundbreaking began on the first section of the New York City subway system, from City Hall to the Bronx.

Today’s labor quote is by William O. Douglas
“The right to work, I had assumed, was the most precious liberty that man possesses.  Man has indeed as much right to work as he has to live, to be free, to own property.”
William O. Douglas served as U. S. Supreme Court justice from 1939 to 1975; his term, lasting 36 years and 209 days, is the longest term in the history of the Supreme Court.

Joined in solidarity by union pilots on the line and blaring horns from Machinists passing by, dozens of flight attendants walked picket lines outside the United check-in desks at Dulles Airport last Thursday.
The members of the Association of Flight Attendants have worked for more than five years without a contract. AFA has been staging Third Thursday actions at United hubs around the world since last fall.
“We are hearing our efforts are being recognized at the bargaining table as talks have resumed,” said AFA Council 21 President Todd Failla, who urged travelers to "show solidarity in this fight while in an airport or flying United by thanking the union sisters and brothers who are wearing their red AFA lapel pins."

For the latest local labor activities, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1932, the Norris-La Guardia Act restricted injunctions against unions and banned yellow dog contracts, which required newly-hired workers to declare they are not union members and will not join one.

In 1970, five days into the Post Office’s first mass work stoppage in 195 years, President Richard Nixon declared a national emergency and ordered 30,000 troops to New York City to break the strike. The troops didn’t have a clue how to sort and deliver mail, and a settlement came a few days later.

In 1974, the Coalition of Labor Union Women was founded in Chicago by some 3,000 delegates from 58 unions and other organizations.

And in 2005, fifteen workers died and another 170 were injured when a series of explosions ripped through BP’s Texas City refinery. Investigators blamed a poor safety culture at the plant and found BP management gave priority to cost savings over worker safety.

Today’s labor quote is by Yasmine Green
“It helps us when we can go back and say, 'Well this was done by a woman and that was done by a woman, so women, we can do this!'”
Yasmine Green is a member of the Machinists union and was a delegate to the 2014 Coalition of Labor Union Women’s conference.

Jackie Jeter has been a pioneer at Transit Workers Local 689 and last night she blazed a new trail when she was elected president of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO, becoming the first woman to head the DC labor organization.
Tefere Gebre, Executive Vice-President of the AFL-CIO, praised Jeter’s election as a signal that organized labor leaders are becoming more reflective of the workers they represent.
“Jackie Jeter is well known as a fearless and determined leader who keeps the interests of working people uppermost in all she does,” Gebre said.
Jeter, elected unanimously at the Metro Council along with a 25-member Executive Board, said that “Our board represents the best of two worlds: battle-tested veterans and new leaders eager to take up the fight. Together, we can make a real difference for working people in our region.”
The Metro Council includes nearly 200 affiliated local unions representing a broad cross-section of 150,000 area workers, from athletes to writers, government workers to the construction trades in the metro Washington area.

On today's labor calendar,
CWA 2108 is holding a "Verizon has Labor Pains" picket today starting at 8am in front of Verizon at 13100 Columbia Pike in Silver Spring.
Then at 11am, catch a free performance of “We Were There” featuring a cast of local women leaders and activists at the AFL-CIO.
For complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1886, Mark Twain, a lifelong member of the International Typographical Union – which is now part of CWA -- spoke in Hartford, Connecticut, extolling the Knights of Labor’s commitment to fair treatment of all workers, regardless of race or gender.

In 1990, a 32-day lockout of major league baseball players ended with an agreement to raise the minimum league salary from $68,000 to $100,000 and to study revenue-sharing between owners and players,

And in 1998, a bitter six-and-a-half-year UAW strike at Caterpillar ended. The strike and settlement, which included a two-tier wage system and other concessions, deeply divided the union.

Today’s labor quote is by Mark Twain
“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.”