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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 click on "subscribe" at right, or search for Union City Radio on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts; subscribe and you’ll get our shows right on your phone! This week's guest: Ari Schwartz, Lead Organizer for DC Jobs With Justice, on the Sick and Safe Leave Forum set for July 25. With just a few exceptions, if you work in DC, you have the right to take paid sick days when you or a loved one is ill, to go to a doctor, or to receive services related to domestic violence or assault. “It's outrageous how many employers still violate this law on a daily basis,” says Ari Schwartz, Lead Organizer for DC Jobs With Justice. To make paid sick days for all a reality, “workers need to know their rights and have the tools to defend them,” says Schwartz, which is why the Just Pay Coalition is hosting a Sick and Safe Leave Forum this presentation July 25, in partnership with the DC Department of Employment Services’ Office of Wage-Hour (OWH). “It's time for every employer to follow the law and for every worker to know about their right to paid sick days,” said Schwartz. Click here for details and to RSVP. 1:30 Labor Song: Sick Leave Blues · Gaye Adegbalola & the Wild Rutz CREDITS: Produced by Peter Pocock -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRODUCER PETE! -- and Mackadoodle Miller, engineered by Mike "The Man" 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.
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Laurette Ford is a force of nature. For more than a decade as a UFCW Local 400 shop steward, she made it her mission to build her union by signing up as many new members as humanly possible. On June 30, Laurette retired from Giant after 29 years as a proud Local 400 member, with the knowledge that she is leaving her union better than she found it. “I joined our union in 1988,” Laurette said. “I was making $5.25 an hour. When the kids today complain they don’t make enough money, I tell them that—and make the point that because of their union, they can expect to do a whole lot better in the future just like I’ve done. That’s usually enough to pull them in." You can read the rest of the story -- and see a photo of Laurette -- on our website at dclabor.org
On today's labor calendar, tune in at 1 o'clock this afternoon for this week's edition of Your Rights At Work, when we'll be discussing the upcoming Sick and Safe Leave Forum and the threats to Administrative Law Judges who have organized a union. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1971, postal unions and the US Postal Service signed the first labor contract in the history of the federal government. The previous year, 200,000 postal workers staged the largest wildcat strike in U.S. history. Today’s labor quote is by William Burrus, former president of the American Postal Workers Union. William Burrus, who said: "Those unions that enjoy the right to strike have no guarantee that sacrificing their jobs and their livelihood will result in victory but they nevertheless engage in lengthy strikes, not because they are assured of winning but because they are determined to fight." 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. After a long battle to form a union, members of IFPTE Judicial Council 3 at the DC Office of Administrative Hearings -- or OAH -- are once again under attack by management. Union president Judge Jesse Goode and other high-profile union members -- who serve as administrative law judges at the OAH -- are being threatened with termination by management. IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Paul Shearon called it "The most blatant, open attack on a union leader and their members that I have ever seen in all my time in labor." Judge Goode has served for 12 years at OAH and was just promoted last year, but management apparently now views his union activities advocating for his colleagues as a threat. The union urges those concerned to contact the Mayor's office at 202-727-2643 or tweet her @MayorBowser, to ensure Judge Goode gets a fair hearing, as well as investigate OAH management's anti-union actions.
Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1940, the 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 Louis H. Albert, who said: "I don't mind coming to work -- I just don't want to stay when I get there." 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. “People say slavery is done… [but] it’s still there – in the corner,” says Gulnahar Alam, a domestic worker who, like many others, suffered workplace abuses. To combat this exploitation, often hidden away in employers’ homes, Alam began organizing. “People feel very powerful and so much more confident when they see that they are not alone. They no longer feel ashamed.” Alam’s story is one of 18 brought to life in "Shifting the Universe: Spoken Histories of Work & Resistance" by first-time author Candace Wolf, who lives in Takoma Park. You can read the rest of Pete Tucker's review on our website at dclabor.org
Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1944, two ammunition ships exploded at Port Chicago, California, killing 322, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. It was the worst home-front disaster of World War II. The resulting refusal of 258 African-Americans to return to the dangerous work underpinned the trial and conviction of 50 of the men in what is called the Port Chicago Mutiny. 47 of the 50 were released in 1946 and in 1999, President Clinton pardoned Freedie Meeks, one of the few members of the Port Chicago 50 who was still alive. Today’s labor quote is by Thurgood Marshall, the future Supreme Court Justice, who was then the chief special counsel for the N.A.A.C.P., who went to California to observe the Chicago 50 trial. Thurgood Marshall, who said: “This is not 50 men on trial for mutiny. This is the Navy on trial for its whole vicious policy toward Negroes.” 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. |
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