Metro workers are rallying Saturday at noon over funding and safety issues. Led by ATU Local 689, other unions as well as political and community allies are expected to turn out to support demands for dedicated funding for Metro to ensure long-term maintenance, upkeep, and expansion and make Metro safe for riders and workers.  “No one knows the system better than our members, who are the front line workers of the system,” says Jackie Jeter, president of Local 689.   Among those speaking tomorrow are Dion Baker, a Metro Train Operator who will talk about the faulty and outdated radio equipment he's forced to use, and DC Circulator Bus Operator “Tiny” Burke who has witnessed dangerous cost cutting while the outsourced company he works for makes a profit. The rally will be held at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation at 213 East Capitol Street Northeast.

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

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1903, a preliminary delegation from Mother Jones' March of the Mill Children from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island, publicizing the harsh conditions of child labor, arrived but were not allowed through the gates.  

In 1956, nineteen firefighters died while responding to a blaze at the Shamrock Oil and Gas refinery in Sun Ray, Texas.

And in 1970, following a 5-year table grape boycott, Delano-area growers filed into the United Farm Workers union hall in Delano, California to sign their first union contracts.

Today’s labor quote is by Cesar Chavez
"The name of the game is to talk to people. If you don't talk to people, you can't get started...You knock on twenty doors or so, and twenty guys tell you to go to hell, or that they haven't got time. But maybe at the fortieth or sixtieth house you find the one guy who is all you need. You're not going to organize everything; you're just going to get it started.”

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

This week's guests: 
Joseph Geevarghese, Director, Good Jobs Nation, on Tuesday’s $1M win for Senate cafeteria workers
Renato Mendoza, Advocacy Specialist - Housing and Economic Development at CASA; chair of the Guild unit at CASA; on fighting the deportation of CASA worker – and Guild member—Wendy Contreras.
David Stephen, ATU 689, on the big rally tomorrow for transit funding 

Labor Song of the Week: Danny Gatton Mystery Train 

Senate cafeteria workers will receive more than a million dollars in back wages after a Department of Labor investigation found their employers intentionally underpaid them. “This shows that when workers act, workers can win,” said Joe Geevarghese, Director of Good Jobs Nation, which has been organizing the workers. But Geevarghese warned that “criminal activity at the U.S. Capitol is just the tip of the iceberg,” noting that “If federal contractors feel free to break federal law right under the noses of lawmakers, they probably feel free to violate the rights of workers all across America.” Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid called Restaurant Associates “despicable” and said the Senate should terminate its contract.

On today’s “Your Rights At Work” at 1pm here on WPFW, our guests will be Joe Geevarghese, Director of Good Jobs Nation, discussing Tuesday’s million-dollar win for Senate cafeteria workers; also joining us will be ATU 689’s David Stephen on Saturday’s big transit rally, as well as CASA’s Renato Mendoza, on the fight to prevent the deportation of CASA worker – and Guild member -- Wendy Contreras.
For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1869, women shoemakers in Lynn, Massachusetts created the Daughters of Saint Crispin, demanding pay equal to that of men.

In 1901, Harry Bridges was born in Australia. He came to America as a sailor at age 19 and went on to help form and lead the militant International Longshore and Warehouse Union for more than 40 years.

And on this date in 1932, federal troops burned the shantytown built near the U.S. Capitol by thousands of unemployed World War One veterans, camping there to demand a bonus they had been promised but never received.

Today’s labor quote is by Harry Bridges
“I would have worked with the devil himself if he'd been for the six hour day and worker control of the hiring hall.”

Protesting Fairfax County's failure to oversee private contractor MV Transportation, dozens of bus operators, mechanics, and other Fairfax Connector transit workers planned to flood the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting yesterday. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764, which represents most of the nearly 600 transit employees at the Fairfax Connector, says that despite a contract with the county that included funding to provide retirement security, MV has failed to provide its employees with a viable retirement plan.
"We are the only county workers who will devote their lives to Fairfax and walk away with nothing to retire on," said Sesil Rubain, ATU Local 1764 trustee. Adding insult to injury, Rubain says that union members forfeited a 2% pay raise in 2012 to help fund the still non-existent pension plan. "MV has pocketed taxpayer money and the workers' deferred raises and is sending the profits back to Texas,” Rubain said. “It's unconscionable."

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

Here’s today's labor history:
On this date in 1869, William Sylvis died. Sylvis is best remembered as a founder of the Iron Molders' International Union and the National Labor Union, the latter being one of the first American union federations attempting to unite workers of various crafts into a single national organization. The founding convention of the National Labor Union in August 1866, was attended by 60 delegates, representing 43 local unions, 11 trade assemblies, four Eight-hour Leagues, and two national or international unions. Ironically, Sylvis was unable to attend the gathering due to illness. He became president of the National Labor Union in 1868 and advocated international labor cooperation and independent political action. At the time of his death at the age of 41, he was urging the formation of a national Labor Reform party.

Today’s labor quote is by William Sylvis
"I love this Union cause. I hold it more dear than I do my family or my life. I am willing to devote to it all that I am or have or hope for in this world."