As the strike by workers who care for the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery entered its second day on Wednesday, the workers’ employers agreed to return to the bargaining table. “It’s a positive development that the employers have agreed to return to negotiations,” said Larry Doggett, Business Manager of Laborers Local 572 and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “What these workers are seeking is reasonable.” The walkout is believed to be the first strike by workers at the cemetery.
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 1886, newly unionized brewery workers in San Francisco, mostly German socialists, declared victory after the city’s breweries gave in to their demands. Those demands included free beer, the closed shop, a 10-hour day, 6-day week and the freedom to live anywhere; they had typically been required to live in the breweries. In 1916, a bomb was set off during a "Preparedness Day" parade in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring 40 more. Tom Mooney, a labor organizer, and Warren Billings, a shoe worker, were convicted of the crime, but both were pardoned 23 years later. Today’s labor quote is by Suzy Kassem “In another thirty to fifty years, the demand for cheap labor will have produced even more machines over the employment of actual humans. And in that time frame, humans will have lost their voice, their power, all freedoms, and all worth. It is inevitable that machines will one day become the ultimate enemies of mankind. We are not evolving or progressing with our technology, only regressing. Technology is our friend today, but will be our enemy in the future.” ― Suzy Kassem is an American writer, film director, philosopher, author, and poet.
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Airport workers rallied at National Airport on Tuesday, the same day that groundkeepers at nearby Arlington National Cemetery went on strike.
The airport workers, members of Unite Here 23, are upset about poor working conditions at both National and Dulles airports, which have an outsized impact on the D.C. area’s Ethiopian community. Some sixty percent of the retail and food workers at the D.C. airports are Ethiopians and many say they have experienced discrimination at their current job. DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton joined Tuesday's protest to show her support for the workers. The groundkeepers at Arlington National Cemetery struck after eight months of delays in reaching a new contract. Arlington County Board members Christian Dorsey and Katie Cristol joined more than 25 contract groundskeepers on the picketline Tuesday morning. The workers are members of Laborers Local 572. “This is about workers and their ability to provide for their families and their ability to live,” said Dorsey. “You really can’t do so if your wages don’t keep up with the cost of living.” The workers, who are jointly employed by the Davey Tree Expert Company and Greenleaf Services, are looking for sick leave time and a pay raise of 4 percent from their current rate of about $13 per hour. On today's labor calendar, catch Julius Getman on "Your Rights At Work" here on WPFW at 1pm this afternoon; Getman is the author of the new book “The Supreme Court On Unions: Why Labor Law is Failing American Workers.” 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 1877, local militiamen were called out against striking railroad workers in Pittsburgh. The head of the Pennsylvania Railroad advised giving the strikers "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread." In 1964, the IWW led a strike at Hodgeman's Blueberry Farm in Grand Junction, Michigan. And in 1984, a die-cast operator in Jackson, Michigan was pinned by a hydraulic Unimate robot, and died five days later. The incident was the first documented case in the U.S. of a robot killing a human. Today’s labor quote is by Walter Reuther Touring a new highly-automated factory, Henry Ford the second asked the auto workers president "Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?" Reuther replied: "Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?" Unions need to adapt how they bargain if they want to stop being on the defensive and start taking the offensive.
That was the main lesson from last week’s session on “Bargaining for the Common Good: Lessons from Los Angeles and Beyond,” presented by Rutgers Center of Innovation In Worker Organization and Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. The forum focused on lessons learned by organizers in the “Fix Los Angeles Campaign,” a diverse coalition of labor and community groups that broke the mold on collective bargaining in Los Angeles and won back jobs and public services for the city. Panelists discussed how labor unions are building coalitions with community groups as full partners, sitting down together at the bargaining table, and using their collective negotiating power to demand changes that improve the whole community, not just for union members. For our complete report, plus photos, go to dclabor.org On today’s labor calendar, Joe Briggs, Counsel for the National Football League Players Association, will lead a noontime discussion at the AFL-CIO on the significance of collective bargaining and the gains it has led to for players—both past and present. He'll also talk about the league's role in safety for all football players. For the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1899, New York City newsboys, many so poor that they were sleeping in the streets, began a 2-week strike. Several rallies drew more than 5,000 newsboys, complete with charismatic speeches by strike leader Kid Blink, who was blind in one eye. The boys had to pay publishers up front for the newspapers; the strike was successful in forcing the publishers to buy back unsold papers. The strike also inspired the 1992 film “Newsies,” which in turn was adapted into the long-running Broadway musical. In 1971, postal unions and the Postal Service signed the first labor contract in the history of the federal government, a year after an unauthorized strike by 200,000 postal workers. Today’s labor quote is by Jack Kelly, the striking newsie played by Christian Bale in the film: “There's a lot of people out there, and they ain't just gonna go away. They got voices now and they're goin' to be listened to. Putting them in jail is not going to stop them.” After Donald Trump picked former Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate last Friday, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka sarcastically congratulated Trump on the second worst vice presidential pick in history. Sarah Palin, of course, still being the worst.
Pence not only supports anti-worker “Right to Work” laws, but has led efforts to repeal the prevailing wage, urged Congress to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, and opposes raising the minimum wage and expanding workers rights. “Everything Donald Trump says shows he is desperate to be working people’s friend, but everything Donald Trump does proves he is our enemy,” said Trumka, calling Pence “the wrong choice for America.” “Mike Pence,” Trumka added, “once again proves Donald Trump’s true priority of assaulting the rights of working people and helping corporate CEOs line their pockets.” For the latest local labor calendar, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1848, the Women's Rights Convention opened in Seneca Falls, New York. Delegates adopted a Declaration of Women's Rights and called for women's suffrage. In 1940, an amendment to the 1939 Hatch Act, a federal law whose main provision prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, was amended to also cover state and local employees whose salaries include any federal funds. Today’s labor quote is by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, from her Seneca Falls Keynote Address: “We are assembled to protest against a form of government existing without the consent of the governed - to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in case of separation, the children of her love; laws which make her the mere dependent on his bounty. It is to protest against such unjust laws as these that we are assembled today, and to have them, if possible, forever erased from our statute books.” Click here for the complete address. |
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