Latasha Wood was radiant as she joined her fellow sheet metal apprentices at graduation ceremonies last Saturday at SMART local 100.  Her entire family was there to celebrate the culmination of the intense 5-year program that trained the 27 apprentices for careers in the building trades. "We hope many more women see these nontraditional jobs as a great way to support themselves and their families with family-supporting wages and life-long benefits," said Sylvia Casaro Dietert, the Program Coordinator for the Community Services Agency’s Building Futures program at the Metro Washington Council.

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

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1971, the International Alliance of Bill Posters, Billers & Distributors surrendered its AFL-CIO charter and was disbanded. Bill posters pasted up, or "posted," advertising sheets for everything from circuses and political rallies to product ad.

Today’s labor quote is by George Henry Evans, who published the first issue of the Working Man’s Advocate on this date in 1829. “Edited by a Mechanic” for the “useful and industrious classes” in New York City, Evans focused on the inequities between the, quote, “portion of society living in luxury and idleness” and those “groaning under the oppressions and miseries imposed on them,” unquote.

Union City Radio is supported by Union Plus, which offers Retiree Health Care Medicare options for union members and their families. Check it out at unionplus.org

A takeback pushed through by The Washington Post during the last round of contract negotiations is fueling a push for union membership at the Washington Baltimore News Guild.
Under the new contract, the Post no longer gives additional pay to workers who take on additional responsibilities for a higher job classification on a part-time basis.
This can mean as much as a 15-percent pay cut, according to unit co-chair Frederick Kunkle, who reminded Post workers that “the wisest way to preserve important benefits – and possibly achieve better terms and benefits in the future – is to work together. Collective bargaining is only as strong as the people who join together to push the company to do right by its employees.”

On today’s labor calendar, there are four – count ‘em, four – labor phonebanks today in the DMV, including one at the AFL-CIO that’s calling in to battleground states across the country; for complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1986, Ed Meese, attorney general in the Reagan administration, urged employers to begin spying on workers "in locker rooms, parking lots, shipping and mail room areas and even the nearby taverns" to try to catch them using drugs.  

Today’s labor quote is by writer Sebastian Junger, from his book “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.” Sebastian Junger, who wrote:
“Human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others. These values are considered ‘intrinsic’ to human happiness and far outweigh ‘extrinsic’ values such as beauty, money and status.”

Union City Radio is supported by Union Plus, which offers Retiree Health Care Medicare options for union members and their families. Check it out at unionplus.org

When Ty Owens walked into his local Social Security office in Manassas, Virginia, for help, he had to wait in line for five hours.
If Donald Trump and his Health and Human Services Secretary, former drug company executive Alex Azar, have their way, that wait could get a lot longer.
That’s because Azar’s operatives, after just one 10-minute “bargaining” session in June with the Treasury Employees, who represent 14,000 HHS workers, threw their regressive demands on the table, gave the union two weeks to yield, then got up, walked out and declared an “impasse” in negotiations.
That would let Trump’s government impose their “contract” on the union and would lead to longer lines and lesser quality service as federal workers depart in droves.
It also brought Owens, president of NTEU Local 229 at HHS headquarters and dozens of his colleagues out into the HHS driveway for a noontime protest last Thursday.
They drew dozens of sympathetic honks from passing motorists and enthusiastic support from DC Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, who promised that the future of the NTEU members, and the rest of the nation’s two million federal workers, would be far different if Democrats recapture Congress on November 6. 

On today’s labor calendar,
labor phonebanks continue today to get out the union vote; for complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1929, Wall Street crashed on what came to be known as "Black Tuesday," throwing the world's economy into a years-long crisis including an unemployment rate in the U.S. that by 1933 hit nearly 25 percent.

Today’s labor quote is by psychologist Nathan Ackerman, reporting on the impact of long-term unemployment on coal miners during the Depression. 
Nathan Ackerman, who said:
“A jobless man was a lazy good-for-nothing.... These men suffered from depression. They felt despised, they were ashamed of themselves.” 

Union City Radio is supported by Union Plus, which offers Retiree Health Care Medicare options for union members and their families. Check it out at unionplus.org

More than 1,000 DC school bus drivers and attendants will achieve pay parity with other District government employees, thanks to a new three-year contract between the city and AFSCME 1959.
Local 1959 president Corey Upchurch said it was “an exciting day for all of us,” calling the deal “the foundation on something we can build on collectively moving forward.”
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser added that the contract “recognizes and rewards” the bus drivers and attendants “for the important work they perform year-round.” The contract also offers benefits consistent with other district employees or drivers.

On today’s labor calendar, headlining a day full of labor-to-labor canvasses, there’s a big “Labor for Ben Jealous” rally tomorrow morning in Baltimore starting at 9:30. There are also three labor-themed films tomorrow, including Sankofa, The Long Ride and Bisbee ’17; for complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar.

In today’s labor history, on this date in 1825, after eight years and at least 1,000 worker deaths—mostly Irish immigrants—the 350-mile Erie Canal opened, linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.

Today’s labor quote is by labor historian Joe McCartin, who talks about the Erie Canal workers on this week’s Labor History Today podcast, available on your favorite podcast app:
“They had no idea of the human toll that the work would take, over time. In fact, that they couldn’t find enough Americans to do the work.”