Citing a “consistent disregard for safety principles,” the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health has named Johns Hopkins Hospital to the “2019 Dirty Dozen List of Employers Who Put Workers and Communities at Risk.”
The list is published each year to mark Workers’ Memorial Week, observed around the world, honoring those who have been injured, suffered illnesses or lost their lives at work.
“We hope Johns Hopkins takes landing a spot on the Dirty Dozen list this year as a wake up call to listen to nurses and address the conditions we flag as unsafe for patients and healthcare workers,” said Alex Laslett, RN, a member of National Nurses United.
Registered nurses at Hopkins began organizing a union at the hospital after repeated appeals to the hospital to resolve unsafe conditions went unanswered, but management has responded by spending millions of dollars on anti-union consultants.

​On this week’s labor calendar, the annual DC LaborFest launches tomorrow night at the American Film Institute with a screening of the comedy “Support the Girls” at 7:15; complete details at dclabor.org; click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1927, an explosion at the Everettville mine in Everettville, West Virginia, killed 109 miners, many of whom lie in unmarked graves to this day.

Today’s labor quote is by Barack Obama. Under his administration, the National Labor Relations Board on this date in 2012 implemented new rules to speed up unionization elections, as a counter to employer manipulation of the law to prevent workers from unionizing.
Barack Obama, who said:
“Unions historically have been at the forefront of establishing things like the 40-hour work week, the weekend, child labor laws, fair benefits and decent wages.”
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re looking for ways to cut costs on medical expenses, check out the Union Plus Health Savings Program. Learn how you can save on vision, dental and prescription out-of-pocket expenses at unionplus.org/healthsavings.

For 29 years, Mary Stephens worked at the Parkersburg Care Center in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the last 14 years in laundry. By all accounts, she was a model employee. Two years ago, a subcontractor, Health Care Services Group, was hired to run the laundry. Up until this point, residents’ clothes, sheets, towels and other personal items had been washed with two workers operating the laundry. But in a cost-cutting move, HCSG decided one worker could do the job, loading all the work onto Mary. She worked as hard as she could, but Mary kept falling behind and last October, she was fired. The workers – like Mary, members of UFCW Local 400 -- united and proved that the laundry job was not able to be done by one person. Mary and her union filed a grievance and Mary got more than $12,000 dollars in back pay. Although Mary decided to start her retirement instead of returning to work, the subcontractor running the laundry operation has been bringing in extra people to help, and while this change was too late for Mary, her union ensured that justice was served.

Today’s labor calendar is jammed, starting with a Medicare for All rally at 12:30pm, and then starting at 3, the AFL-CIO will host a discussion with Brazil's national union center and the Workers Party. At 4 there’s a screening of the new film Stand! at the AFL-CIO and tonight at 6 the Baltimore chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute is hosting their Annual Awards Banquet.
Complete details, as always, are at dclabor.org; click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1894, Coxey’s Army of 500 unemployed civil war veterans reached Washington, DC.

Today’s labor quote is by Jacob S. Coxey, from a speech he attempted to give in 1894. Police arrested him for walking on the grass, but fifty years later, in 1944, Coxey finally delivered the speech from the steps of the U.S. Congress, saying:
“We stand here to-day in behalf of millions of toilers whose petitions have been buried in committee rooms, whose prayers have been unresponded to, and whose opportunities for honest, remunerative, productive labor have been taken from them by unjust legislation, which protects idlers, speculators, and gamblers..."
Read the whole speech here.
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Did you know that union members can save up to 25% when renting cars, vans, or SUVs by using the Union Plus Car Rental Program? Get going at unionplus.org/carrental.
 

As The Baltimore Sun‘s newsroom heads toward negotiations with management over a new contract, staffers -- members of the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild -- went on social media earlier this week to highlight one of their top priorities: pay raises. Reporters posted pictures holding green balloons with an upward-pointing arrow and the words “Rai$e Our Pay Now.” In a couple photos, the balloons appeared to be tied to nearly every desk in the paper’s Port Covington newsroom.
“I’m making the same pay as I did four years ago, despite increased responsibility, a more visible beat and continually improving my skills as a journalist,” wrote reporter Pamela Wood on Twitter.

​On the weekend labor calendar, you’ve got two chances to catch screenings of “The Corporate Coup D’état” today and tomorrow at FilmFest DC. Director Fred Peabody, Executive Producer Jeff Cohen and The Intercept investigative journalist Lee Fang will be at both screenings to discuss how corporations are taking over democracy.
And find out more about the ongoing DC Healthcare Crisis at a Townhall tomorrow, organized by DC Jobs with Justice.
Complete details, as always, at dclabor.org; click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1944, on the orders of President Roosevelt, the U.S. Army seized the Chicago headquarters of the unionized Montgomery Ward after management defied the National Labor Relations Board.

Today’s labor quote is from “Bread and Roses,” the poem by James Oppenheim, published in the IWW newspaper Industrial Solidarity on April 27, 1911, and performed here by Queen Cee:
As we go marching, marching
We bring the greater days
For the rising of the women
Means the rising of the race
No more the drudge and idler
Ten that toil where one reposes
But the sharing of life's glories
Bread and roses, bread and roses
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re looking for ways to cut costs on medical expenses, check out the Union Plus Health Savings Program. Learn how you can save on vision, dental and prescription out-of-pocket expenses at unionplus.org/healthsavings.

Year after year some of the poorest neighborhoods in Washington continue to be neglected; our public schools have been starved of resources by both the Mayor and the DC City Council. The effects of this neglect will be felt for years to come. And this is not just a DC problem; it affects the entire metro region and beyond. The only way we can change the narrative is by standing up and demanding more, demanding better. If not, the schools in your community will be next.
That’s why parents, students, and others who care about funding, improving and saving our DC public schools are joining the Washington Teachers’ Union, for a rally at 4pm today at Freedom Plaza to demand that the DC mayor and City Council “fully fund our public schools.”  

Also on this week’s labor calendar, tune in at 1 o’clock today for this week’s edition on Your Rights At Work, when our guests will include Washington Teachers Union president Liz Davis, as well as nurse Betty Holman and others. Topics include DC public schools, the East End Hospital, the latest labor news and of course whatever you want to talk about; call in at 202-588-0893.
And for all the latest local labor event listings, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1886, The New York Times declared the struggle for an 8-hour workday to be “un-American” and called public demonstrations for the shorter hours, quote, “labor disturbances brought about by foreigners,” unquote. Other publications declared that an eight-hour workday would bring about “loafing and gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness.”  

Today’s labor quote is by Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, Senior, arrested on this date in 1969 while picketing a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina in a demand for union recognition.
Ralph David Abernathy, Senior, who said:
“Bring on your tear gas, bring on your grenades, your new supplies of Mace, your state troopers and even your national guards. But let the record show we ain't going to be turned around.”
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re looking for ways to cut costs on medical expenses, check out the Union Plus Health Savings Program. Learn how you can save on vision, dental and prescription out-of-pocket expenses at unionplus.org/healthsavings.

Broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
 
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
DC’s call-in show about worker rights: those you have, those you don’t, how to get them and how to use them.
 
HOUR 1: 1-2p
Guests:
Liz Davis, President, Washington Teachers Union, on the campaign to fully fund DC public schools; 4p rally today on Freedom Plaza.
Roberta Lenoir, president, DCNA/UMC bargaining unit, on the East End Hospital. 
Clayton Rosenberg, Chief of Staff, Alliance of Concerned Men, on the East End Hospital.
David Bayne, partner, Ashcraft & Gerel, on personal injury cases and the differences between Virginia and DC.
Mark Gruenberg, Editor, Press Associates Union News Service on the latest labor news, including GOP Wash. State lawmaker’s idiotic remark about nurses playing cards pushes pro-nurses bill towards passage; Wide community support gives 31K Stop&Shop workers big win; NACOSH: Amazon, McDonald’s among ‘Dirty Dozen” top job safety and health violators

HOUR 2: 2-3p 
Latest labor news, plus listener calls: 202-588-0893
The one benefit workers want more than anything
L.A.’s Exotic Dancers Are Launching a Labor Movement
This MLB power couple is fighting to save 200 union jobs
The numbers behind workplace discrimination - Washington Post
​
CREDITS: Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella. Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. 

Movies, music, art, history. Those may not be the first things that come to mind when you think of the labor movement, but the DC LaborFest aims to change that. The annual festival celebrates workers and their issues through the arts throughout the month of May, and is anchored by the DC Labor FilmFest, which has been screening films at the American Film Institute since 2001. This year’s LaborFest launches a week from today, beginning with a 3-hour May Day special right here on WPFW from 9a to 12 noon, and then we’ll screen “Support The Girls” – “A winning, rambunctious comedy about work in America” – at 7:15 that night at AFI. A line-up of more than 30 events follows, and you can get complete details on our website at dclabor.org. See you at LaborFest!

On this week’s labor calendar, join the Washington Teachers’ Union, parents, students, and others who care about funding, improving and saving our DC public schools tomorrow, April 25th, 4PM at Freedom Plaza to tell the DC mayor and city Council to “fully fund our public schools.” For all the latest local labor event listings, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 2013, an eight-story building housing garment factories in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,129 workers and injuring 2,515. A day earlier cracks had been found in the structure, but factory officials, who had contracts with Benneton and other major U.S. labels, insisted the workers return to the job the next day.  

​Today’s labor quote is by Mumia Abu-Jamal. On this date in 1999, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union halted shipping on the West Coast in solidarity with Abu-Jamal, a Philadelphia journalist who many believed was on death row because he was an outspoken African-American. After numerous appeals, his death penalty sentence was overturned by a Federal court, and in 2011, the prosecution agreed to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who said:
“When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is just, yet refuse to defend it -- at that moment you begin to die.”
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re looking for ways to cut costs on medical expenses, check out the Union Plus Health Savings Program. Learn how you can save on vision, dental and prescription out-of-pocket expenses at unionplus.org/healthsavings.

The United Food and Commercial Workers on Sunday announced that a tentative agreement was reached on a new contract for the 31,000 Stop & Shop workers who walked off their jobs on April 11.
The agreement preserves health care and retirement benefits, provides wage increases, and maintains time-and-a-half pay on Sunday for current members.
“Today is a powerful victory for the 31,000 hardworking men and women of Stop & Shop who courageously stood up to fight for what all New Englanders want,” said the union, “good jobs, affordable health care, a better wage, and to be treated right by the company they made a success.”
They added that “We are incredibly grateful to our customers and everyone who proudly stood together with us every day for a contract that invests in the communities we serve, and makes Stop & Shop a better place to work and a better place to shop."

On this week’s labor calendar, join the Washington Teachers’ Union, parents, students, and others who care about funding, improving and saving our DC public schools this Thursday, April 25th, 4PM at Freedom Plaza to tell the DC mayor and city Council to “fully fund our public schools.” For all the latest local labor event listings, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1956, the Canadian Labour Congress was founded through a merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour, the two major union congresses in Canada at the time. The CLC represents the interests of more than three million affiliated workers.

Today’s labor quote is by Ida Mae Stull, the country’s first woman coal miner, who died on this date in 1980.
Ida Mae Stull, who said:
“I can load five tons a day with pick and shovel and that’s as much as any man in the mines can do.”
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re looking for ways to cut costs on medical expenses, check out the Union Plus Health Savings Program. Learn how you can save on vision, dental and prescription out-of-pocket expenses at unionplus.org/healthsavings.

Ride-hail platform drivers in the metro DC region face financial debt, threats from customers, constantly changing rules that make calculating their earnings nearly impossible, and work hours that may make them a public safety hazard, according to a new Georgetown study.
Katie Wells, a post-doctoral fellow with Georgetown’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, presented the report and its recommendations to the DC City Council last Thursday. The Uber workplace, said Wells, is “so full of gamification elements that it resembles a casino in which the gamblers – the drivers – often lose.” Recommendations include the creation of a publicly funded commission to study the impact of Transportation Network Companies such as Uber; establishing a prevailing wage for TNC drivers and requiring such companies to share data on their working conditions.
Wells and study co-author Kafui Attoh (KA-FREE A-TO) discussed the report on last week’s Your Rights At Work; search for Union City Radio on your favorite podcast platform.

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

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1938, one of the worst disasters in Virginia mining history occurred at the Red Jacket Coal Corporation mine near Grundy in Buchanan County. All 45 men in the mine at the time died when coal dust ignited, causing blasts that were felt two miles away.

Today’s labor quote is by Kristen Johnson, a striking deli manager and UFCW Local 1445 shop steward at the Stop & Shop in Somerville, Massachusetts…
“They want us to give up. They want us to quit. They want us to stop picketing and stop talking to our customers. We are not giving up.”
 
Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re looking for ways to cut costs on medical expenses, check out the Union Plus Health Savings Program. Learn how you can save on vision, dental and prescription out-of-pocket expenses at unionplus.org/healthsavings.

(audio) “This is enormous. This isn't just...New England that this is affecting right now. This is affecting every worker, every blue collar worker in America right now at this very moment. And it's awesome to be a part of something that big…”
That’s Kristen Johnson, a deli manager and UFCW Local 1445 shop steward at the Stop & Shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, talking about why she --- and 31,000 of her fellow workers --are on strike, on the latest State of the Unions podcast from the AFL-CIO.
(audio) “We've been bargaining since January, and the fact that their shareholders met and decided they needed an 11% raise because of all the hard work that those shareholders do for their customers and their communities, they needed that raise. And, let's take it from the little guy that's working in the stores...face-to-face with our customers in our community every day. And...the company preaches…’we care about our community’...Their actions prove the total opposite of what they're saying.”
The Stop & Shop strike is now in its second week; you can hear more on the State of the Unions podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform.

For the latest listings of labor events, go to dclabor.org, and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1911, more than 6,000 immigrant workers—Germans, Dutch, Lithuanians and Poles—put down their tools in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the nation’s “Furniture City,” and struck 59 factories for four months in what was to become known as the Great Furniture Strike.

Today’s labor quote is by Kristen Johnson, the striking Stop & Shop deli manager, who said:
“They're realizing they have a voice, and ‘I don't have to be afraid to show it and to let people know how I feel.’ That there are other people out there that will support you and that will have your back. They may not even know you or they may be on the other side of the country, but they're supporting you. And, they understand what you're fighting for.”

Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re thinking about a spring road trip, don’t leave town without your Union Plus car rental savings! Union members save up to 25% on rental rates. Visit unionplus.org/carrental.

Broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
DC’s call-in show about worker rights: those you have, those you don’t, how to get them and how to use them.
 
HOUR 1: 1-2P
Dr. Katie Wells and Katui Attoh, co-authors of "The Uber Workplace in DC:  Who’s in the Driver’s Seat?" Georgetown study showing that ride-hail platform drivers in the metro DC region face financial debt, threats from customers, constantly changing rules that make calculating their earnings nearly impossible, and work hours that may make them a public safety hazard. 
Gabe Acevero, Maryland Assembly Delegate (39th District) & UFCW 1994/MCGEO organizer the Fight for $15 and other worker issues during the recently-concluded MD Assembly session; plus an update on the ongoing strike by 31,000 UFCW members in New England.
Mark Gruenberg, editor, Press Associates Union News Service with the latest labor news, including National Nurses United gets specific in Medicare For All campaign.

HOUR 2: 2-3P
More from Gabe Acevero and Mark Gruenberg, plus lots of listener calls on Uber and Lyft and labor news: New survey says performance reviews are useless, RUTGERS faculty union cancels strike and PAIRIN Launches New Hiring Tool to Help Companies Hire Smarter Through Predictive Behavioral Science.

Music: "Mr. Cab Driver"; Lenny Kravitz

Produced by Chris Garlock and Peter Pocock; engineered by Michael Nasella. Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus.