​​The DC LaborFest wraps up with a full night of jazz with local jazz musicians – and Washington Musicians Union members -- Harry Appelman, Marty Nau, Steve Novosel and Nasar Abadey, hosted by WPFW jazz host Rusty Hassan a retired AFGE national representative and proud member of the Communications Workers of America.

What would a $15-an-hour minimum wage mean to SEIU 32BJ member Syid Abdullah? “It means food. It means rent. It means taking care of my son.” Abdullah was one of more than 150 witnesses last Thursday when the D.C. City Council's Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs held its first hearing on Mayor Bowser's legislation to raise the hourly minimum wage to $15 dollars by 2020 and $7.50 by 2022 for tipped workers. "Those who work for a living ought to be able to make a living," said Metro Washington Council executive director Carlos Jimenez, who, with SEIU 32BJ Area Director Jaime Contreras, helped kick off over eight hours of testimony by supporters and opponents of the bill.

For the latest local labor calendar, for to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1889, more than 2,200 people died in the Johnstown Flood,  when a dam holding back a private resort lake burst upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  The resort was owned by wealthy industrialists including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick.  Neither they nor any other members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club were found guilty of fault, despite the fact the group had created the lake out of an abandoned reservoir.

In 1943, some 25,000 white autoworkers walked off the job at a Detroit Packard Motor Car Company plant, heavily involved in wartime production, when three black workers were promoted to work on a previously all-white assembly line. The black workers were relocated and the whites returned.

In 1997, Rose Will Monroe, popularly known as Rosie the Riveter, died in Clarksville, Indiana.  During World War Two she helped bring women into the labor force. 

Today’s labor quote is by Phyllis McKey Gould, a welder at the Richmond, California Kaiser shipyard Number 2 during World War Two
“I’d never worked in my life. I loved the look of welding, the smell of it… You’d look through really dark glass and all you’d see was the glow.  You moved the welding rod in tiny, circular motions, making half-crescents.  If you did it right, it was beautiful.  It was like embroidery.”

Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff to the summer holiday season. While the day honors those who have given their lives defending the nation, the weekend also marks the start of grilling season. For a handy list of union-made food and drink to get your barbecue off to a great start, go to dclabor.org

Many area union offices, including the Metro Washington Council's, are closed today in observance of Memorial Day. For the latest local labor calendar, for to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1929, the Ford Motor Company signed a "Technical Assistance" contract to produce cars in the Soviet Union, and Ford workers were sent to the Soviet Union to train the labor force in the use of its parts. Many American workers who made the trip, including Walter Reuther, a tool and die maker who later was to become the UAW's president,  returned home with a different view of the duties and privileges of the industrial laborer.

In 1937, in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre, police opened fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing ten and wounding more than 160.

And on this date in 2002, the Ground Zero cleanup at the site of the World Trade Center was completed three months ahead of schedule due to the heroic efforts of more than 3,000 building tradesmen and women who had worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week for the previous eight months.

Today’s labor quote is by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them."

Demonstrating the power of direct action, H Street Walmart manager Jack Hulme agreed to meet with a fired worker after unions and community groups turned out to support her. Arleja Stevens was fired last March for being absent five times because of pregnancy-related medical issues, including a trip to the emergency room. Stevens was denied excused absences despite providing a doctor’s notice, in violation of the DC Pregnancy Fairness Act. On Wednesday, members of UFCW Making Change at Walmart, Jobs With Justice, and the OPEIU Local 2 Social Justice Committee accompanied Stevens to deliver a copy of the Act to store manager Jack Hulme, who agreed on the spot to meet with Stevens and representatives from UFCW and DC JWJ Thursday morning. Maryland and DC both have laws granting rights to women for doctor visits and other workplace accommodations necessitated by pregnancy, and Walmart and other employers regularly discriminate against pregnant employees, the organizations charge. “I don’t like what they did to you,” one Walmart shopper told Stevens. “I just want my job back,” Arleja told her supporters. 

On today's labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue throughout the metro area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times.

Here's today's labor history:
On this date in 1935, The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Depression-era National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional, about a month before it was set to expire

In 1959, The CIO-affiliated Insurance Workers of America merged with its AFL counterpart, the Insurance Agents International Union to form the Insurance Workers International Union.  The union later became part of the United Food and Commercial Workers

Today’s labor quote is by Bill Shorten
Labor should not be about creating monuments on hills or statues in parks. Labor's monuments and statues are when a young person can find a job, when a person with disability can get access to the ordinary life that others take for granted. 
"Bill" Shorten is the current Leader of the Opposition for the Australian Labor Party

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

This week's guests: 
Sesil Rubain, ATU Local 1764, on the new contract at the DC Circulator 
Adam Yalowitz and Bert Bayou, Unite Here 23, about the report released Tuesday by UNITE HERE showing that at D.C.’s two government-owned airports, the government makes more money per hour from terminal concessions workers than the workers make themselves. 
Jonathan Williams, UFCW 400, on the tentative agreement with Kroger and how worker solidarity got Kroger back to the table and got them a better deal.
 
Labor song of the week: John Lennon's Working Class Hero, performed by Green Day

Following two days of negotiations, Kroger has reached a tentative agreement with its unionized store associates. A team of Kroger employees who make up UFCW Local 400’s bargaining committee voted unanimously to accept the company’s latest offer. “If we didn’t stand up for ourselves, this never would have happened,” said Sarah Williams, a nine-year Kroger associate from Charlottesville who served on the bargaining committee. “What we were shown last week was supposed to be Kroger’s ‘last’ and ‘best’ offer – but we proved it wasn’t either.” The tentative agreement affects 41 Kroger stores in the region stretching from Kingsport, Tennessee to Harrisonburg, Virginia. The proposal will be voted on by the union membership next week.

The Metro Washington Council will join allies supporting the Fair Shot Minimum Wage Amendment Act at this morning’s DC City Council hearing on the bill. The proposed legislation would increase the minimum wage in the District of Columbia to $15 per hour by July 1, 2020, and increase the tipped minimum wage to $7.50 by 2022.  “We applaud Mayor Bowser for taking the lead on legislation that helps workers take a big step forward along the pathway out of poverty,” said Jackie Jeter, president of the Metro Washington Council. The legislation coincides with a slew of recent reports documenting D.C.’s rising cost of living.

On today's labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue throughout the metro area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times. Complete details, as always, at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1913, the Actors’ Equity Association was founded by 112 actors at a meeting in New York City’s Pabst Grand Circle Hotel. After producer George M. Cohan said that “I will drive an elevator for a living before I will do business with any actors’ union,” a sign appeared in Times Square reading: “Elevator operator wanted. George M. Cohan need not apply"

In 1937, Ford Motor Company security guards attacked union organizers and supporters attempting to distribute literature outside the plant in Dearborn, Michigan in an event that was to become known as the “Battle of the Overpass.” The guards tried to destroy any photos showing the attack, but some survived—and inspired the Pulitzer committee to establish a prize for photography. Oh, and three years later, Ford signed a contract with the union.

Today’s labor quote is by Walter Reuther
“There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.”
Walter Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the mid 20th century.

Airport food workers are taking a stance against inequality and poor working conditions at DCA. A new report released yesterday by UNITE HERE Local 23 shows that at D.C.’s two government-owned airports, the government makes more money per hour from terminal concessions workers than do the workers themselves. The average wage for the workers is just $9.74 an hour, while the airport authority makes $17.17 an hour at DCA and $20.20 at Dulles. And while revenue from airport concessions is growing, wages and working conditions are stagnant. “DC airport food workers have been left behind,” says the union, “But not for long. Workers at DCA and Dulles are standing up for their rights.”

On today's labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue throughout the metro area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times.
At 10 am this morning, Stand with Arleja, an expecting mother fired by Walmart, in an action organized by DC Jobs with Justice.
At noon, in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists are co-sponsoring a showing of “Breathin': The Eddy Zheng Story” at the AFL-CIO.
Also at noon, there’s a Teamsters History Tour, sponsored by the DC LaborFest.
And at 7 tonight, catch the screening of “Sing Faster: The Stagehand’s Ring Cycle” at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, hosted by IATSE 22, which represents local stagehands.
Complete details, as always, at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1805, striking shoemakers in Philadelphia were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy for violating an English common law that barred schemes aimed at forcing wage increases. The strike was broken.

In 1932, as many as 20,000 unemployed World War I veterans and their families arrived in Washington, D.C., to demand early payment of a bonus they had been told they would get, but not until 1945. They built a shantytown near the U.S. Capitol but were burned out by U.S. troops after two months.

In 1936, the notorious 11-month Remington Rand strike began. The strike spawned the "Mohawk Valley formula," described by investigators as a corporate plan to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, employ thugs to beat up strikers, and other tactics. The National Labor Relations Board termed the formula "a battle plan for industrial war"

​And on this date in 1962, the AFL-CIO began what was to become an unsuccessful campaign for a 35-hour workweek, with the goal of reducing unemployment. Earlier tries by organized labor for 32- or 35-hour weeks also failed.

Today’s labor quote is by Senator Hiram Johnson of California, who called the 1932 attack on the Bonus Army ‘one of the blackest pages in our history.’
Noting that the veterans had been hailed as heroes and saviors only a decade earlier, Johnson said that ‘The president sent against these men, emaciated from hunger, scantily clad, unarmed, the troops of the United States army. Tanks, tear-bombs, all of the weapons of modern warfare were directed against those who had borne the arms of the republic.’

D.C. Circulator operators late last week overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract with First Transit for higher wages and greater safety guarantees.  Drivers -- members of ATU Local 1764 -- had been rallying for months for better salaries. The benefits in the new contract are contingent on the District allocating extra funds for the operations of the bus system.

And last Thursday, more than 30 flight crew members marched outside the United Airlines ticket gates at Dulles Airport reminding passengers that the company’s flight attendants still don’t have a contract after more than five years. The protest was part of the Association of Flight Attendants' “Third Thursday” efforts at major airports served by United. 

On today's labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue throughout the metro area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times.
The DC LaborFest continues tonight with a screening of the new film, UNION TIME: Fighting for Workers'’ Rights, with Director Matthew Barr. The free screening starts at 6 pm tonight at the Brookland Busboys and Poets. 
Complete details at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1883, after 14 years of construction and the deaths of 27 workers, the Brooklyn Bridge over New York’s East River opened. Newspapers called it “the eighth wonder of the world” 

In 1995, some 2,300 members of the United Rubber Workers, on strike for 10 months against five Bridgestone-Firestone plants, agreed to return to work without a contract. They had been fighting demands for 12-hour shifts and wage increases tied to productivity gains.

Today’s labor quote is by Samuel Gompers
"Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people. . . . There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish."
Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor. 

Over a thousand striking workers and their supporters took to the streets of downtown DC Thursday afternoon as the strike by 40,000 CWA and IBEW members entered its 37th day. The afternoon started with a massive picket line outside the F Street Verizon Wireless store, which was essentially brought to a standstill for hours.
The picket was followed by a march to the White House and a rally at Lafayette Park, where -- amid a sea of red CWA t-shirts -- local elected officials and labor allies pledged their ongoing support to the striking workers.
Negotiations for a new contract continued last week. 

Protesting the suspension of three NIH shuttle workers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764 members demonstrated outside the Medical Center Metro station in Bethesda Friday morning. They called on NIH to stop union busting and demand that private contractor W&T Travel Services bargain in good faith.
“The NIH and W&T are stomping on our free speech rights,” said ATU Local 1764’s Sesil Rubain.
“These suspensions were retaliation and the NIH turned a blind eye to this blatant and illegal union busting.”
Three NIH shuttle workers had been suspended by W&T earlier in the week for wearing union buttons.

On today's labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of Verizon strike picket lines.
In the latest in the AFL-CIO's Brown Bag Lunch Series, Carmen Berkley and Maria Robalino shine a light on the plight of mass incarceration and advocate for making our criminal justice system fairer, today at noon at the AFL-CIO.
The DC LaborFest continues tonight with a screening of the 1971 classic film "Joe Hill," introduced by Linda Zachrison, Cultural Counselor for the Embassy of Sweden.  
Complete details at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.

Here’s today’s labor history:
On this date in 1903, an estimated 100,000 textile workers, including more than 10,000 children, went out on strike in the Philadelphia area.  Among the issues were 60-hour workweeks, including night hours, for the children.        
In 1934, ten thousand strikers at the Auto-Lite plant in Toledo, Ohio  repelled police who had come to break up their strike for union recognition. The next day, two strikers were killed and 15 wounded when National Guard machine gun units opened fire. Two weeks later the company recognized the union and agreed to a 5 percent raise.           
And in 1946, a U.S. railroad strike started; it was later crushed when President Truman threatened to draft strikers.

Today’s labor quote is by John Dewey
"No system has ever existed which did not in some form involve the exploitation of some human beings for the advantage of others."
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer.

Backed by the Washington Teachers’ Union, teachers from Thomson Elementary School marched earlier this week to demand that DCPS and Chancellor Kaya Henderson resume contract negotiations with their union.
The schools’ teachers, like other DCPS teachers across the city, say they want a new collective bargaining agreement that respects the work they do and includes fair compensation. Earlier this month, close to 100 teachers from Murch Elementary, Deal Middle School and Wilson High held a similar march and rally on May 6. Other marches and rallies are planned throughout the city.

On today’s labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue today throughout the metro Washington area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times.
The DC LaborFest continues today with a free noontime screening of “Love and Solidarity” at the IBEW headquarters on Seventh Street. The film is an inspiring exploration of nonviolence and organizing through the life and teachings of Reverend James Lawson, who provided crucial strategic guidance while working with Martin Luther King, Jr., in southern freedom struggles and the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. Free popcorn for all attendees!  Full details at dclabor.org; click on calendar.

Here’s this weekend’s labor history:
On this date in 1926, the Railway Labor Act took effect. It was the first federal legislation protecting workers’ rights to form unions.
On May 21, 2004, nearly 100,000 unionized SBC Communications workers began a 4-day strike to protest the local phone giant’s latest contract offer.
And on May 22, 1895, Eugene Debs was imprisoned in Woodstock, Illinois for his role in the Pullman strike.

Today’s labor quote is by Eugene Debs
“Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and fallen and bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by the throat and choked into insensibility; enjoined by courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, traduced by the press, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated by renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested by spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but, notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is today the most vital potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thralldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as the setting of the sun.”