After a similar letter from the House of Representatives, three U.S. senators are calling on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to stop denying workplace rights and protections to nearly 4,000 Department of Education employees who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE.
After months of anti-union proposals and hostile behavior at the bargaining table, Department of Education management told AFGE in March that it would not negotiate and would instead implement its own terms. The union says the so-called “collective bargaining agreement” imposed by management is an "illegal management edict" that guts employee rights, including those addressing workplace health and safety, telework, and alternative work schedules. On today’s labor calendar, this month’s Labor Live@5 features Pam Parker with Steve Jones at 5pm here on WPFW 89.3FM, hosted by Elise Bryant. Then at 6:30pm network with women in the labor movement and celebrate the launch of the WILL Empower Apprenticeship at Georgetown University; for complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1997, retail stock brokerage Smith Barney reached a tentative sexual harassment settlement with a group of female employees. The suit charged, among other things, that branch managers asked female workers to remove their tops in exchange for money and one office featured a "boom boom room" where women workers were encouraged to, quote unquote, "entertain clients." The settlement was never finalized: a U.S. District Court Judge refused to approve the deal because it failed to adequately redress the plaintiff's grievances. Today’s labor quote is by Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, who said: “We’re going to march together and stand together in solidarity to make sure our voices are heard.”
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Hosted by Elise Bryant
Music and conversation with the inimitable Pam Parker and the irrepressible Steve Jones. Farmworker rights advocates, policymakers and agricultural workers from Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia and the United States are set to share strategies to build worker power, create decent work in the fields and demand greater justice across global food chains.
The event, sponsored by the Solidarity Center, Food Chain Workers Alliance and UCLA Labor Center, takes place October 11 at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center in Los Angeles. Watch it on Facebook Live at the Solidarity Center Facebook page. On today’s labor calendar, postal unions will speak out against privatizing the United States Postal Service today at noon at Freedom Plaza in downtown DC; for complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1871, thirty of the city's 185 firefighters were injured battling the Great Chicago Fire, which burned for three days. Today’s labor quote is by Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity union in Poland, which, along with all other labor organizations was banned by the government on this date in 1982. Lech Walesa, who said: “Tanks can threaten and massacre us, but they will never be able to force us to work.” Over the course of 42 years working for Kroger, Ray Jones saw a massive amount of change. But every step of the way, through good times and bad, there was always one constant—he made sure management treated his sisters and brothers fairly.
Ray’s passion for fairness and justice led him to become a shop steward for UFCW Local 400 when he was just 20 years old. “I had worked at Kroger in Morgantown, West Virginia for about a year and some of the employees felt there was favoritism, and they felt like I was fair, so I was asked to be an assistant steward,” he recalled. “At first, I wasn’t sure what to do, but a couple of days later, I was having lunch in an Arby’s. I asked for my roast beef sandwich without sauce and the young woman behind the counter told the manager that. But when I got my sandwich, it had sauce. So I brought it up to the counter. Then the manager reamed the poor woman out for his own mistake, and told her to punch out and go home. She was in tears. So I gave the manager a piece of my mind and I decided right then and there that I wouldn’t let anything like that happen at Kroger.” “Being a shop steward has helped me achieve greater success in all aspects of my life,” Ray says. “I’m very grateful for that and for all I was able to do to help my brothers and sisters.” You can read more – and see a photo of Ray – on our website at dclabor.org There are eleven labor-to-labor canvasses tomorrow throughout the area; for complete details, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 2004, some 2,100 supermarket janitors in California, mostly from Mexico, won a $22.4 million dollar settlement over unpaid overtime. Many said they worked 70 or more hours a week; one cleaner said he only had three days off in five years. Today’s labor quote is by Lech Walesa, the Polish Solidarity union founder who won the Nobel Peace Prize on this date in 1983. Lech Walesa, who said: "Finally we have an independent union under our own administration. We now have the right to strike and we are going to demand more rights soon." |
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