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Hosted Chris Garlock and Ed Smith. DC’s call-in show about worker rights: those you have, those you don’t, how to get them and how to use them. Hour 1: Labor organizers and novelists of the world, unite! Legendary union organizer David Sickler led the national Coors Boycott, pioneered immigrant worker organizing, and developed powerful political campaigns to defend worker rights throughout California. He’s the subject of the new book “From Coors to California: David Sickler and the New Working Class.” Also this hour, Bill Fletcher, Gary Frank & Tim Sheard are all longtime labor activists who have published novels in the last year. They’ll be appearing next Tuesday at this month’s Bread & Roses program on “The craft of writing” -- Tue, July 16, 6pm – 8pm; Takoma Busboys and Poets – and Gary and Tim join us to talk about a couple of union guys got into the novel-writing business. Hour 2: After the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the World Cup last week, the crowd chanted “Equal pay! Equal pay!” One sportswriter said that “given the fact that a recent study shows that the US women actually generate more revenue than the men, maybe they shouldn’t stop at mere equity.” That sportswriter was none other than our very own Dave Zirin, who hosts “The Collision: Sports and Politics” with Etan Thomas here on WPFW. Dave, who’s been called the “conscience of American sportswriting,” is sports editor for The Nation, writes the Edge of Sports blog and has written 10 books, including “A People's History of Sports In The United States" and “Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love.” Dave also reflects on the life and work of Jim Bouton ("Ball Four"), who died yesterday at 80. Plus PAI's Mark Gruenberg with the latest labor news.
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The AFL-CIO recently released its annual Executive Paywatch report and it’s not a pretty picture.
The CEO-to-worker pay ratio is now 287 to 1, meaning the average CEO earns 287 times what an average employee earns. What’s that mean in real dollars? Well, the average CEO last year took home $14.5 million in total compensation. And while the average U.S. rank-and-file worker’s pay has increased only about $15 a week over the last ten years, those “average” CEOs have seen their pay go up almost $10,000 dollars a week. “This year’s report,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, “is a stark reminder that working people must use our collective voice to form bigger, stronger unions and rewrite the economic rules once and for all.” We’ve got a link to the report on our website at dclabor.org On today’s labor calendar, tune in for this week’s edition of Your Rights At Work at 1 o’clock today when our guests will include labor novelists Gary Frank and Tim Sheard, and WPFW’s own Dave Zirin on equal pay for women soccer players. For complete details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1892, striking coal miners in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, dynamited barracks housing Pinkerton management thugs. Today’s labor quote is by Sidney Hillman, who led the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and was a close advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hillman, who died on July 10, 1946, said: “Politics is the science of who gets what, when and why.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re planning to go to the movies this summer, you can save up to 37% with Union Plus Movie Discounts at national chains. Visit unionplus.org/movies. (audio) “The economy, as we know, hit young workers the hardest after the recession.”
That’s AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler on the latest edition of State of the Unions, the AFL-CIO’s podcast, talking about young people and the labor movement: “Young people were working two and three jobs just to make ends meet. And, so I think they’re finally seeing—with all this worker activism and with this notion that coming together collectively is more powerful—that unions are a path forward for them. So, perhaps just continuing to build on that momentum, educating our leadership on the value of bringing in young perspectives and having a seat at the table, so that young people aren't just boxed out and on the sidelines. It used to be that you’d attend a meeting as a young person, and they’re like ‘Yeah, come back to me in five years, kid, when you’ve been around for awhile.’ We need their voices now. We need their expertise now.” Catch “State of the Unions” wherever you listen to podcasts. On today’s labor calendar, locked-out Baltimore Symphony musicians picket this morning from 11 am to 12:30 pm; for details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1894, some 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeeded in putting down the strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which had been peaceful until July 5, when federal troops intervened in Chicago, against the repeated protests of the governor and Chicago’s mayor. A total of 34 American Railway Union members were killed by troops over the course of the strike. Today’s labor quote is by Mary McLeod Bethune, the educator and civil rights activist, born on this date in 1875. Mary McLeod Bethune, who said: “If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re planning to go to the movies this summer, you can save up to 37% off tickets with Union Plus Movie Discounts at national chains. Visit unionplus.org/movies. OPEIU – the Office and Professional Employees International Union -- has created an organizing campaign called NEU— Nonprofit Employees United—to reach out to the staff of nonprofit organizations. “We’ve secured workplace policies and procedures that make our legal services and advocacy nonprofits more inclusive, accountable, and effective,” say union members in a recent post.
Workers at the Solidarity Center, for example, negotiated for paid parental leave, and at Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, NEU members negotiated for their employer to make every reasonable effort to provide time and support during the normal work day to take care of administrative tasks and follow-up on their work. Find out more about NEU on our website at dclabor.org. On today’s labor calendar, locked-out Baltimore Symphony Musicians picket from 8 to 9:30am this morning. For details and all the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1935, New York City subway system managers in the Bronx tried to make cleaning crews work faster by forcing the use of a 14-inch squeegee instead of the customary 10-inch tool. Six workers were fired for insubordination, but a two-day walkout by the Transport Workers Union got their jobs back, along with the return of their regular squeegee. Today’s labor quote is by Ken Riley, president of Local 1422 of the International Longshoremen’s Association in Charleston, South Carolina. On this date in 2001, five thousand demonstrators rallied at the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina in support of the "Charleston Five," labor activists charged with felony rioting during a police attack on a longshoremen's picket of a non-union crew unloading a ship the previous year. Ken Riley, who said: “We come from the American South where labor is oppressed. We continue to win because losing is not an option.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. If you’re planning to go to the movies this summer, you can save up to 37% off tickets with Union Plus Movie Discounts at national chains. Visit unionplus.org/movies. |
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