Hosts:  Chris Garlock and Damon Silvers; JOIN US AT 202-588-0893

Also, 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!

Guest co-host Damon Silvers, Special Counsel to the President and Director of Policy at the AFL-CIO
In-studio: Cherri Senders, president of Senders Communications, publishers of the Labor411 guides, including the DC guide, which is releasing its’ 3rd edition tonight at the first-ever Union Beer and Whiskey Tasting at the Phoenix Park Hotel (above The Dubliner) at 5:30p. 

1:30: Labor Song: Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (1964) 
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CREDITS: Produced by Peter Pocock, engineered by Mike Nasella; 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. And we’re supported by you, our listeners: call 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739 or pledge online at wpfwfm.org.

Wed, May 17, 5:00 pm - 8:00pm, Busboys and Poets Takoma, 235 Carroll St, Washington DC 20012

​An original “labor jazz opera” by local activist/musician Steve Jones, “Love Songs” tells the moving story of a strike led by African-American women at the R J Reynolds factory in Winston-Salem, NC, which was an early victory against Jim Crow segregation. Tonight’s performance featured selections from “Love Songs,” with local singers, directed by Elise Bryant. 

UFCW Local 1994 members who work at Montgomery County’s Housing Opportunities Commission are walking safer, thanks to their union contract.
The HOC workers picked out new safety shoes from the Shoe Van earlier this month under the new contract, reports Local 1994, because “the value of the shoe vouchers was increased and eligible employees receive shoe vouchers each year.”

On today's labor calendar,
Author Ganesh Sitaraman will give a talk today at noon about his new book “The Crisis of the Middle Class Constitution” at the AFL-CIO; In this original, provocative contribution to the debate over economic inequality, Sitaraman argues that a strong and sizable middle class is a prerequisite for America’s constitutional system.
Also at noon, there’s a tour of the Iron Workers as part of the DC LaborFest.
And tonight don’t miss the return of Love Songs From the Liberation Wars, the original “labor jazz opera” by local activist/musician Steve Jones; we’ll have Steve and some of the cast on Live@5 here on WPFW from 5-6, live from the Takoma Busboys and Poets, and then they’ll perform more selections from the show from 6:30 to 8pm.
All the events are free; details at dclabor.org

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 2004, twelve Starbucks baristas in a midtown Manhattan store, declaring they couldn’t live on $7.75 an hour, signed cards demanding representation by the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies.
Today’s labor quote is by the Industrial Workers of the World; the IWW, which insisted
“The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.”

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

Please support WPFW and Union City Radio by pledging today; listener support has kept alternative voices on the DC airwaves for more than 40 years; let’s build for the next 40! Call 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739 or pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Tell ‘em Union City Radio sent you!

Metro riders will see transit workers in a different role than their usual ones operating the region's public transit when members of ATU Local 689 leaflet today in support of dedicated funding for Metro. Look for them at the Gallery Place, Federal Triangle and Stadium-Armory Metro stations during the morning and afternoon rush hours.
On today's labor calendar, director John Sayles will screen his film “Matewan” tonight at the AFI in Silver Spring. Based on the 1920 showdown between coal miners determined to form a union and coal company agents hired to prevent them, this is one of the classic films about American labor, starring Chris Cooper and James Earl Jones. If you can only see one film at this year’s LaborFest, this is definitely the one! It screens at 7pm at the AFI Silver Theatre. Complete details, of course, at dclabor.org, click on Calendar.
And we do have some free passes available; email me at [email protected]

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1934, a Minneapolis general strike backs the Teamsters, who are striking most of the city’s trucking companies.
In 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers. The decision had little impact until Ronald Reagan’s replacement of striking air traffic controllers in 1981, a move that signaled anti-union private sector employers that it was OK to do likewise.
And, in 1979, Black labor leader and peace activist A. Philip Randolph died. He was president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black on the AFL-CIO executive board, and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.

Today’s labor quote is by Joe Kenehan, the organizer in the film “Matewan”
“They got you fightin’ white against colored, native against foreign, hollow against hollow, when you know there ain’t but two sides in this world — them that work and them that don’t. You work, they don’t. That’s all you got to know about the enemy.”

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

Please support WPFW and Union City Radio by pledging today; listener support has kept alternative voices on the DC airwaves for more than 40 years; let’s build for the next 40! Call 202-588-9739 or 1-800-222-9739 or pledge online at wpfwfm.org. Tell ‘em Union City Radio sent you!