For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor events, just click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1928, Alabama outlawed the leasing of convicts to mine coal, a practice that had been in place since 1848. In 1898, 73 percent of the state's total revenue came from this source. 25 percent of all black leased convicts died.

In 1936, the Walsh-Healey Act took effect on this date. It requires companies that supply goods to the government to pay wages according to a schedule set by the Secretary of Labor.

And, in 1998, up to 40,000 New York construction workers demonstated in midtown Manhattan, protesting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s awarding of a $33 million dollar contract to a nonunion company. 

Today’s labor quote is by Booker T. Washington 
Booker T. Washington, who said 
“You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.” 

Ed Smith hosts (Chris Garlock is away). 

This week's guests: 
Walakewon Blegay (Wala), Staff Attorney, DCNA: on negotiations and working conditions at United Medical Center. 
Dyana Forester, Political & Community Lead Representative, UFCW Local 400: on Bill B512, the “Hours and Scheduling Stability Act of 2016,” that was pushed of by the DC Council until at least mid-July. This bill would assist restaurant and retail workers in scheduling their shifts and making sure that they know how many hours a week they are expected to work. 

Labor song of the week: Koko Taylor covers Big Boss Man. 

For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor events, just click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1885, what was to become a 7-day streetcar strike began in Chicago after several workers were unfairly fired. The police chief at the time, describing the strikers’ response to scabs, wrote that: "One of my men said he was at the corner of Halsted and Madison Streets, and although he could see fifty stones in the air, he couldn't tell where they were coming from." The strike was settled to the workers’ satisfaction.

In 1934, an Executive Order signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB.  A predecessor organization, the National Labor Boardhad been struck down by the Supreme Court.

And in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled -- in CWA versus Beck -- that a union can collect from non-members only those fees and dues necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining representative. Harry Beck was a maintenance worker with the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company in Maryland, an agency shop, where the employer may hire union or non-union workers, and employees need not join the union. However, non-union workers must pay a fee to cover collective bargaining costs. Beck protested the use of his union dues for a political cause in which he did not believe and asked for a refund. The Communication Workers refused, arguing that using union dues for political expenditures was appropriate and legal. The Beck decision is widely seen in the labor movement as an attack on union power. 

Today’s labor quote is by Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein, who among other things, was a member of the American Federation of Teachers, and who said: 
"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." 

For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1850, machinist Matthew Maguire was born. Many believe he first suggested Labor Day, but others believe it was Peter McGuire, a carpenter.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation declaring Labor Day an official U.S. holiday.

Today’s labor quote is by Grover Cleveland
"The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by aggregated capital, and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil, and be framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman."

For today's labor news reports, go to dclabor.org, and for the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1869, Emma Goldman, women's rights activist and radical, was born in Lithuania. She came to the United States at age 17.

In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies," were founded at a convention in Chicago.  

In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, creating the structure for collective bargaining in the United States.

On this date in 1985, a 26-day strike of New York City hotels by 26,000 workers – the first such walkout in 50 years – ended with a five-year contract calling for big wage and benefit gains.

And in 1993, A.E. Staley locked out 763 workers in Decatur, Illinois. The lockout by the corn processor was to last two and a half years and went national when union workers from two other Decatur based companies, Caterpillar and Firestone Tire and Rubber, walked out on contract disputes in August 1994 and joined the locked-out Staley workers in protests, picketing and demonstrations. The Staley plants were operated during the lockout by white collar workers and the union ended up giving in to company demands.

Today’s labor quote is the motto of the Wobblies
"An injury to one is an injury to all."

AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman reports that he was among the DC-area activists to join 3,000 participants at the People’s Summit in Chicago last weekend to talk about how to move progressive issues forward. In addition to speeches, workshops and cultural events, Goldman says the Summit included some really inspiring “reports from the field” from organizers involved in a variety of progressive issues such as labor, racial justice, economic inequality, the environment and challenging neoliberalism. The participants also broke into groups by region to discuss how to take action at the local level. 

The final chapter in the historic 45-day Verizon strike was written when the workers overwhelmingly voted on June 17 to ratify new contracts. “It was a tough strike, but this contract, which secures good jobs in our communities and preserve workers’ standard of living shows what can happen when we stand together," said Ed Mooney, Vice President of CWA District 2-13. 

On today's labor calendar, 
The Labor Heritage Foundation's annual Great Labor Arts Exchange continues today and through the weekend, bringing together labor musicians and artists from across the nation, with a free concert Saturday night honoring LUCI MURPHY. For more info, visit LaborHeritage.org.
And there are two noontime events at the AFL-CIO today:
One is a book discussion on "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America" the other is "Please Don't Touch My Hair: A Convo on Black Hair in the Workplace." 
This weekend check out screenings of "Farewell Ferris Wheel" at AFI Docs, about a year in the life of migrant laborers who are also carnival workers.
For full details on the local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s our weekend labor history:
On June 25 in 1893, more than 8,000 people attended the dedication ceremony for The Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Chicago, honoring those framed and executed for the bombing at Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886. 

On June 26 in 1894, members of the American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, refused to handle Pullman cars, in solidarity with Pullman strikers. Two dozen strikers were killed over the course of the strike.

Today’s labor quote is by Eugene Debs, speaking in Pullman, Illinois, during the American Railway Union's Pullman Strike
"If it is a fact that after working for George M. Pullman for many years you appear two weeks after your work stops, ragged and hungry, it only emphasizes that the charge I made before this community, and Pullman stands before you a self-confessed robber....The paternalism of Pullman is the same as the self-interest of a slave-holder in his human chattels. You are striking to avert slavery and degradation." 

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

This week's guests: 
Amy Millar, UFCW 1994/MCGEO; on Montgomery County proposed bill undercutting bargaining rights for county workers. 
Carmen Berkley, on “Please Don’t Touch My Hair: A Convo On Black Hair In The Workplace.” Berkley is Director of the Civil, Human and Women’s Rights department at the AFL-CIO.

Labor song of the week: India.Arie - I Am Not My Hair ​

Workers shortchanged by companies under contract with Montgomery County for cleaning and other services have received over $300,000 in unpaid wages, county officials announced late last week and reported in the Washington Post. About a third of the money came from the settlement of a lawsuit filed against the county by some of the workers and one of the contractors. Four other contractors paid the rest after county audits showed they were not complying with Montgomery’s “living-wage” law, which requires contractors hired by the county government to pay a minimum hourly rate, adjusted annually based on the consumer price index.
Read the rest of the Post report on our website at dclabor.org

On today's labor calendar, UFCW 1994's Gino Renne will discuss the proposed bill undercutting bargaining rights for county workers in Montgomery County on today's "Your Rights at Work" at 1 pm here on WPFW. AFL-CIO Director of Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Carmen Berkley will also be on, previewing tomorrow's talk entitled “PLEASE DON'T TOUCH MY HAIR: A CONVO ON BLACK HAIR IN THE WORKPLACE.” 
And starting this Friday, the Labor Heritage Foundation's annual Great Labor Arts Exchange brings together labor musicians and artists from across the nation, with a free concert Saturday night honoring LUCI MURPHY. For more info, visit LaborHeritage.org and for the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1914, Charles Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, went to Butte, Montana in an attempt to mediate a conflict between factions of the miner’s local there. It didn’t go well. A gunfight in the union hall killed one man; Moyer and other union officers left the building, which was then leveled in a dynamite blast.

In 1947, Congress overrode President Harry Truman's veto of the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act. The law weakened unions and let states exempt themselves from union requirements. Twenty states immediately enacted open shop laws and more followed.

And in 1999, a majority of the 5,000 textile workers at six Fieldcrest Cannon textile plants in Kannapolis, North Carolina voted for union representation after an historic 25-year fight.

Today’s labor quote is by President Harry Truman, from his June 20 1947 radio address to American people after vetoing the Taft-Hartley bill:
"The bill is deliberately designed to weaken labor unions. When the sponsors of the bill claim that by weakening unions, they are giving rights back to individual workingmen, they ignore the basic reason why unions are important in our democracy. Unions exist so that laboring men can bargain with their employers on a basis of equality. Because of unions, the living standards of our working people have increased steadily until they are today the highest in the world."
Click here for the entire speech

The government of Maryland says it has been shortchanging thousands of workers who earn extra pay for overtime and night shifts, a mistake discovered when the state installed a new payroll and timekeeping system this year.  On Friday, state officials notified four public-employee unions about the issue and said they plan to work with the unions to develop a process for determining the scope of the problem and how to resolve it. 
Union officials say they have raised concerns about payroll mistakes across state agencies for many years, only to hear that the problems were isolated. “It turns out the issues were systemic,” said Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Maryland Council 3, the largest union representing state workers. “Our members were right, and the bureaucrats were wrong. We expect every person who worked to be paid for every single hour they worked, whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago,” said Moran.

On today's labor calendar, the AFL-CIO Committee on Women Workers and the American Federation of Teachers are hosting a seminar this morning on "Early Learning and Childcare: The Work and the Workers" starting at 9a at the AFL-CIO. 
And starting this Friday, the Labor Heritage Foundation's annual Great Labor Arts Exchange brings together labor musicians and artists from across the nation, with a free concert Saturday night honoring LUCI MURPHY. For more info, visit LaborHeritage.org and for the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1918, 86 passengers on a train carrying members of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were killed, and another 127 were injured in a wreck near Hammond, Indiana.  Five days later the dead were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, in an area set aside as Showmen’s Rest, purchased only a few months earlier by the Showmen’s League of America.

In 1922, violence erupted during a coal mine strike at Herrin, Illinois. A total of 36 were killed, 21 of them non-union miners.

Today’s labor quote is by Sam Gompers
"Time is the most valuable thing on earth: time to think, time to act, time to extend our fraternal relations, time to become better men, time to become better women, time to become better and more independent citizens."

Saying that "The attacks never let up," UFCW 1994's Amy Millar reports that Montgomery County Council President Nancy Floreen is introducing a bill that the union says would gut collective bargaining rights in Montgomery County.  While Floreen says the bill is about transparency, Local 1994 says it would reduce the ability of unions to bargain over working conditions, allow the County Executive to appoint a permanent umpire without union input  and more. Floreen's “transparency” language "comes right out of ALEC model legislation," Millar notes. ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is a pay-to-play operation where corporations advance their legislative wish lists. 

Starting this Friday, the Labor Heritage Foundation's annual Great Labor Arts Exchange brings together labor musicians and artists from across the nation, organized by Elise Bryant. Saturday night don't miss the free concert honoring DC Diva Activist LUCI MURPHY with the Joe Hill Award. For more info, visit LaborHeritage.org and for the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1877, ten miners accused of being militant "Molly Maguires" were hanged in Pennsylvania. A private corporation initiated the investigation of the 10 through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested them, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. "The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows," a judge said many years later.

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of unions to publish statements urging members to vote for a specific congressional candidate, ruling that such advocacy is not a violation of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act.

And in 1997, an estimated 100,000 unionists and other supporters marched in solidarity with striking Detroit News and Detroit Free Press newspaper workers.

Today’s labor quote is by an anonymous Molly Maguire
 "You either end up on the gallows or coughing your lungs out, what's the difference?"
The Mollies were a secret organization of Irish Catholic coal miners in Schuykill County, Pennsylvania. They were enraged about poor working conditions and low wages.