Union City Radio’s Chris Garlock hosts, with guest co-host Damon Silvers, Director of Policy and Special Counsel for the AFL-CIO.
This week's guests: Jackie Jeter, president of ATU 689, on how SafeTrack is affecting Metro workers Jerame Davis, Pride@Work (in-studio) on the Orlando tragedy as an opportunity to talk about LGBT discrimination and harassment at work. Pride at Work is a nonprofit organization that represents LGBT union members and their allies. It’s an officially recognized constituency group of the AFL-CIO that organizes mutual support between the organized Labor Movement and the LGBT Community to further social and economic justice. Labor song of the week: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive.
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Outside the Community for Creative Non-Violence, residents of the homeless shelter now have something fresh and colorful to look at: themselves. A bright new mural was completed recently, thanks to the efforts of Azita Mashayekhi, a Teamsters staffer and OPEIU Local 2 member. Mashayekhi came up with the idea after passing the shelter’s “desolate wall” during her daily commute to her job at Teamsters headquarters up the street.
An artist herself, Mashayekhi began navigating the maze of government bureaucracy and got the attention of the Murals DC Project. The mural – by D.C. artist Rose Jaffe -- shows portraits of several of the current residents and staffers at the shelter, as well as its late founder, Mitch Snyder. “People should be remembered, and that’s the least we can do, to remind people who come here that other people care,” Mashayekhi said. “Sometimes you have to go to the government and push them.” Next week, Mashayekhi's photography will be on display at the Great Labor Arts Exchange where she will be leading a photography workshop. On today’s "Your Rights At Work" call-in show here on WPFW at 1pm, our guests include local transit workers president Jackie Jeter, on how SafeTrack is affecting Metro workers, and Pride@Work’s Jerame Davis is in-studio with me and guest co-host Damon Silver to discuss discrimination and harassment at work of gays and lesbians, in the aftermath of the Orlando tragedy. For complete details and the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1918, railroad union leader and socialist Gene Debs spoke in Canton, Ohio, on the relation between capitalism and war. Ten days later he was arrested under the Espionage Act, and eventually sentenced to 10 years in jail. In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act became law, but was later declared unconstitutional. It established the right to unionize, set maximum hours and minimum wages for every major industry, abolished sweatshops and child labor. The Wagner Act, in effect today, was approved two years later to legalize unionization. And on this date in 2000, Inacom Corporation, once the world's largest computer dealer, sent most of its employees an email instructing them to call a toll-free phone number; when they called, a recorded message announced they had been fired. Today’s labor quote is by Gene Debs “The working class who make the sacrifices, who shed the blood, have never yet had a voice in declaring war. The ruling class has always made the war and made the peace.” In the aftermath of the horrific attack in Orlando, staff at the AFL-CIO took a moment to come together Monday to read the names of those killed, followed by a moment of silence. “The latest count is 49 killed, plus 53 wounded, plus the impact on all of the families,” said AFL-CIO Chief of Staff John Hiatt. “Our first responders - police, fire, hospital workers - have been through their own trauma in handling the scene. Those killed were mostly young, Latino and LGBTQ, but this was an attack on all of us.” Many unions have issued statements of support.
On today’s labor calendar, with the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act approaching this November, voters all over the country – especially people of color – are worried about voter suppression. Organizers and civil rights veterans will meet today at noon to analyze lessons learned from past fights for voting rights and chart a path forward at “We The People: Race and the New Fight for The Right to Vote” at the AFL-CIO. And tonight at 6:30, catch a screening and panel discussion around the film “The Same Heart,” which documents how global inequality fuels child labor, generational cycles of poverty and egregious violations of fundamental human rights. Both events are free; for complete details and the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1990, police in Los Angeles attacked some 500 janitors and their supporters during a peaceful demonstration against a cleaning contractor. The event, which became known as the “Battle of Century City,” generated public outrage and resulted in recognition of the workers' union – the Service Employees International Union -- and spurred the creation of an annual June 15 Justice for Janitors Day. Today’s labor quote is by one of the striking janitors in Los Angeles in 1990, who told a reporter: “I wasn’t robbing a bank or selling drugs, I’m simply asking for an increase in pay but the police beat us as if we were garbage.” Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 5 showed off its new Silver LEED facility in Prince George’s County last week as they hosted the regional annual Apprentice Competition, the winners of which go on to national and international competitions with apprentices from the U.S., Canada, Australia and Ireland. LEED – which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design -- is one of the most popular green building certification programs used worldwide. Dedicated last fall, the building, which also houses training space for Sprinkler Fitters Local 669, boasts a large meeting room, conference room, classrooms with state-of-the art computer and virtual technologies, and labs for hands-on training with all aspects of the trade including gas and electric heaters, piping and plumbing, furnaces and boilers, as well as a wide range of appliances and equipment.
“We are very proud of our Silver LEED certification,” said Training Director Tim Haley, “which means the design and operation of our building is environmentally safe and uses energy efficiently. Not only do we re-use rainwater for our sanitary and training needs, but the building allows us to train our apprentices in skills needed for future building technologies, so new jobs can be done by union members. It’s a win-win for all!” On today’s labor calendar, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Child Labor Coalition host a panel discussion entitled “End Child Labor In Supply Chains - It's Everyone's Business” starting at 1p at the Labor Department. For complete details and the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1872, unions were legalized in Canada. In 1951, the first commercial computer, UNIVAC I, was installed at the U.S. Census Bureau. Today’s labor quote is by former IBM CEO Louis Gerstner, Jr. “Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.” |
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